Someone said you can't even step into the same one once - nothing is the same very long. Which brings me to the other week when I took WC to some bars that used to be Chicago bars which now, except for one (to a degree: see title) could be bars anywhere - Cleveland or Denver, or even Des Moines. Jesus, Des Moines?
For instance the Old Town Ale House used to be a great Chicago bar - especially after 2:00 when the 2:00 bars closed especially O'Rourkes (there's another sad story) and Weeds, and those still standing and desiring another drink spilled over there. Now it's cleaned up and could almost be Des Moines.
And Sterch's a bar that my friend SW described as a place people went to die. Well, they don't anymore. It's suddenly Des Moines, in tonier clothes.
But Weeds, where I can't ever recall leaving sober, has changed the least, though it too is a bit cleaned up. Except for Sergio, the proprietor. When we first arrived there was a only a handful of folks at the bar and too very young bartenders and I was afraid to ask, "Where's Sergio?" I mean I wouldn't have been surprised to find out he had gone on to the tequila in the sky. So WC asked. "He'll be in soon," we were told and indeed he was.
I'm not sure what it says about me that after 10+ years he remembered me and asked after my writing, and of course poured us some tequila. And bummed a smoke. So some things stay the same.
If you stop in for a visit, here's some things you should know: Turns out he's an artist: a creator of fine religious boxes. Represented by a
gallery in Santa Fe, NM. That while he wanted to name his son god (it's a long story, one he told me in The Old Town Ale House), he settled on Eden. Oh, and he likes incense and candles.
Next time you're out looking for a tequila, give Weeds a try. It won't be the same old brand.
