Casino

I'm pulling for the new owners.  The old Casino was truly a one of a kind.  The interior is nearly original art-deco and sort of has a run-down Cotton Club ambience to it.  The old owner used to carry one of every beer he could get in the La Crosse market.  There were enough to make the beer list a three ring binder.  He then offered the ability to pay a couple bucks and pull a tab from a fishbowl.  Each tab had the name of a beer on it so you could end up with anything from a Miller Lite to a $20 German beer.

Anyway, the past is the past.  

I stopped in once since it reopened.  The beer selection obviously wasn't the same but it wasn't bad, lots of good microbrews, etc.  There was a larger crowd but it was still quiet enough to not have to elbow to the bar for a drink like at many of the other downtown bars.

When visiting my hometown of La Crosse last fall and seeing that the Casino had closed, I was struck with a certain sense of loss that I never figured I would be capable of feeling for a dirty, smoky dive bar.  Maybe it's because they had one of the two best beer selections in La Crosse.  Maybe it's because it has survived so long amid a flurry of establishments aimed at a college age crowd.  With it's smoke stained ceilings and old style ripped leather booths, "ambiance" (or lack thereof) was really what this watering hole had going for it.  That being said, I guess the real reason I'm sad that it's gone is because it was the only bar in La Crosse where I could walk in and feel like I've just stepped into the past.  Well...now I guess that it really has become just that.