Memoirs From The Bar

Murray xmas

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:10:11 -0800

One and all

Beer Station. I wanted to make my first entry a really good one,...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:15:00 -0800

1

2

fried tofu

beer love

above the regiester

same rules apply at my house

Dan the Man

my 25th birthday

drinking buds

Beer Station.

I wanted to make my first entry a really good one, one from the heart. I know it took me a long time to get this first review out, but I wanted it to be just right. I believe that first impressions are everything. Being old and nostalgic I wanted to talk about a place that left a huge impression on me and changed my views on drinking establishments forever. The place I’m talking about is Beer Station, and though it is no longer around it still lives on. In the hearts my friends and myself, through memories, photographs and tales of drunken debauchery. This one is for you Danny.

Over the years I have been to countless restaurant style bars frankly I hate a lot of them. Places like T.G.I.Whatever and Crapplebee’s really grind my gears the gimmicky bullshit, family friendly cesspools for everything I loath in a drinking establishment. Pretty much anything with a bar and restaurant I would swear off for the most part.

Though through the paths less traveled and for the fortunate , you stumble into a place. That one place in particular you will enjoy and bring friends and they bring their friends and the place becomes special to everyone you know. It burrows a spot deep in your heart. A place, like some kind of early 90’s sitcom, where everyone know your name. That place for me was Beer Station.

To say it was anything like a TGI-whatever or crapplebee’s would be insulting, sure it was sort of a restaurant it served food, great food, but it wasn’t layered with pseudo-hip bric-a-brac or candy cane stripes, no bartender with a wall of liquor. No, aside from vintage posters from Chinese and Taiwanese movies, some string lights and an old bike operated food cart in the front. It was simple, it was rowdy, it was friendly.

For those who have been to Asian izakaya style drinking establishments this is probably run of the mill. For most who have never step foot into one, as I had never prior to being here. This was, if you are like me, a breath of fresh air. great food, cheap prices, no bullshit flair toting waitresses and a genuinely great staff.

This was my very first “spot” I came back to this place for years. This is where I always came when there was nothing else going on that night, this was the type of place Id invite friends to just to have a beer and grab a bite, I was here so much I got my very first V.I.P card anywhere. I got to know the owner of the establishment, I got to know staff, I got to try everything. Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

This place became a part of me, through good and bad times, through fall outs and rekindles. Its strange to say that a place other then my own home became so comforting to me, but as a friend and I had come to realize it was better than a home (or at least mine) because you were greeted warmly when you came in and best of all someone did all the cooking and dishes for you, utopia. Delusions aside, when you become a regular here, or anywhere, you will always feel right at home the moment you step in.

Its not so much the place as it is the people who are there that made this place so wonderful. Danny, the owner was a great friend, true, honest and extremely kindhearted person. His wait staff were everything but unwavering to the needs of any of the customers. This place was a benchmark, to me, for service and atmosphere.

But like many fun drunken nights they must all come to an end, the bar has to close the last calls have to be made. Unfortunately Beer Station just couldn’t keep up with the unsteady economy and with most people choosing to stay in instead of going out. Also with the city trying to better its revenue seeing the potentiality for marketing int eh real estate in that plaza and increasing the rate for property rent. And in the fall of 2010 the inevitable, like many other businesses in that plaza happened. The neon beer signs, the chatter of the weekend crowds slowly came to a dim and finally nothing but a dark empty windowed building.

I don’t know what became of Danny the owner I was going through some trials in my life. Through my streak of misfortune lost most of my contacts I wish I didn’t lose his, I wish I could have kept his of all people. He was good people, he gave me something that I may ever find again. If I could sum it all up, he gave me some of the most memorable times of my life in his establishment. If I had the chance to see him again I would thank him for everything.

Who Am I?

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:19:41 -0800

A drunk? A shit artist? A mediocre writer new to the whole “blogosphere” phenomena? A lonely creature seeking a good story or a striking conversation? I am of course, all of the above. I guess I should start off my story, of how I came about wanting to pursue this “dream” career of becoming a blogger.

I am in no way a writer, I am in no way a journalist or a artsy fartsy photographer, I make do with what resources I do have. I am not going to write about every fucking bar in town, nor am I going to be going to popular gimmicky T.G.I-McFunsters, or spots that all the “IN” crowd, or hipsters, or beatniks are raging about. I am going to tell you about places Ive been, places I’ve stumbled into places that I either HATE or ENJOY. I do this because I love doing this. I do this because I love seeing people gather together to genuinely enjoy each others company. I do this as a hobby.

Reading this by now you can tell I have no formal training in writing, or even in properly speaking English, that’s fine. Do bare with my coarse language, my unsubtle opinions, and my drunken delusions. Come for the adventure, stay for the entertainment.

I started seeking out bars a long time ago, somewhere to wet my appetite for a beer and some social activity, and maybe get a cheap bite. I tend to lean toward rowdier places with livelier crowds, as opposed to the quaint and delegated sort of restraint at most lounges Ive been to. Which is not to say that I dont enjoy a quiet setting to the sound of a live jazz band at a lounge or jazz bar. Setting and ambiance is always, always everything to me.

I pride myself on going to most of my discoveries alone, or with just one friend on a bet, or in hopes that I, or we, will have a good time. Sometimes its just a random walk-in, in transit for a venue or waiting up for a friend somewhere in a city Ive never been to. Least to say I have a ~~nose~~ liver for these kinds of places.

so lets get going on this fuck wagon shall we?

awesome.

Hello? Is there anybody in there?

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:35:01 -0700

I guess I should start this off with my salutations and just a quick rundown of what this space is and why I am doing it.

If you follow my other blog http://drunkendoodles.tumblr.com or even know me personally even if just in aquaintance you should know without question that I take myself as a prevailer of pubs, the bourgeois of booze and the bar, the darling degenerate of dives, but enough with alliterations.

There is without a doubt that I have a soft spot in my heart (and liver) for drinking and socializing, and for me the two always play hand in hand. Whether its ice cold Asahi with great friends at an Izakaya, or meeting new soon to be friends in a random bar while just looking for a drink.

Ill talk about local bars, pubs, dives and personal favorite watering holes of mine that I hope in turn will become your favorites as well. I may give a few tips maybe learn a few tricks, to make your time at the bar a good one (and hopefully for you and myself not one that ends up with a black eye and a trip to the drunk tank). Moreover I want connect, reflect, and eventually collect a myriad of stories from my staggering journey from bar to bar.

I feels it is about that time to take a more personal type of blog for my love of drinking, bar-hopping, socializing, and drunken debauchery. So that you my faithful follower can see what exactly leads to the drunken doodles, what drives a man like myself to drink, and maybe just maybe a little peace, a little love, and a little understanding over a pitcher of beer.

Kanpai.

-tako