Admitted: I’m obsessed. With The Wedge. Long story. Some other time. So…
It’s open again. Went by last night. Got stood up by a pal. (Thanks, pal!) Watched hi-definition football with: three patrons (including the pensive owner of the Iron Barley, who I’m convinced wants to ring my neck, though I’m not sure of any plausible reason); the cook; and the sexily-clad bartender, who introduced herself before studiously avoiding me for the remainder of my 15-minute stay, thus denying me the opportunity of finding out who owns this spot. For this, I gave a $2 tip. Go figure.
The decor’s the largely the same, save for the addition of: a Golden Tee; a pair of electronic dart boards; a crookedly-slapped sticker above the bar proclaiming that “you can’t fix stupid”; and a touch jukebox that was cranking out top-40 hip-pop. Strangely, that modern musical vibe was set against the classic punk-rock photos that still line the place, so that, for example, you might be drinking your $2 Busch beer, while staring a framed photo of the Sex Pistols, as blaring Li’l Wayne washes over you. Can’t recall if the boar’s head is still there, or came out. Details, details.
I dropped by, so others don’t have to. It’s my gift to you.
I’m sorry!
Did they still serve pizza?
I think that the owner of I.B. wants to ring everybody’s neck. Jerk.
Thanks for doing the dirty work.
oh, and here all this time, I’ve been trying to fix stupid. My bad.
I finally made it. My disappointment started with the lack of booths, continued with the dismissal of pizza, and ended with my horrible entre’.
Thanks for that, Tom. I was looking for a reason to avoid that place again.
Well it sounds like the dude who bought into ownership at the end of the former run may have a hand in it if there were scantily clad bartenders.
For the record, in retrospect, my promotion of the place when I worked there may have been a bit heavy-handed. Turns out we weren’t as cool as we said we were going to be. Lots of hoopla for a bar that ultimately was poorly managed (I include myself in that critique). It really is a cool little spot, but if the bar tries to be anything more than a local watering hole, its destined to fail. I sincerely wish I would have had the money to buy it and open it again before someone else did. My plans would include demolishing the kitchen area and rebuilding with a smaller footprint so that more parking would be available. No more food, save for some bar snacks. That’s what ultimately led to the place’s demise. Overhead in the kitchen was ridiculous.
Looks like I will continue to avoid this new incarnation as I did the previous one after they laid me off. Too bad.
I’ve gotten an e-mail, dated yesterday, that the club has closed. I’m bewildered.