Eddie's Bar

This is a bar I'd never heard of and likely would never have known about, if not for my friend's eagle eye. He had spotted it several months ago and tried to tell me about "this real sh-thole looking place" he had found, but I could never find it on my own. So, on a Saturday we both had free, we ended up deciding to head there together.

When we first arrived the owner had just unlocked the door, but she was not ready for customers yet. She seemed very suspicious of us and told us to come back in about an hour.   She was accompanied by a man in a muscle shirt with grey hair in a pony tail, he had already gone inside.

When we returned an hour later the man who was with the owner earlier asked me suspiciously about my camera and notebook. I explained about my hobby, and suddenly the mood changed. The owner (Leslie) apologized too us for her earlier attitude, and everyone all around was very friendly to us from that point on.

"Make no mistake, this place is a sh-thole, and proud of it," said the guy who had asked me about my camera. So I guess my friend's description was not out of line. :)

However, as "sh-tholes" go, this is actually a pretty nice place. It's also quite a bit bigger than you'd think from the outside. It's well-maintained and not a bad neighborhood hangout at all.

Located in the dying Robandee Shopping Center, this place has been here a long time. Leslie told us she had worked here for 15 years before buying it 3 years ago.

I asked her why it's still named Eddie's, given that her name is Leslie. "Oh, honey, when I bought this place I had to deal with a mountain of paperwork half a foot thick and go to Jeff City to get fingerprinted and a background check. No way was I going to add to that by going through the renaming process too!"

There's bartop trivia, darts, and I believe there were a couple of arcade games behind me. They've scaled back the kitchen, though, there's food only 1 day a week now and Saturday isn't that day much to the chagrin of our hungry bellies.