1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Every newspaper needs a bar

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Inky_Wretch, Sep 8, 2009.

  1. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    This is every little town in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

    Except every town in Wisconsin also has a UW campus.
     
  2. ServeItUp

    ServeItUp Active Member

    This thread needs to be stickied so we can all pour forth (metaphor intended) with our recollections of work hangouts. What a great read from Ebert! And a few references to one of my favorite bars, the Old Town Ale House, which still indeed stays open until 4.

    A country bar where a request for "no lime in the Corona, please" went unheeded with the first order, and the jukebox possessed just enough rock to clear the place out with a $5 bill. A legal-themed place on the courthouse square where the barkeep proffered a black-and-tan with Guinness over Shiner. The joint down the street with a backroom where bands played and a frontroom with Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday in the jukebox. A chain operation in a soulless strip mall where the staff kept the kitchen open for us if we called. A laid-back college bar with 110 beers on tap; flirtatious, attractive waitresses; and annoying, overbearing frat boys in need of a beatdown. All places where we knew how to run a newspaper better than dumbasses who signed our checks.

    Those were the days...
     
  3. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Our old spot was a little bar/pizza joint. All the media hung out there. Radio, TV and newspaper people mingling, sharing stories, busting balls and, occasionally, hooking up. At least three marriages (one being mine) happened thanks to everybody hanging out at that bar.

    I miss it. Sweet Tebow, I miss it.

    More importantly, I miss the people who were there. Most of our old media cronies have moved thousands of miles away. We've got a baby, so if I've got a bottle in my hand at 4 a.m. it's filled with milk not booze.

    Every so often, I'll manage to sneak away to grab a pint at the old spot. A couple of bartenders still remember me. The owner gives me free drinks and swag and asks about the old gang, where they are and what they're doing.
     
  4. Del_B_Vista

    Del_B_Vista Active Member

    I've posted this here and elsewhere before, but this was one of the newsroom folks' hangouts Pre-K:

     
  5. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    I, myself, have been known to see the sun rise at the place in Ann Arbor where everyone knew my name. This was usually after a hard night of drinking and hitting golf balls down Packard Road at 4 a.m.
     
  6. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    This town had a small Lutheran teachers college.
     
  7. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Did y'all not have third-shift bars? You know, bars that opened at 7 a.m. to cater to factory workers just getting off the line?

    We'd shut down one of the 5 a.m. bars, eat breakfast and go to the early-bird bars.
     
  8. spaceman

    spaceman Active Member

    One night in our press bar, our columnist got in a drunken argument with the city parking commissioner. They started to scuffle, and the parking commish got ahold of the columnist's handgun. He was going to shoot, but then he just fired the gun into the wall. Unfortunately, the ME was on the other side, making a phone call. The bullet went through her leg, but she was ok.
     
  9. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Opening at 7 a.m. is one thing (and lots of industrial areas have them...)
    Remaining at 2 a.m. is quite another.
     
  10. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member


    [​IMG]

    You are so fucking fired.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  11. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Fraser's?
     
  12. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Oh, I know. At one point, I had keys to my favorite spot. The owner would let some of us stay after-hours. All he asked was that we locked up when we left. Since I was the most-trustworthy, I got the keys.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page