Key West has Sloppy Joe's, New York has Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle Hotel, Venice Italy has it's Bellini Drink at the original Harry's Bar.San Miguel has a Harry's Bar. A facsimile I would think.
Coastal locations have Senior Frogs,
Hussong's is famous in Ensenada,
The Key Largo in San Jose, Costa Rica,
New Orleans has Pat O'Brians and San Francisco has the Buena Vista.
You know, a place where you can sit down and order a drink and drink in the libation and the history and charm of the locale.
I was thinking about this the other day when I was getting my shoes cleaned and shined perched on a shoe shine platform in the small plaza in Patzcuaro.
We have no such dive, No hole in the wall bar, Not at least one that I would take a visitor to. Something under one of the portals in one of the many hotels that pepper the plazas. Big and Small.
When we have friends over we usually will crack out the blender, ice and bar manual for some special concoctions using local ingredients, most of the time it will be fresh lime and the old agave plant juice.
But it would be nice to schlep some visitors to some place where we could park them and pick them up in a few ours well lubricated.
They could get the lay of the land, so to speak.
They could find out all kinds of place to see and visit. Places that we have not discovered.
But Patzcuaro has no such watering hole, no fern bar, no Henry Africa's, no Harrys Bar.
Nada.
Maybe that is one of the reasons I like it here.
Hear, Hear!
I'll drink to that!
And old fashioned piano bar would be nice now and then........
13 comments:
But there is a bar on the Plaza Grande. It just goes unnoticed, it seems. I don´t know why because it´s in plain view on the southwest corner. I don´t know its name.
So drop your friends off there, amigo.
Tancho - I spoke with Sr. Felipe some time ago about resurrecting a place on the plaza called "The Closet" - however, his interests now lie in the Stock/Still movement. I played in piano bars for 20+ years before landing meaningful employment and made fairly decent pesos. Even here NOB piano bars are increasingly as scarce as DeSotos and Studebakers. Kind of sad - it was a great era.
If it goes unnoticed then it is probably not inviting for the fern bar or martini crowd. I may have to sacrifice myself and check it out one of these months.....
Charles...The Closet if I remember correctly was a "Rainbow" bar, which didn't have enough business to keep the doors open, if I remember correctly. Maybe one of these days some venue will arise possibly with an piano in it, instead of a 6500 watt music system. The era was great, people would dress up for cocktails, I enjoyed what little exposure I had with them before they fizzled out. The smoke was the killer......
Bogie. Bacall. Hepburn. They could all be there.
Steve - of course you could hold court with your Bob Fosse attire - too good for most of us -
Ah yes an elegant piano bar with a player like Aziza Mustafa Zadeh or Sam from Rick's Bar. Every town needs at least one.
The best piano bar I ever saw was in the lobby of the Barclay Hotel on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. The floor was made of those big black and white checkerboard squares made of marble and about 5:pm in the afternoon the neighborhood who's who would gather for a drinky-poo. I used to stay at the Barclay just to enjoy the morning jog around Rittenhouse Square and the afternoon "happy hour" at the Barclay with my customers. They have since turned the hotel into condominiums. Oh, dontcha know, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...
Play it again, Tancho...
Felipe, well I checked out your Plaza Grande bar today and it was shit tighter than a drum at 2 in the afternoon.
After all what respectable bar patron would not already be waiting around 11 in the am....
They probably only open maybe around 4 I guess. Kind of dark and depressing location on that side of the shadowed portico.
That´s why they call them NIGHTspots.
Maybe so Felipe, but all the tourists are in bed by 8. Professional start about 11 in the morning....
Night spots in Patzcuaro?
The sidewalks are all closed and shut by 7:30. Except in November.
Tancho - Felipe mentioned some time back that the Closet was a Rainbow Bar - not a wise entrepreneurial choice in such a small community considering the Mexican cultural and religious taboos on such goings-on. I'm sure the hotelito next door to Felipe's ranchita can handle any such closeted hanky-panky. Not sure smoking killed piano bars - more likely the 6500 watt music systems! I enjoy your musings -
I think you hit it right on the head Charles, Patzcuaro would be way to small to endure such an establishment based on your cultural observations. Places like Puerto Vallara and other "Resort" venues have no problem with support for those places. In our travels around I try to find "dives" like piano bars and other joints that have some character, to the dismay of my wife. The neat places that had fireplaces, pianos, views or even maybe a solo singer with his own accompaniment are difficult to find nowadays.....
At least I still can remember some of those places, for what that's worth!
Apparently, the gay community is greater here than some think. The Closet that was on the Plaza Grande, it seems, has split into two locations. There is one about a block off the Plaza Grande, or at least I saw the sign there a few months ago during the day. It was closed. Due to being around noon, I would guess.
And the other is on Ave. Lazaro Cardenas, not far down from Siete Esquinas. It is indeed open at night. And it´s not far from my new digs in that area. If I ever have the urge to walk on the wild side, I won´t have far to walk.
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