Bars & Taverns gone by ... just one more beer.

[Jacob_Marley]

If you could go back to a bar that no longer exists for just one more beer, where would that be??



At the very top of my list is The Tipperary Pub in Detroit.
This was the last true Irish bar in Detroit. There were many Irish nationals who were regulars including some whom I knew in the late 1980's who were “on vacation from the troubles” (in Northern Ireland). The music and the beer and the craic were second to none.
The tip was an old fashioned bar where you could still buy a drink for the barkeep; or where, if you were a regular, you could still drink on credit - they’d “put you in the cigar box”. The pickled eggs, pickled sausages and pickled hocks kept in big jars behind the counter were legend. Ah, rip me liver out I miss it.

Another is The Orange Lantern bar on Michigan Ave in Ypsilanti, Michigan, near Ann Arbor.
With its original all-wood interior if there was ever a bar that looked like it was out of a movie ... it was the Lantern. I've never seen an interior like that in any other bar. They don't make em like that anymore.

A bit about it ...
"The Orange Lantern opened in 1933, just after the repeal of Prohibition. It was one of the first bars to be granted a liquor license. Then, the land around the Orange Lantern was bean fields and maple sugar woods. Back then, the Orange Lantern was the last stop for liquor by the glass until Indiana.

During World War II liquor rationing for bars was set by the amount sold before the war, and, it is said, the Orange Lantern had the largest liquor ration in the state. Workers from the Willow Run Bomber plant, where the B-24 Liberator was built, enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of the place. The war years were the heydays of the place, when workers from the plant found it a convenient place to unwind. The regular clientel included the woman who was the model for Rosie the Riveter."

And the Nisbet Inn ... a British Public House in Windsor, Ontario across the river from Detroit, known for its Thursday Celtic/British Isles music pick-up sessions and good food.

(nope, I’m not in this photo ... these are people from an MG car club)

Mr. Nisbet



All closed. All missed.

Appreciate em while ye got em, folks.

 

[Zuljin]

Dinos and The Last Stop in Fat City. They were right next to each other. We had good times out there. Quarter pool tables and non stop music.

 

[TxBrew]

The Backroom, Austin Texas.

It smelled like pee and decades of smoke, but it was home.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Glen 'n Ann's Cozy Inn, Madison WI, ceased to be in about 1968. Now known as the Nitty Gritty.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Another one ...
There was a great little restaurant in Northville, Michigan called "Little Italy Ristorante" ...
Decided today I wanted to take the better half there for dinner.
It's gone. A real shame.
What a great place it was for a romantic dinner. Great Italian food ... great veal ... the calamari was awesome ... wonderful wine list.

Hadn't been out that way in a while.
Another reminder to visit some of my favorite spots.
Man I gotta get out more often to da old naybahood.

 

[b-boy]

Cassidy's in buffalo NY, near the University of Buffalo. Spent many drunken nights there in college. It burned down in the early 80s. They had a wheel that they'd spin every hour with drink specials. Occasionally it would land on free shots and the bartenders would get up on the bar and pour liquor into the mouths of waiting college students. It was a fun place. Too fun actually. I blame my Freshman year grades on Cassidy's.

They had a regular ritual with a Kermit the frog puppet. They would play Kermit's song 'Its not Easy Being Green' while the bartender crouched behind the bar with a Kermit puppet lip syncing the song. People would put shots out for the puppet to drink. The bartender would use the puppet to grab the shot and flip it up so it looked like Kermit was drinking it. One night a really stupid person put down a flaming 151 rum shot for Kermit to drink. Kermit had already had several shots and was pretty much saturated with alcohol. The bartender picked up the shot with the puppet, and flipped Kermit's head back. The puppet immediately burst into flames. the bartender freaked, started screaming, and began beating the flaming puppet on the bar to put it out. The image of a bartender with a flaming Kermit puppet attached to his arm is now etched in my memory forever.

To this day, this is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

I'm laughing as I type this.

 

[Airplanedoc]

Speaking of former Detroit fine dining establishments. May parents had dinner here the night before it got national attention.

 

[unionrdr]

Some great stories so far. I miss a few of them around here. Dino's bar & Grill around the block from our parent's house where Bob Seagar got the idea for the song when he was still in the Cleveland area. Their "fish bowls" were legendary among us locals. Then The Tavern, now gone where we used to drink in high school when the legal age went down to 18 for 3.2% beer. Saw my now wife there with her friends. Being an old bar, it still had the 12" plank floors. Round tables with shaker chairs. An old, comfortable bar close to home. Then there's The Green Dragon on the west side of town. The owner was a nice old guy that always wore a fedora & smoked a cigar. Real old-time stuff there. Food was good too. I used the name of the place in book one of my Time Lords series for a little local flavor. So many memories in these old bars that had a different sort of feel then the newer joints do. They came from a different world. Like in Harmony Township, PA. You drove down the mountain our house was on & at the top of the next one, stood The Dew Drop Inn. Not the one in the song, but kindred just the same. This was one of those restaurants that also served beer & other drinks. Booths with a jukebox & all that. They were very common when I was a kid. I remember my dad, aunt & uncle taking me with them to such places. Kinda like an early 20th century sort of truck stop/restaurant/bar type of thing.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

I'm on the younger side so I haven't had many bars I frequent that are shut down yet, but I had a crusher for me. My first regular bar shut down recently. High Street Grill in Mt. Holly NJ. It's a double whammy for me, aside from loving the bar they hosted a really awesome small beerfest every january I sent to.First one was right after turning 21 so I got to go to all of them. The place was small, could get loud and I have many memories there.

First things first was my first night there, the thrill of my first beer promo night. Where I could order a beer and get to keep a glass? An addiction was born that night and my glass collection grows mightier each year, even with fallen soldiers. Second is the number of times I spent there. i was there so often the bartender knew my name and my sibling's name, the owner used to give us special drinks from his travels, etc. I had dates there, holidays there, even an after party from my brother's wedding there, it was a bar of memories that I won't forget. Food was amazing (still the best burger I've ever had) beer list was exceptional and rotated often, and most importantly it made you feel welcome like a bar should.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Speaking of former Detroit fine dining establishments. May parents had dinner here the night before it got national attention.

Yep ... That is the restaurant Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from.
15mile & Telegraph rd in Bloomfield township.
In the Devito movie "Hoffa" they portrayed Jimmy disappearing from a roadside diner ... nothing could have been further from the truth. Jimmy actually disappeared from one of the finest restaurants in the Detroit metro area.

Charles "Chuckie" O'brien lived about 3/4 of a mile from me (and about only a mile from Machus) ... and Tony Giacalone is a guy I did work for in the 70's. I worked for a guy (I'll leave unnamed) sometimes known as the "caterer to the mob"; and we did Giacalone's Christmas decorating for a number of years and also did his daughter Diane's wedding.
Tony was one of the guys implicated in the disappearance of "Marteduzzo", the "little hammer", Jimmy Hoffa.

What a wonderful, classy place for fine dining Machus was though. One of the greats.

I had a couple family members that worked there too.

Here's some trivia for those who remember being at Machus ... The taxidermy red fox that was the mascot at Machus Red Fox ... is across the street at Beau Jacks ... been there ever since Machus closed. Beau Jacks is another wonderful restaurant with a piano bar. Come to think of it, that's one I'd ought to visit soon before something happens to it, too.

 

[unionrdr]

I was just reminded of this other old bar across from Cleveland Hopkins airport. It was a mom & pop, good size place called The La Conga. They'd bought it from the old gent who still spend his days drinking there. Great big juicy burgers on a kaiser for $1.50. Pickled eggs & Penrose sausages in jars behind the bar. I used to stop there with the folks I worked with at the end of the day. Sometimes, my favorite foreman came in as well. Good times. They knocked it down to make airport emergency run-off after a small plane crashed behind the fence up the street a bit. Damn...

 

[grathan]

There used to be huge taverns with dancing performances on stage in the amusement park near me growing up. Now that I am old enough to drink there is only lemon-ade stands that serve pints from kegs outside on the walkways and no smoking anywheres. I would just like to go back to a day when they might have filled those 40 tables with people content enough to sit for a bit.

 

[krackin]

Slick's in Conway, NH. Wow. 30 years gone now but wow. Legend.

 

[JohnSand]

Pretty much any bar/grill I was in before 30.
But mostly Rosebud in Smithtown, the actual sled from the movie Citizen Kane hung behind the bar. They had great food. I kissed a beautiful barmaid there on a dare, she gave me her number.

 

[unionrdr]

There used to be huge taverns with dancing performances on stage in the amusement park near me growing up. Now that I am old enough to drink there is only lemon-ade stands that serve pints from kegs outside on the walkways and no smoking anywheres. I would just like to go back to a day when they might have filled those 40 tables with people content enough to sit for a bit.

There used to be one of those at the old Chippewa Lake amusement park. Ford had their annual company picnics there when I was a kid. There was another amusement park in Cleveland when I was little that had one of those as well. I forget the name. Moonlight Gardens in Akron (I think) where my parents dated was a dance/supper club with live bands of the day.