Rumors lounge changes hands, expands hours

 It takes a special breed to make it in the bar biz. You have to be patient with cantankerous customers, throw a great party every day of the week and love the company of happy, and often tipsy, bar patrons.

Scott Bicknell fits the bill.

After a four-year run at Brewster’s Lounge in Joplin, Scott closed down the bar last fall. He took a six-month hiatus from the bar business, but now is back in a new location, has rehired some familiar faces and brought in some new blood to work behind the bar. On Monday, Scott and his crew assumed control of Rumors Lounge, 1825 W. Seventh St. in Joplin. “I’m excited about being in the bar business again,” Scott told me. “I was out of it for six months and almost went crazy. I missed it.” He looked for the right spot to open a new place and finally found one on the market. After considerable thought — and a little haggling over the price with the bars current operator — Scott committed to the deal. “It’s a great spot for a bar,” Scott said. “I just hope all of our regulars from Brewster’s will find us over here. I love the people and it’s just a fun business to be in, most of the time.”

Rumors Lounge — formerly Cotton and Irine’s — was recently remodeled and still has that new bar smell.
 “The new place is much bigger and has two pool tables,” he said. “Everybody at Brewster’s wanted to play pool, but the place was too small.” Rumors offers free WiFi, a digital juke box, six beers on tap and the usual bottles and cocktails. Keno, Missouri Lottery and a good scratcher selection keep customers who like a game of chance entertained.  “It’s a good crowd of customers,” Scott bragged. “It’s a bar for working folks. Were going to have live music with Kenny Babb on Cinco De Mayo and are always looking for local entertainment to perform. ”

‘A way of life’

Scott told me the reason Rumors was such a attractive deal for him was the bar’s heritage. “Billy (Kuykendall) and Dick (Shaddy) ran a great place here,” Scott said. “They really know how to run a bar.”
For more than a decade Cotton and Irine’s occupied the location. Billy and Dick were partners with Cotton and Irine Hight, the place’s namesakes.  Now, Irine is back working mornings behind the bar for Scott. After 40 years in the business, Billy and Dick decided to retire and Scott was in the right place at the right time. The pair of booze-biz entrepreneurs operated some well known Joplin watering holes. They opened up the 66 Club on West Seventh Street in 1969 and have owned other successful bars and restaurants around town.  Dixie Lee’s, Wrangler’s Steak House and Old Time Saloon, the original Pla-Mor Lounge and Billy Jack’s all had good runs and great business. The Silverado Dance club was theirs before its recent sale to Charlie Bird.

I asked Billy what kept him in the business for the better part of his life. “I loved the people,” he said quickly. “You have to enjoy being around a lot of different kinds of people to make it in the bar business. I’ve always been a social kind of person. Bar people are good people. Well, most of them, anyway. They give and are always willing to help each other out.” Owning a bar isn’t just a way to make a living, Billy said. It’s a way of life.  “It’s a lot of fun, but it’s still a business,” Billy stressed. “You have to treat it like a business to be successful. You gotta pay your bills first then pay yourself with what’s left. It’s a risky business, though. You have to develop a following and take care of business.” Billy said he will miss the friends he’s made at Rumors and the other places he and Dick have owned.  “I’ll miss the people that were with me over the years,“ he said. “I like that part best. I’ll miss the customers and all of the friends we’ve made. Our holidays were at the bar, all of our celebrations were at the bar. That’s what I’ll miss. That’s what makes the bar business fun.”

Well said.

Cheers!

Want to go?

Rumors Lounge is open Monday through Saturday at 9 a.m. Happy hours are held daily from 9 to 11 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. with draft, bottle and cocktail specials. A free buffet is provided Fridays at 4 p.m. and karaoke is offered Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.

Pyramid sampler full of memories, great taste

I headed out of the newsroom Monday afternoon in search of a story. A noon Wednesday deadline for this column loomed and I had to hit my beat. I decided to run my traps, hitting a couple of Joplin watering holes known for their early, late-afternoon business. I talked to a bartender here, chatted up a veteran sitting at the bar there. No luck. Sometimes I can just walk into a bar, have a beer and run into an interesting story. There was no time for that kind of casual newsgathering on Monday afternoon. It was late and I needed a story to tell.

Pryamid prevails

I stopped in at Macadoodles on my way home in search of an idea … and a 12-pack. When you write a column called “The Booze Beat,” sometimes that’s all it takes to find a good tale to tell. I walked the shelves looking for alcoholic inspiration. Ed Hardy wine? No. Ed Hardy beer? I’d been nursing a six-pack of Ed Hardy — aka Christian Audigier’s designer lager — for more than a week. No inspiration there, either. Then, I spied a 12-bottle sample pack from Pyramid Breweries in Seattle, Wa. I grabbed a box and headed home to research my column and relive a few Seattle memories. I lived there for almost a decade and came to love the Pyramid brands. The Spring variety pack of ales was an easy choice: It included three bottles each of the Haywire Hefewiezen (an unfiltered wheat beer), Audacious Apricot Ale, Thunderhead India Pale Ale and a new addition to the seasonal sampler, Fling Pale Ale.

Good wheat

The Haywire Hefe’s product information contends it’s “the standard by which all other wheat beers are judged.” By wheat beer standards it’s a good brew, but no better than KC’s Boulevard Wheat. When it comes to judging wheat beers, I’m a big Widmer Brothers fan. Portland-brewed Widmer is a thick, chewy wheat ale with a slightly bitter taste.
I remember drinking Widmer in Seattle long before it was available in bottles — let alone owned by Budweiser, now InBev. Widmer’s Hefe was the first beer in which I ever squeezed a lemon. It’s funny to me how a sip of a memorable beer or a familiar smell in the air can take you back to a place in time. Ah, memories. It rates 5.1 percent alcohol by volume (ABV).

IPA

I poured a Thunderhead India Pale Ale into a frozen pilsner glass, took a sip and remembered a day when I would have grimaced at its bitterness. Now, I can really savor a great sweetness provided by the malts used and the bitter character imparted by hops. The IPA is well-balanced and not so bitter as to put off a new drinker. (6.7 percent ABV.)
Fling Pale Ale

Less bitter than the IPA is Pyramid’s new Fling Pale Ale. Light and cooper colored, it’s light and easy to drink. It’s good starter pale. I’m not a big pale ale fan, but this one I can drink. Fling would be a good beer for a summer patio party. It’s malty and slightly bitter with a mild aftertaste that holds up to that wood- or charcoal-grilled flavor. (5.2 percent ABV.)

Audacious Apricot

I have loved Pyramid’s apricot for a long time. Now called “Audacious Apricot,” it’s a good beer for any occasion.  It’s good with light meals; the apricot flavor isn’t overpowering and enhances the meal. The flavored wheat beer is great hot-weather drinking and is best served ice-cold. (5.1 percent ABV.)

The Pyramid Spring Variety Pack set me back around $17. It’s worth the price and a party pleaser. I suspect it’s available around town in most establishments. The Pyramid Web site, http://www.pyramidbrew.com, offers a lot of product information and company history. For beer buffs, Pyramid has a great story … and good beer. 

Cheers!

Frank’s Lounge set to celebrate 40 years in same location

Judy Petty has lived the better part of her life behind the bar at Frank’s Lounge. At almost 70, she’s poured more beers and mixed more drinks than most of us will ever consume.
Frank’s, 2112 South Main Street, holds a special place in Judy’s heart and in recent Joplin bar history. It is, she told me, her second home. But it’s not the building she loves, it’s the people.
I talked to Judy last Saturday morning over a beer. Judy didn’t drink – she had a full day of grandkids and errands ahead.
Judy has plenty friends and family, a long list of loyal customers and a solid bar business, but there’s one thing missing: She misses Frank.
“I talk to him every morning,” she said, pointing toward a framed photo of her late husband hanging behind the bar. “He ran a strict bar. Any lady could walk in those doors and not have to worry about
being harassed. You could have fun, you just had to behave.”
Frank died in August 2002, after successful careers in trucking and the bar biz. Together they owned Ozark Speedway and Judy had her own business interests. They were married for 32 years.
More than 40 years ago, Judy worked for Frank at his namesake lounge at 625 Joplin Street. They married in April 1970, and moved to the current location on Dec. 21 of that same year. 2010 marks
40th birthday for Frank’s Lounge. Frank’s has had a good run and from the way it sounds, Frank did too.
‘Always welcome’
Judy told me she and Frank had a simple formula when it came to running a successful bar.
 “We always try to have a family atmosphere where everybody knows everybody,” she said. “We’ve had four generations of customers. We have the grandkids of customers coming in now.
The kids know their folks came here and they just stick with us.” Of course, she added, a lot of them are gone now. Thanks to weekend karaoke, a younger crowd has found a home at Frank’s.
Judy is good with that.
“I have a lot of young people come in and say they didn’t even know about this place,” she said. “I tell them that’s because this bar is older than you are.”
The crowd at Frank’s is diverse: Late shift workers looking for a place to grab a beer on the way home at 8 a.m. and professional types meeting for business and a high ball after work. Both have a
place at Frank’s. “All we ask is that people are respectful of the establishment and the customers,” Judy said. “You are always welcome if you are well behaved.”
For 32 years Judy and Frank worked the bar six days a week, covering different shifts.
“The only day we had together at home was Sunday,” she said. “One of us was always here working.”
When Frank passed away, it left a hole in Judy’s life and the bar’s schedule. Judy was going to close the place down for a week to
make arraignments get affairs in order. Judy and Frank’s kids discouraged her from closing down.
“My customers ran the bar for a week,” she said with a smile.
“They all pulled shifts with the regular help and made it work.” That act of kindness allowed the family to mourn their loss and take care of one another.
Judy said she loves every one of them. “They are our customers, but their friends and family, too. That’s what makes it all worth while,” she said. “It’s a labor of love . it’s home.”
Funny stories
If you hang around a bar – any bar – long enough, you will hear a funny story. Frank’s is full of them. One funny Frank’s story starts with a goat in a customer’s car and ends up with the goat tied to
the R&M Café on Seventh Street. Another involves a “garbage disposal giveaway” and a live pig.
The funniest story I’ve heard involving Frank, I picked up in another bar, but Judy tells it well, too: At Frank’s former location, an old guy had too much to drink, and Frank ask him to leave. The drunk
walked out one door and came back in another and asked for a drink.
Again, Frank told the drunk to get out of his bar and the guy
eventually complied. However, the drunk, apparently not ready to go home, returned through the bar’s third entrance and ordered a drink. Frank, again, tells the guy to get out. Confused and blurry-eyed, the drunk asked Frank, “How many damn bars do you own?” That one gets a laugh every time. “We’ve had a lot of fun here,” Judy said.
Judy’s not talking about the bar’s 40th birthday party planned for
December – she’s tight lipped about the plans. “It’s going to be a surprise,” she said. “I’m not telling.”
I asked Judy what she wanted area residents to know about Frank’s Lounge. She took a minute to think. “I want people to know that we are a family bar,” she said. “Our people are all family.
Come on and join the family.”

Cheers!

Frank’s Lounge, 2112 South Main Street, Joplin is open Mon – Sat at 6:30 a.m. with karaoke Friday and Saturday nights at  9.