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Gin Mill's in WNY


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Back in the day I used to hang at the Garage Door, Distillery, and Elmwood Inn here in Roch.  I DJ'd at Stirling's for a couple of years and had a ball with that.  Then a new owner took over and turned it into a biker bar.

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Garage Door? Is that still there?!? Used to follow up a visit there with a journey across the street to Country Sweet or just down E. Ridge to Harry's Hots...jeeziz, that was 25 years ago... :lol:

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Garage Door?  Is that still there?!?  Used to follow up a visit there with a journey across the street to Country Sweet or just down E. Ridge to Harry's Hots...jeeziz, that was 25 years ago... :lol:

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The "Garbage Door" as we called has been gone for quite some time. It has been about 4 different places since then. Don't know what the hell it is now. If we were desperate for finding some cheap women, that was usually the place we ended up at.

 

Country Sweet, almost as good as Nicks for late night, early morning food. Sweet and sour chicken wings.....your hands would be sticky for 3 days after. :lol:

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Actually it's called the "Pour House"  :lol:

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Thanks! I was only there once right after it opened last year during deer season. It looks like they've cleaned it up quite a bit...but it'll never be the same without Metzy.

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Anacone's on Bailey (still there) and the ever popular Slomba's - but what a neighborhood now   :lol:

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You could hop the fence in back of the CPG and go into Slomba's, instead of walking around the block. I remember those brown plastic 20 oz tumblers they'd serve drafts of Strohs in . 45 cent "Bionics" . Ring a bell with anyone ?

 

My poor liver. :lol:

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"Gin mill"? Now there's a term I haven't heard in at least 40 years! Of course, I left Buffalo almost that long ago. Yes, it is a local term. My associations with it are the Rose Garden on Wehrle Drive (the Miner family) or maybe the Doat Grill or Whitey's on Genesee Street or Benny's Tavern at Genesee and Bailey (formerly Schwabl's where my grandfather drank his life away a century ago). For a date and a little underage drinking, there was DuBells on Smith Street or a place on Delevan near the old Meyer Memorial Hospital that was very dark and cozy (help me out with a name here!). Am I the only one on TSW old enough to remember any of these? Do any of them still exist? Oh, the agony of getting old!

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I was going to jokingly ask if any anyone remembered the Doat Street Bar and Grill. I was never in there (probably too young and the wrong gender) but I walked past it just about every day. I lived on Doat Street and attended PS #11.

 

Thanks for remembering it!

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A long time back for me, He & She's, After Dark, Barrelhead, McVans, Poor House East. Actually wherever Talas was playing.

 

Now I like Evolution, Club Paradise, Maccaroons, wherever Hit N Run is playing

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i think i've done this before, but i still gotta give a call to roxy's and the old wooden nickel in olean...two places that miraculously let me inside their hallowed walls to get righteously cocked before i had even turned 16. i still have an old cardboard coaster from the nickel stuck up on my fridge (apparently i had been using it as a bookmark in one of my college textbooks- when i finally got rid of the book, the coaster went on display).

 

back in the days when the drinking age was 18, the boys and i learned how doctor up expired paper PA learner's permits with razor blades and a few specks of glue...you would LITERALLY cut and paste the numbers so that you would be born in 62 or 63 instead of 64 or 65. and then, when the first generation of photocard driver's lisenses came out, we taught ourselves to use make-up, mascara and a needle to paint the 5s over to look like 3s. then if, god forbid, you needed your lisense, you just smudged off the make-up before you gave it to the cop or whomever.

 

anyway, the ritual was this: we would load up a car at 8 or so on a saturday night, drive the half hour north from PA, and get the night started at Roxy's. the bartender there was this gray-haired guy named "Corky" who had a reputation for serving ANYBODY who had the balls to sidle up to the bar and actually order something.

5 or 6 35-cent drafts later, we'd head to the Nickel to catch West, Fat Brat or one of the other 1,000,001 cover bands that seemed to be circulating among the same WNY bars at that time. god i wish i could remember the names of some of them...we are talking '81-'83 here. anybody?

 

anyway, we would get all liquored up watching kick-ass cover band rock'n'roll, and then merrily drive home at 2am. i don't have any idea why nothing bad ever happened. we never wrecked, and the worst thing i can ever happened was that my buddy got pulled over for going 56 in a 35 zone heading into portville, blowing a .10 into the breathalyzer with a carful of minors, and being let go with only a speeding ticket. i guess times have changed a litle since then.

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I was going to jokingly ask if any anyone remembered the Doat Street Bar and Grill.  I was never in there (probably too young and the wrong gender) but I walked past it just about every day.  I lived on Doat Street and attended PS #11.

 

Thanks for remembering it!

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The Doat was one of those one-on-every-block neighborhood bars with a rear family entrance. Our church ball team (and wives and girlfriends) went there in the mid-60s after games at Schiller Park. $1 pitchers and those big 1 cent pretzel sticks. Many happy memories. You should have stopped in!

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The North Java Inn... Thinking back on my summer camp counselor days would not be complete without thinking of the nights at "The Jave"... man, i miss that place. I want 1 pitcher of blue, 1 glass, an Innburger, and a basket of fries... Good lord.

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They had a hell of a sound system back in circa 1977.For real down and dirty,the Masthead on Grant St. had a thursday night Beatles night.Three Rolling Rocks,or SEVEN shots for a buck! Perfect for the alcoholic college student on a budget!

I usually stuck to hanging on the the Elmwood strip,(Coles,No Name's)or the Buffalo State pub..

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The Masthead.....what a place back in the early early 70's.

 

Also there was Dirty Dick's Bath House (Bailey) who also had regular Beatles nights as well.

 

Chippewa was home to pimps, prostitutes, strip clubs, and porno shops.

 

Back in this time, who could forget Wally Bobecks or Flays?

 

80's - Pierce Arrow, Crawdaddy's, Casey's, Coles, Goodbar, No Name, Garcias, on and on and on and on....

 

One thing Old Buffal had going for it was a GREAT bar scene. That's probably why the town fell to crap, everyone was too drunk to notice until it was too late.....but what a ride....Good times....

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One thing Old Buffal had going for it was a GREAT bar scene. That's probably why the town fell to crap, everyone was too drunk to notice until it was too late.....but what a ride....Good times....

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Hmmm, maybe we're on to something here?

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I used to hit Callahan's and Mickey Rat's during the summer.

 

Ditto. Also, Caughlin's in Fredonia.

 

BTW, I still have a Callahan's glass from the mid '80s that I "borrowed"...took it on a ladies night...was with my girlfriend at the time who got hers honestly (the gals got to keep theirs).

 

I saw QB Vince Feragamo, RB Greg Bell and some other Bills' scrubs from the gawd awful '85 squad at Mickey Rat's one time.

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Most of those, and add (these places may not be around anymore) Goodbar, Stuffed Mushroom, Gabriel's Gate, Morrissey's, Mudd McGrath's, and whatever place serving intoxicants that I cannot remember at this time.

 

I remember The Stuffed Mushroom was a fine place to meet nurses. A place I haven't seen mentioned is the Buena Vista Blues Bar on Hertel Ave. Wasn't that 1 major street over from Elmwood. They use to have Shakin Smith, Charley Mussellwhite and guys like that. Cool.

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...frequent or used to frequent back in da day?  There are so many classic taverns/bars throughout WNY that I was just curious to see which ones TBD'ers go to!!!!

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How far back do you want to go? In Lancaster we had Latello's and Schulga's, Keystone "90's" way up Transit Rd, Brennan's Bowery Bar (where I would sometimes have a cold one with the late, lamented Brian "Spinner" Spencer, the Pierce Arrow (OJ hangout), Psychus, a big club in Cheektowaga across from the airport (can't remember the name), so many others. Back then the drinking age for evertthing was 18. Good times.

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anyway, the ritual was this: we would load up a car at 8 or so on a saturday night, drive the half hour north from PA, and get the night started at Roxy's.  the bartender there was this gray-haired guy named "Corky" who had a reputation for serving ANYBODY who had the balls to sidle up to the bar and actually order something. 

5 or 6 35-cent drafts later, we'd head to the Nickel to catch West, Fat Brat or one of the other 1,000,001 cover bands that seemed to be circulating among the same WNY bars at that time.  god i wish i could remember the names of some of them...we are talking '81-'83 here.  anybody?

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I remember those places, but they were closed by the time I was of legal drinking age. Lots of Olean bars closed after the drinking age was raised to 21. It's not like Olean didn't have enough bars, though. Heck, we had two just in my family (Don's & Donovan's Cafe).

 

West played at my high school a couple of times. I caught Fat Brat at Copperfield's once (bar at the old Holiday Inn). Like you, those band names escape me now.

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