Joe E's Unforgettable Lounge

I've been here twice. Once on a Sunday afternoon for $3 bloody marys (the plan was to get there about 2pm and stay for an hour--when I left it was 10pm) and once three weeks ago Saturday as a pit stop between destinations  for my friend's birthday.

It's certainly an old man bar. Free pool, dusty, dark, cheap domestic beer, a surprisingly clean bathroom, popcorn machine, juke box, "professionals" at the end of the bar, you know the drill; and the first time I went here I really couldn't wait to come back. Now I think if I go back it'll be for day drinking, not night drinking; and I think it would depend who's working the bar.

So let me explain, we show up about 10-ish to have a beer--beers ordered, settling in, everything is fine and then all of the sudden we realize we're listening to these commercials that are backed by a dance beat. The more we're listening or rather trying not to listen; they become louder and more annoying.  

At first we thought it was the radio; commercials, and then songs, and the commercials, and then songs-- but no it was commercial after commercial. So in order to stop it I decided to play the juke box, and this is where the problems took place.

First off the juke box is awesome. You can find almost everything you want to listen to and by judging the quality of the extended dance remix commercials; I figured the sound wouldn't be that bad. I also have to explain something else and this is the most important thing. I completely understand I'm in a neighborhood bar with many different types of people. Although some of my music tastes are, I'm not planning to piss everyone off by playing music that's obnoxious, offensive, alienating, etc--actually just the opposite. My goal was to play stuff that's decent drinking music, maybe something a little timeless. Ray Charles, James brown, some rockabilly--key works here: non-threatening and fun. So I make my way to the jukebox.

Before I know it there's a person who I'm guessing is a regular lined up behind me. (sidenote, why did they wait for me to play music before doing so themselves?) I play my songs and walk away--the guy behind me starts to add his list as my first song is playing. The second song comes on (I mentioned Ray Charles previously, it was Ray Charles) the bartender perks up with what sounds like irritation and dare I say disgust, and addresses the dude playing music "YOU didn't play that did YOU?!"

"No I did." I reply.

The bartender grabs the remote for what I think is the TV and says "yeah I didn't think he would play that".

By this time the guy leaves the juke box, she still has the remote in her hand and walks over to play songs. I have two more songs and instead either the song the regular played or the song the bartender played comes on.

She's still adding songs and my friend walks over and asks "you didn't just flip over my friend's songs did you?"

She doesn't say yes, and doesn't say no but instead says "sometimes I flip over songs if they look like they're going to be crazy devil worshipping music". The next two songs I played we're from a band called the Reverend Horton Heat. Now I can't prove she bypassed my songs but the whole thing is a little coincidental and if she did then she should have at least gave me my $2 back.

I want to like this place. I really do and I would come here often. It's close, it's comfy, it's reasonable, surprisingly they have three good beers on tap, but if I'm given the vibe that I'm not exactly welcome then why would I come back?

Dive bar to the max and not in a good way. I went during a fairly quiet time ( I used to walk by very early in the morning on my way to the Blue Line and it seems to attract a rather rowdy crowd until the wee hours of the morning). The drinks were stiff and cheap, so that's a plus. Bartender was friendly. The only problem was the lecherous old men who seem to hang out, but I can't really fault the bar for that.

Good bar!