The second floor of 645 Fifth Street holds a full-size historic ballroom. This holiday season it is booked for a children's Disney revue, a crooner's holiday show and two nights of Trans-Siberian Orchestra tribute rock. Downstairs, a wood-fired oven works five days a week. Out front, the plaza that carries the building's name gets the Chamber's tree lighting, the Downtown Lincoln Association's Santa visit and the crowds lining up for the Hometown Christmas Parade.
This is the old Odd Fellows building. Many people in town know it as the Beermann Building, and for years it was known for losing its tenants. Gold Country Media reported that it has "a difficult time holding occupants," a pattern locals call the Beermann Curse. This holiday season will be the first real test of a different approach. The building now runs on an event calendar that lines up with downtown's own.
The Curse Was a Floor Plan
The building dates to the 1860s. The Event Center's history page says the building first housed fraternal orders upstairs, with retail shops on the lower floor, and was expanded in 1905. According to Gold Country Media's April 2025 report, the Pagano family of Rockstar Academy took the building on in 2025, and Steven Pagano had his own theory about the curse.
Gold Country Media reported that he blames the layout. The building is set up as a three-story restaurant with two full-size kitchens. He called that a good business model for Downtown Disney, but not for Lincoln.
His plan fills the ballroom on specific nights and lets the rest of the building follow that schedule. Pagano described how an evening there would work in that same Gold Country Media story:
"You'd be able to come up, have a cocktail, play some pool, hang out, have some fun, meet friends. When the show opens, the ballroom doors would open, and you would head in and you'd watch whatever the entertainment is of the evening."
The bar works the same way. Pagano told the outlet the building holds an event license, so drinks are sold a couple of hours before a show and for an hour after it, and the building is otherwise not open as a bar.
Four Businesses Planned, a Fifth Added
The 2025 plan rolled out in phases and was built around the ballroom.
- Downtown Dance was planned as a studio for all ages, with a small dance lab downstairs and larger classes in the ballroom. The Rockstar Music Academy keeps a Downtown Dance page with its class schedules.
- Curtain Call Theater Company is an all-ages theater company that performs in the ballroom. Pagano told Gold Country Media that 20 kids try out for a single lead role, and that more plays in town mean more kids get those parts.
- The Event Center at Historic Beermann Plaza hosts music, theater, comedy, weddings and private events in the same ballroom.
- Stevie's Sweetery is planned as a downstairs dessert bar with coffee and dirty soda, open around Event Center shows rather than on regular daily hours.
In January 2026, a fifth business arrived. The Sacramento Business Journal called Rockstar Pizza the latest step in the building's transformation and reported a three-day grand opening, with appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pizzas and desserts on the menu. The kitchen keeps regular hours, unlike the bar upstairs. Rockstar Pizza lists Wednesday and Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and is closed Monday and Tuesday.
Those hours matter for the holiday calendar. Every major downtown date this season, inside the building or out on the plaza, lands on a day the pizza kitchen is open.
December on Both Sides of the Doors
The calendar opens before Thanksgiving with Curtain Call's young performers in the ballroom. It moves out to the plaza for the first weekend of December, then back inside for the holiday shows, and both halves meet on December 19.
| Date | Out on the street and plaza | Inside 645 Fifth St. | Rockstar Pizza |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Nov. 20 | Dare to Dream Jr: A Disney Musical Revue, 6:30 to 8 p.m., tickets from $11.44 | Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. | |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Dare to Dream Jr matinee, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., tickets from $11.44 | Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. | |
| Thu., Dec. 3 | Hometown Christmas Tree Lighting & Holiday Faire, 5 to 8 p.m. | Open 4 to 9 p.m. | |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Hometown Christmas Parade, 5 p.m. | Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. | |
| Sun., Dec. 13 | Michael Moretti: Home for the Holidays, 5 to 8:30 p.m., tickets from $43.45 | Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. | |
| Fri., Dec. 18 | A Not So Silent Night: A Tribute to the TSO, 7 to 10 p.m., tickets from $28.52 | Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. | |
| Sat., Dec. 19 | Santa in the Plaza, 4 to 6 p.m., free | A Not So Silent Night, 7 to 10 p.m., tickets from $28.52 | Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
Show tickets are on the Event Center's events page. The same page lists A Night at the North Pole, with tickets marked "coming soon."
The Lincoln Area Chamber of Commerce's Hometown Christmas page describes two downtown nights. The first brings festive booths, cocoa, the plaza lighting up and Santa's grand entrance. The parade of decorated floats follows two days later. The Chamber's sponsorship form gives this year's times as Thursday, Dec. 3, from 5 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 5, at 5 p.m. Last year the tree lighting was held at Beermann Plaza and the parade started at Fifth and B streets, according to Gold Mountain California News. The Chamber's 2026 materials don't yet give a route, so check its page before you stake out a spot along the curb.
The Thursday tree lighting and the Saturday parade bracket the first weekend of December. On Dec. 3 the faire wraps at 8 p.m. and the pizza kitchen stays open until 9. On parade night the kitchen is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Dec. 19 Puts the Whole Block to Work
The Saturday before Christmas is the one date when the plaza event and a ballroom show happen back to back. It is also the closest look this season at the evening Pagano described in 2025.
- 4 p.m.: Santa in the Plaza begins at Beermann Plaza, which the Downtown Lincoln Association lists at 640 5th Street. The free event includes gifts from Santa, kids' crafts, face painting and a visit from Santa's reindeer. Jennynenio Photography will take free photos.
- 6 p.m.: The plaza event ends. Rockstar Pizza is open until 9 p.m. that Saturday, so dinner can happen in the same building. Booking ahead makes sense on a night this busy, and the restaurant takes table bookings at (916) 409-5376.
- 7 p.m.: A Not So Silent Night: A Tribute to the TSO starts upstairs in the ballroom and runs until 10 p.m.
The same tribute show also plays Friday, Dec. 18, from 7 to 10 p.m., so families who want a shorter Saturday can see the show Friday and keep Saturday for Santa and pizza.
What Comes Next
Pagano's plan has one piece left. Stevie's Sweetery, the dessert bar meant to serve ice cream to kids while their parents get coffee after a show, would make the ground floor part of the post-show evening the way the ballroom bar covers the hour before it. Until it opens, the pizza kitchen handles the downstairs, closing at 9 on show nights.
The Downtown Lincoln Association keeps holding its monthly general meetings at City Hall, 600 6th Street, with the next two on Nov. 12 and Dec. 10 at 8:30 a.m. They are open to the public, and anyone with ideas about the next downtown season can bring them there.
Layout decided what worked at 645 Fifth St., and it plays a role in how buyers see any home. If you're curious how your home's layout would land with today's buyers, Olani Properties can walk you through it, starting with a free home valuation.
