Continued from Part 2…

Friday, July 17, 2009. Day 3 of our July barhopping trip that would end up taking us to 101 bars.

The third day of the trip began with excitement and energy as we set forth on our newly-devised goal of visiting 100 bars. This enthusiasm would not last, however, as an unusual number of closed bars and the inevitable gastrointestinal issues that always result from drinking this much beer threatened to derail the day.

Not yet realizing the troubles in store for thee first part of the day, we headed northeast from Grand Island.

Chapman, NE

(pop 341)
Some locals believe Chapman was visited by Spanish explorer Coronado in 1541, as details in his journals seem to be specifically describing 3 local creeks in great detail. Most historians however do not believe Coronado ever reached what is now Nebraska.

Primetime
108 Highway 30
Chapman, NE 68827
(308) 986-2244
[map]

Our first failure of the day, as Primetime was not open yet.

Central City, NE

(pop 2998)
Originally named Lone Tree for a giant cottonwood tree, visible from up to 20 miles away, that was used as a marker on the Oregon and Mormon trails.

46. The Independent Club

417 G St
Central City, NE 68826-1755
(308) 946-9819
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

A very big, old bar with all sorts of large, inflatable objects hanging from the ceiling. It was only moments into the beer that the digestive issues began to cause disruptions.

But enough about that.

The Independent was in a way a bonus bar, as I expected it to be a restaurant and therefore not open earlier. We were actually planning to head to Woody’s Lounge instead. But the address we had was vague and The Independent was a much easier find for us.

We now had a choice. We could take the direct route to Columbus and gat maybe 2 bars before then, or take a zig-zaggy back route and get 5. We chose the latter and veered off the main roads.

Polk, NE

(pop 322)
Features a divided, brick Main Street with a giant white gazebo in the median.

47. Sportsman Bar

160 N Main
Polk, NE 68654
(402) 765-3291
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

When we got out of the car we were greeted by a cute little scruffy dog named Chloe who was waiting outside the bar. The bar was a big, wide open space and was fairly active for this time of day. Chloe kept trying to come inside, so her owner finally told her, “Chloe, go home.” And she did. I guess small town dogs are smarter than city dogs.

Stromsburg, NE

(pop 1232)
Founded by Swedish settlers. Many of the older buildings show Swedish influence and are made from bricks produced locally. The streets in the downtown square are also brick. The town hosts an annual Swedish festival.

Double Nickel
310 Main St
Stromsburg, NE 68666-4099
(402) 764-5922
[map]
This looked like it would have been a good stop, but it didn’t open until 4:00.

Osceola, NE

(pop 921)
Named for the Oseola in Iowa, which we visited on another bar tour on August 9, 2006. The city was destroyed by fire in 1895 following a 2-year drought.

White Eagle Restaurant & Tavern
425 Hawkeye St
Osceola, NE 68651-4474
(402) 747-2771
[map]

Another place that didn’t open until 4:00. We drove around the square looking for any other options but we couldn’t find anything.

We reached a T intersection in the highway where massive signs warned of a road closure ahead. If we followed the detour, we’d miss out on a few towns. But if we didn’t follow it, we might lose an hour of time backtracking.

We opted for the safe course and take the detour, but I suddenly remembered a bridge project I had read about in Columbus. I realized that that was the closure the signs were talking about, and I knew we’d be able to get around it. One quick illegal turn had us back on the right track.

Shelby, NE

(pop 690)
Was originally named Arcade, the USPS forced the name to be changed due to confusion with the pre-existing town of Arcadia.

A & B Lounge
250 N Walnut St
Shelby, NE 68662-5578
(402) 527-5831
[map]
We were disappointed to find this place closed, it was our fourth closure of the day. Even worse, the note on the door said it was only closed today, and only for a few hours, it just happened ti like up with the time we were here. Our spirits may have been broken had we not found a bonus bar just a couple of doors down the street.

48. Shelby Hotel

240 N Walnut
Shelby, NE 68662
402-527-5457
www.myspace.com/shelbyhotel
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

I later found a notation in an earlier draft of my guide book for this trip:

Also check out the local hotel, it has a liquor license. Probably just to serve wine for dinner but maybe it has a bar.

As it turns out, the Shelby Hotel is not a hotel at all. Or, at least, it hasn’t ben for a very long time. It’s actually a bar and grill inside a historic hotel building. It was very busy serving up lunch and is apparently mostly a daytime operation, but it served us well.

Rising City, NE

(pop 386)
Home of the Butler County Motorplex raceway

49. Hinkle’s Pub

730 Main St
Rising City, NE 68658-3876
(402) 542-2400
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

This was a family run place, enough that children were working behind the counter and had to call for mom when we ordered beer. The only beer on tap was Keystone Light, and Mom had to look up the price ($1.35 each).

She was getting frustrated with two Mexican guys sitting around the corner at the bar who kept changing their minds about what they wanted, ordering in Spanish, showing at her from across the bar, and made her take an order from someone over a cellphone. She came over to us for a brief escapee to vent about it.

Columbus, NE

(pop 20,971)
Buffalo Bill was a regular visitor and the first full dress rehearsal of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show was performed here.

Columbus was our original Thursday destination, but construction of an ethanol plant has every motel room in town booked for 2 years. When we learned our only chance at getting a room would be to try to chump a worker late in renewing a weekly rental, we opted to substitute Grand Island at the last minute for yesterday’s destination. Now we would get to see what we missed out on, focusing specifically on the downtown bars.

I tried to detour around the bridge construction prematurely and we ended up touring a lake community before I realized my mistake and we found the correct path downtown. Columbus would be the turning point, sickness stopped being an issue and we started finding enough interesting (and open) places to re-motivate us.

50. Avenue Bar

1061 26th Ave
Columbus, NE 68601-5750
(402) 563-3635
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

We picked this place first because we happened to stumble across it first. We ended up parking the car here to do the rest of Columbus on foot. The bar had just opened and the bartender wasn’t quite ready for customers but she took good care of us. She told us about the railroad construction that had nearly cut the town in half and how several trains roll by an hour.

51. Hot Shotz Bar & Grill

2501 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601-5723
(402) 564-5767
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

75-cent draws! I discovered I had left my camera in the car so the pictures for this and the next few bars all had to come from my phone.

52. Double T Bar

2403 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601-5721
(402) 564-2909
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

This was the busiest bar we’d seen so far today.

Our next stop would have been…

Bigunz
2313 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601-5719
[map]

It was closed when we came by, since we didn’t have any info about when it would open we didn’t come back to try later.

53. Glur’s Tavern

2301 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601-5719
(402) 564-8615
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

Having opened in 1876, this is the oldest continually-operating bar in Nebraska and one of the oldest in the west. It was a favorite spot of Buffalo Bill and more recently of Leon Sphinx. We really, really wanted souvenir glasses from here, but they were in the basement and the bartender had a broken foot and couldn’t get them for us.

After leaving here we walked north on 23rd Ave and had to wait for a passing train.

54. Gottberg Brew Pub

2804 13th St
Columbus, NE 68601-4919
(402) 562-6488
dustersrestaurant.com
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

We had trouble finding this place. First off, the building doesn’t look like a bar. Second, we went inside and the first set of doors took us to a fancy restaurant. Then we tried another direction and found ourselves in a business office. Luckily a friendly person there told us how to get to the bar through the restaurant.

B tried their American Gold, while I tried the 1916 Irish Stout. We met the brewmaster, who had actually just started working there a few days earlier. He had applied at a few places, including the 75th Street Brewery back home in KC. 75th Street had apparently called to offer him a job just after he accepted the job here.

We also learned that the Gottberg brew pub is owned by the same guy who owns Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing.

By the way, $2 draws. How often do you see that at a brewpub?

55. Micek’s Shangrila

2506 12th St
Columbus, NE 68601-5757
(402) 564-3093
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

Micek’s was really busy, we couldn’t sit at the bar and had to take one of the few remaining tables.

Walking back to the car we passed an old train station. A new railroad track was being put in and the town was pretty much bisected by the construction, with only a few crossing points available to vehicles. We figured we could walk across anywhere we wanted, though. Turned out that wasn’t quite true, as the asphalt hasn’t quite cooled, or hardened, yet. We made a quick dash across the tracks on 25th Ave to try to avoid leaving too many footprints.

56. 4 Jokers Bar

2521 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601-5723
(402) 563-3002
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

There were two things about this placed that cracked us up. One was all of the KISS decor throughout the bar. The other was the redundant urinal. The men’s room contained two urinals, but one of them was pointless because they were placed side-by-side at 90 degree angles to each other so only one could ever be used at any one time. (Except I suppose in the case of conjoined twins, I guess I shouldn’t rule out the possibility the restroom was designed to accommodate two very specific regular customers.)

 

 

Throughout the course of our trip so far we’d seen seen these Runza places everywhere. It’s evidently a pretty popular food in this part of the country. B knew what they were, I had never heard of them. “It’s basically like a soft Hot Pocket, only better, and stuffed wwith meat,” he said. We decided it was essential to try the native fare at some point on this trip, and earlier in the day decided that Columbus would be where we would do it.

We looked up the location of the local Runza (1944 33rd Ave) and went inside. Not knowing what to expect, I nervously ordered a runza with swiss and B ordered something similar.

What came out to the table looked tasty and smelled tasty, and once I bit in I found that it was tasty. Cheese and loose-packed beef stuffed into a pocketed bread shell.
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

About halfway though my runza, it fell open. I looked down to scoop the fillings back in, and noticed it full of onions and/or cabbage. I cannot stand either. I tried to keep eating, but the knowledge they were in there made my stomach turn.

“I was thinking to myself the whole time, If he looks inside there, he’s done,“, B told me.

Schuyler, NE

(pop 5371)
Originally a mix of Czech, Irish, and German population, Schulyer is now 45% Hispanic. This is largely due to the Cargill beeef packing plant on the west side of town. Which explained the huge number of Mexican restaurants and Mexican-oriented businesses we noticed on the downtown square.

We’d planned to hit up a place called Last Chance on the way into town but didn’t see it, so we headed straight on into the square.

57. Bootleggers Bar & Grill

1109 B St
Schuyler, NE 68661-1911
(402) 352-9900
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

We watched an episode of “Cash Cab” here. I got a laugh out of a handwashing poster in the men’s room, which in an attempt to be politically correct seemed to imply that your ethnicity will change several times as you wash your hands.

58. Tiny’s Bar

120 E 12th St
Schuyler, NE 68661-1943
(402) 352-9949
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

50-cent draws! A new all-time price record for us! (Excluding quarter draws of Natural Light served in dixie cups at frat bars.) There were no normal white light bulbs in this place, each light was a different color.

The men’s room here fit the dive bar restroom mold beautifully. It was basically an alcove behind the pool table and pretty run down.

North Bend, NE

(pop 1213)
Located on the northernmost bend of the Platte River. In June of this year the town was visited by a group retracing the Oregon trail in covered wagons.

We came here expecting to find just one bar, Arlie’s Bar. Instead we found three and in a twist on things we never actually made it to Arlie’s.

59. Little Ricky’s Saloon & Grill

644 Main St
North Bend, NE 68649-5020
(402) 652-8383
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

This was a surprisingly nice place. We played with some interlocking horseshoe puzzles for a while that were very tricky, though B finally solved one of them.

60. The Pour House

725 Main St
North Bend, NE 68649
402-652-8314
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

The bartender’s side of the bar is a pit sunken down about 2 feet below floor level. The bar itself is also shorter than at most bars. So there are no barstools, you sit in office chairs instead. There wasn’t room for both of at the bar us but everybody moved down so we could squeeze in another chair.

Our next stop required crossing the Platte River. We’d crossed it twice so far on this trip, and I’d tried to photograph it because of it’s wide, shallow beauty, but I hadn’t been quick enough. This time I was prepared, and also was able to stop on the bridge due to no traffic.

(Click thumbnails to view photos)

Morse Bluff, NE

(pop 134)
Located immediately across the Platte River from North Bend, in the valley and right up against the bluff.

61. Bottom Road Bar

3041 County Road 26
Morse Bluff, NE 68648-4859
(402) 666-9226
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

This place looked like it was built somewhat recently. I expected it to be a biker bar, but it seemed to appeal to a wide cross section.

Finally, we reached our Friday destination down.

Fremont, NE

(pop 25,174)
The town has a rich railroad history and offers dinner train excursions.
On January 10, 1976, a natural gas explosion at the Pathfinder Hotel in downtown Fremont killed 23 people and destroyed an entire city block.

62. Franky & Oly’s

353 W 23rd St
Fremont, NE 68025-2546
(402) 727-4119
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

The bartender wasn’t sure how to price the small draws, making these some of the most expensive domestic beers we’ve ever had.

63. Big Red Keno

2323 Laverna St
Fremont, NE 68025
(402) 721-8545
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

Having missed the Big Red Keno in Lincoln, we made sure to visit this location. It wasn’t what I expected on the inside being brightly lit and restaurant-like. Every booth had a flat panel screen that could be used for Keno results or to watch any channel you want.

I made the unfortunate error of mistaking a little person for a child so snapped a picture of what I assumed at the time was a little kid pouring a pitcher of beer. I felt like an ass after he turned back around.

Fremont doesn’t have any lodging options downtown, so we had made reservations at an inexpensive motel on the main highway. The Luxury Inn & Suites (1649 E 23rd St) turned out to be a really nice place. Though we ended up not taking advantage of it, it even had free make-your-own waffles for breakfast. We checked in, then headed downtown to round out our night.

We were hungry, but we didn’t want to waste any time with food so we decided we’d eat at the first bar that had good, quick food.

64. Dugout Bar

239 E 6th St
Fremont, NE 68025-5031
(402) 721-5868
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

Before we went inside we walked around the block looking for a pizza place that was supposed to be there, but it was closed and looked like it might have been out of business. We continued around the block back to The Dugout.

This was an awesome little neighborhood dive. The bar was full so we had to take a table in the back corner. ELO was playing and the women in the bar were rocking out.

From here we spent the rest of the night walking.
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

65. J’s Steakhouse

406 N Main St # 1
Fremont, NE 68025-5191
(402) 727-6100
jssteakhouse.com
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

This was a bonus bar in a building that looked like it had been converted into some sort of mall. The bartender talked with us about the Royals and Kauffman Stadium.

There was food here, including a pretty good looking pizza being eaten by a couple a few barstools over, but it looked like it would take a little too long for us so we decided to wait.

Irv’s Deli & More
345 N Main St
Fremont, NE 68025-5057
(402) 721-4787
[map]
A deli with a bar. It had closed just before we got there. But we hadn’t expected this to be open anyway so we weren’t too disappointed about that.

However…

Sportsman’s Bar
325 N Main St
Fremont, NE 68025-5057
(402) 727-0531
[map]
A downtown dive bar closing before 10:00 on a Friday night?!?!? We had been looking forward to seeing this one, so its early closure pissed us off a little.

Thankfully it was the last closure we’d see today.

66. Corner Bar

300 N Main St
Fremont, NE 68025-5058
(402) 721-9996
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

Our beers were $1.80, an odd price. This was a risky place to enter and exit, the dart boards are immediately to the right inside the front door while the dart line is immediately to the left inside the front door.

67. Doe’s Place

148 N Main St
Fremont, NE 68025-5674
(402) 727-9825
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

There’s a pretty big courtyard, monitored on a closed circuit television facing the bar. The bartender told us that the owner also gets a feed and can watch it in her home.

We were still starving and hadn’t had found any quick food yet. We asked the bartender about food options and she told us that a place called DJ’s across the tracks had really good food and served it late. Lucky for us, that was planned as our next stop.

We walked south across a ridiculous number of railroad tracks and eventually found DJ’s

68. DJ’s Bar & Grill

415 S Main St
Fremont, NE 68025-5645
(402) 721-2001
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

We made it just in time, 10 minutes before the kitchen closed. B ordered a hot ham and cheese sandwich, an I ordered a smoked prime rib sandwich with swiss.

The food. Was. Amazing. A perfect barhopping meal!

69. Remedy Lounge

500 S Main St
Fremont, NE 68025-5659
(402) 721-9833
theremedylounge.com
[map]
(Click thumbnails to view photos)

Except for J’s Steakhouse, every bar we had visited tonight was busy. So it was surprising to find this place… dead. There were a few people out on the patio, but no one inside. The bartender seemed happy to have customers.

This was a big place with a barn-like feel. We played a Silver Strike series while cartoons played on the bar TVs. More customers arrived just as we were leaving to begin our long walk back for the night.

We made it back to the motel and were out pretty quickly. But before dozing off we watched a show about extreme body art, and for the final image of the day we watched in horror as a guy got his eye tattooed black.

We didn’t have far to drive the next day, only 40 miles total, but with Omaha being next on the agenda it was going to be a busy day that needed an early start. We shut off the freak show and were quickly out for the night.

Continued in Part 4…