ah.......we missed it last week. Anyway, here's a look back at one of the all-time great bars
http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2006/04/rip-remembering-avalanche-bar.html
Still brings a tear to my eye. One of my most prized possessions is a poster sized, framed photograph of the lanche' (my icon is a copy of it) that hangs in my living room. Appropriate choice of rooms considering I practically lived there for three out of four years.
I remember taking a semester off my senior year to concentrate on being the campus bookie. My dad made it clear that If I was going to take time off, I had to have a job. So, of course I told him that I was a bartender at the Lanche', figuring if he ever checked up on me I would be there.
I cherish my Avalanche Bar hat that is black and white. It was the first bar I went in on my senior in high school trip up to MU. I remember thinking how cool it was you could break bottles and no one cared. I also still remember the hangover from the malt liquor I drank at an after bars house party.There are certain songs I hear on the radio that still take me back to the lanche and I hate to admit 20 years back. I still remember drinking pitchers of Kamikazes on the random Sat. afternoon. It's a shame the institution is gone!
Ah the 'Lanche was a great bar! I was in grad school/teaching at MU from 72 - 78. We frequented the Ardmore Bar quite a bit - where they had 16 oz schooners of beer for 25 cents. LOL. But the 'Lanche - ahh - well that same schooner cost only 15 cents - what a deal. A dollar went a long way. Had lots of fun at both, but the 'Lanche was raw - crazy - archie the bartender, the beer slides, some of the locals in there at noon. . .ah what memories!
Anyone have pictures of the inside? That place was fun!
I don't need a single picture of that place, as it is etched in my mind in many states of mind!
I graduated in 1997. That fateful weekend I was up in Minneapolis on for a project for the ad club (my major). I called home that Saturday and checked in w/ my roommates for any news. They said so and so got engaged and the Lanche closed. I replied...Are you F'n kidding me, the 'Lanche closed, what the F happened? The guy who got engaged, I ended up being his best man...but to me that phone call was all about the 'Lanche.
Love that place...and I know that the vintage I saw was no where near what it was at it's peak, but it still crushed every other bar on campus. As a buddy once said, you could be a in tux before a formal, standing next to a Rugby player covered in mudd and you both fit in...talking & enjoying RWBs while Gordie pissed himself again.