Support Your Local Bar

When I got home last night I decided I wanted to get a pizza and rather than wait 45 minutes for it to be delivered I decided to go out and get it myself. My usual pizza place is closed on Sundays...why is a mystery to me...so I went to a place where I had never been. The place was staffed by a bunch of Middle Eastern guys and based upon the way they yelled at each other I can only assume that they were brothers. Never having had pizza made by guys from the Middle East I did not know what I was in for...but I placed my order (small pepperoni...in case you ever want to have a pizza delivered to me)...and was told that it would be 15 minutes.

So, having 15 minutes to kill I decided to go across the street to a local bar. Again, I am new here and had never been to this place. I walked down the steps into this dimly lit place. Now I could write about a bunch of things about this place...about how they charge only $1.25 for a draft of Pabst's Blue Ribbon (don't laugh...it was good enough for our dads so its good enough for us). Or I could write about how for $2.00 I could get a shot of tequila with the worm in it and if I down it I get my name put up on a wall....(I thought that there was only one worm per bottle of tequila and I wonder if they had extra worms in back whether they were imported from Mexico or if they were of the local variety?). I could also write about the 160 lbs guy hitting on the 300 lbs woman (usually such pairings only took place at last call)...or how the fifteen or so guys in the place were fixated on the five woman who were in the bar. Another thing I could write about was their Wall of Shame. Again, if you drank one of a list of concoctions or shots you would get your name up on this wall. One of the offerings was "Watermelon Infused Cossack Vodka." For those of you who don't know...they make Cossack Vodka at the same factory where they make turpentine.

Or I could write about my favorite sign in the whole place..."no shots after 12:30." Did they mean alcohol or gunfire? With this place it could go either way.

No...instead of the aforementioned I will write about why I liked the place. It was an entity onto itself. It was not pre-packaged, pre-planned, or pre-arranged. It was not contrived or conceived in some corporate boardroom. It was not a chain where the drinks menu would be the same whether you were in Massachusetts, North Dakota, or Florida. This place existed in only one location. It was unique.

In an age when bars, restaurants, malls, radio stations, are all pre-planned and pre-arranged, when the goal appears not to offend anyone and to provide offerings designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience (otherwise known as the lowest common denominator) anything unique, and local, and most of all independent ought to be cherished and admired. Independent grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, book stores and yes, independent dive bars deserve and need our support. These are islands of freedom and independence (there is that word again) struggling to remain above rising tide of corporate homogenization of our culture.

Once I get my tetanus booster I place to support my local bar from time to time.

By the way...my pizza was pretty damn good too.