My favorite bar in the world is The Garage Cafe in Birmingham, Ala.
I remember the first time I went there, because I was in awe. The beer selection was great. The interior was comfortable — slightly ramshackle, with a relaxed, laid-back vibe. But what really won me over was the outdoor patio, a darkened courtyard filled with odd pieces of junk: birdbaths, plaster angels, candelabras. (I later learned that this weird assortment of stuff was actually for sale — The Garage doubles as an antique store.) The Garage was mysterious and quirky, but also welcoming and fun. Even the old-fashioned pull-chain toilets seemed cool. “It is a delight,” I said, “to go to the bathroom in this bar.”
It was love at first sight, and I vowed to return to The Garage as often as possible. And, except for a brief hiatus after I was robbed at gunpoint exiting the bar on my birthday (I’m not interested in rehashing that whole incident right now, but you can read about it here), I did. I went to The Garage with my friends after concerts and movies; if our evening began at another bar, it ended, inevitably, at The Garage. When I left the paper, my going-away-party took place at The Garage, and when the paper folded, the staff made an excursion to The Garage after wrapping up the final edition. The night before my friend Leigh Anne got married, we hung out at The Garage. Every time I visit Birmingham, I make sure I visit at least once or twice.
“The Tender Bar,” a memoir by J.R. Moehringer that I’m almost done reading, makes me think about The Garage. And other bars I’ve spent a lot of time in, such as The Larkin in Albany, before it closed. (One of the things I really liked about The Larkin was the fact that it was never crowded; apparently, this sort of business model is not sustainable.) In “The Tender Bar,” Moehringer, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who in 2000 won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, pays tribute to the bar in his life: the Manhasset, N.Y., watering hole Publicans.
A fatherless boy, Moehringer gravitated to Publicans, where his uncle tended bar, and to the men who spent time there; as a young adult, he returned to the bar to drink and talk and feel at home. Or as he puts it, in the opening paragraph of “The Tender Bar”: “We went there for everything we needed. We went there when thirsty, of course, and when hungry, and when dead tired. We went there when happy, to celebrate, and when sad, to sulk. We went there after weddings and funerals, for something to settle our nerves, and always for a shot of courage just before. We went there when we didn’t know what we needed, hoping someone might tell us. We went there when looking for love, or sex, or trouble, or for someone who had gone missing, because sooner or later everyone turned up there. Most of all we went there when we needed to be found.”
“The Tender Bar” only gets better as it goes along. At first, it’s a coming-of-age/dysfunctional family memoir. Then it becomes a tale of college foibles and first love. And then it becomes the story of a self-destructive young reporter with a drinking problem. I can’t decide which is my favorite anecdote — the one about Moehringer losing his virginity on an isolated mountain in Arizona after running into a cactus and hurting his leg, or the one about his interview with The New York Times, where he arrived in a blood-stained shirt reeking of tequila, his eye swollen shut. Moehringer is a great storyteller, and his book is a smooth and enjoyable yarn. He captures the pleasures of talking and drinking with your friends, and staying out late at night, and the pain of falling in love with someone who breaks your heart. And he presents himself as someone who never really wanted to do anything with his life but read and write, which is something I can relate to. In recent years, I’ve grown somewhat suspicious of memoirs, because so many of them have been exposed as fraudulent. I hope that never happens to “The Tender Bar,” because I love it.
By the way, I am not the only person who thinks The Garage Cafe is extremely cool. GQ magazine once named it one of the top 10 bars in the world worth flying to. Pictures can’t really do the place justice, but click here for a Garage slideshow.
MOVIE ALERT
I recently learned that the new movie “Adventureland” chronicles the misadventures of an Oberlin College graduate named James Brennan who goes to work in an amusement park for the summer. It’s not often my alma mater gets name-checked like that in a major Hollywood movie. In any case, it elevates “Adventureland” from the “maybe that would be fun” to “must-see.”
CONCERT ALERT
Whenever I’m leaving for vacation, people invite me to do fun things. That’s just the way it is, I guess. But if I didn’t have plans to be in California, I would definitely attend these two shows:
Albany indie pop band Sea of Trees will release its new CD, “Animal Sounds,” at Valentine’s on April 11. Matthew Loiacono and Severe Severe are opening. You can find the Sea of Trees MySpace page here.
Albany instrumental electronica band The Mission Control Of... is playing Savannah’s in Albany on April 9. I’ve seen these guys a couple times, and they’re really pretty good, especially if you’re into bands such as Animal Collective and Aphex Twin. You can find The Mission Control Of ... MySpace page here.
Got a comment? A favorite bar? Comment below or e-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.
