Mario & John's Tavern

When I was much younger, this was the place to be. Safe , Queit and no fights. I remember when Mario and John were around and Angel tended bar.
This is still a great place to hang out!

I have driven by Mario & John's more times than I can count. I have said "I really need to check that place out" - also - more times than I can count. After far too much talk and not nearly enough action, I found myself approaching its boarded-up front and walking through its doors last Saturday with the two other members of my bike gang.

The moment we opened the door and stepped foot in this gem of a place, all heads turned our way and the room was SI.LENT. The regulars sized us up quickly. In turn, we went straight up to the bar and ordered a few drinks.

The normal chit-chat resumed and we felt a bit more at ease. Armed with our drinks, we made our way up a couple steps to the left and into the "game room" - for lack of a better name for it. We sat down at what we christened "the kid's table" and made small talk, keeping our ears peeled to pick up bits and pieces of the other patrons' conversations.

The ice was broken when some guy in a puffin t-shirt spent more than an hour telling everyone repeatedly that Van Morrison used to be in a band called Them and had a hit song, "Gloria" while trying to find evidence of this on an iPhone. Why he felt it was so important to prove this, I don't know. All I know is that he made fun of us for being young (the bartender said we were born when her granddaugher was) and he doesn't have any clue how to work technology; Easy Rider found what he had been looking for in a matter of minutes.

From then on, we were all fast friends. The visit ended with a group shot (and one guy grabbing Baby T's ass) and everyone asking me "Where the hell are YOU from?! British Columbia?!"

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Anyway, this place is AMAZING. Anecdotes aside, the drinks are CHEAP ($10.50 for a vodka tonic, a Mirror Pond and a Lagunitas I.P.A.), there is pool AND shuffleboard, the jukebox is powered by real CDs and not the Internet, the place is WAY bigger than it looks from the outside, you can buy Lotto scratchers AND there is a cigarette dispensing machine. TIGHT.

OK, one more anecdote. Some middle-aged guy showed up to play pool with his wife and on the break, hit in the 8-ball. "THAT MEANS I WON!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THAT" he said to his wife.

Yeah, that's all you need to know to know this place is amazing.

Great bar for a quiet weekday night with friends. Shuffleboard, pool, lots of wood paneling, and Olympia beer. All pluses in my book, but I had to knock off a star 'cause they closed at ten.