Every newspaper needs a bar

This thread made me remember this story. Read the comments. I never made to to Boyko's Cadillac Bar, but I did the Wagon, even though I was in a different form of media from most here

http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2009/05/06/8623/now_even_the_star_tribunes_watering_hole_is_closing

 

We had a microbrewery down the road from the first paper I worked at. One night, power went out at the paper. A transformer blew up in front of the building, caught on fire, took out the whole block. The sports editor sent me out to get a couple gallons of beer from the brewery and bring it back. The whole sports crew was waiting on the street for the fire department to show up when I got back. We could see the firetrucks racing up and down a street about a block away. The SE tells me to call the fire department again and tell them the transformer is still burning and the fire trucks can't seem to see the smoke. The only phone that works in the whole building is hooked up to a fax machine. I call the fire department. The dispatcher answers and asks: Did you call for a fire. To which I reply: No thanks, we already have one.
Moral of the story is: Never let a newbie sportswriter call the fire department after a few pints of microbrewed beer. Or any beer for that matter.

 

The legendary Royko hangout....altho the SNL fans ruined the place forever, imo:

http://www.chibarproject.com/Reviews/BillyGoat/BillyGoat.htm

 

Detroiters know there is only one place -- or was... The Anchor Bar, located in the old Pick-Fort Shelby hotel, between the News and Freep...
Was a great dive -- good bar burgers too... Beer and liquor and plenty of it, run by the old Vaughn Durderian and his son, the new Vaughn Derderian.
It's not the same since it moved... I means this was the hotel bar of a hotel that had closed years earlier.
First time John Lowe walked in right after he moved to town, as the story goes, he asked for a wine list.

 

First place I worked at, there was a bar right down the street that would open at 7 a.m. for all of the third-shifters. It would be packed every morning, because the place also served breakfast. You would walk in there, and some guy would be having bacon and eggs along with a bottle of beer.

Here, there's a bar we used to always go to on Fridays during football season after the paper was on. The owner would always leave the kitchen open because he knew we would want something to eat. Nothing beat a hamburger or pork tenderloin with french fries at 1 a.m.

 

Don't forget the hockey fights on the TV. Probie and/or Kocur, day and night.

 

At the Clearwater Sun, there was a bar right out the back door of the pressroom -- 25 feet -- called the Tick Tock Lounge. Both the newspaper building and the bar are gone. The Tick Tock was for the quick drink, or the "you're so mad you have to have a drink right now."

Other places had other good bars, but nothing with that proximity.

I was extremely impressed with the bars available when I interviewed for the Philadelphia Bulletin, but only went for the interview -- I didn't take the job.

 

True enough, but remains a must, for those who've never had the experience, just to read the walls.

Friend of mine is going to Chicago this weekend, and is staying at Trump's place.
Told him what was there, before the Donald barged in. He was amazed.

 

Oh the vagaries of life that throw bar owners and beat writers together. No good ever came from it. Though a whole lot of fun was had. Top drawer of the desk in the cubicle I rarely visit holds the keys to the backdoor of the Texas-Wisconsin Border Cafe and the No Name. Both gone and best forgotten. A brave new world awaits.

 

Haven't seen the place, and I hope to never see it. Can't imagine ever looking across the river and not seeing the original ugly squatty building, cowering the shadow of the Tribune Tower.

At least that's how it always looked to me.

 

A cold one to the memory of the Eliot Lounge, the bar of the Boston Phoenix.
Another round to J. J. Foley's, bar of the Boston Herald, which is still alive, although not quite the same since the smoking ban.
I was lucky in the newspapers I worked for and in the bars they had.

 

My current employer has the best-stocked bar I've ever seen in his office; in fact, in about an hour from now, he'll be coming into my office to tell us it's happy hour, and my editors and I will head into his suite and pour a glass or two.

Tonight, I've got my eye on an 18-year old Macallan. Neat.

It's great working for independent & highly successful guys, and yes I'm thanking my lucky stars.