{"id":2077,"date":"2016-05-08T11:15:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T18:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2016-05-09T08:03:28","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T15:03:28","slug":"historic-bars-abound-in-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/offcourse\/2077\/historic-bars-abound-in-michigan","title":{"rendered":"Historic Bars Abound in Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"View<\/a>

View from the Grand Hotel’s Cupola Bar<\/p><\/div>\n

People reacted similarly when I mentioned that I\u2019d be giving the keynote lunch speech Monday\u2026to the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association.<\/p>\n

“Oh that\u2019s a perfect fit for you,\u201d they almost all remarked in an intonation which implied: \u201cYou have an undue amount of knowledge about bars and booze.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a radio and print journalist I am a story-seeker and storyteller by trade, and, concerning alcohol I can tell you this: no great story ever started with someone eating a salad!<\/p>\n

As the MLB\u2019s Director Scott Ellis and his bar owner\/board members found out during my speech Monday at the Lansing Radisson Hotel, cocktails make for compelling tales.<\/p>\n

In Amsterdam\u2019s Schiphol Airport, the Grand Caf\u00e9 Het Palais, an elegant brasserie, sits like an oasis in the middle of a bustling terminal thoroughfare. Hurrying through recently with my teenage son to catch a connecting flight, I only had time to call out to and wave to the bald, Egyptian bartender, who recognized me and nodded back with a big smile and nod. My son, who noticed the exchange, remarked, \u201cDad, that\u2019s weird. You have \u2018airport friends.\u2019\u201d But enough early morning breakfast Heinekens at that white, marble bar between flight connections had formed a connection.<\/p>\n

The wide variety of bars, lounges, pubs, taverns, nightclubs, and dives account for and represent every mood and situation. For instance, I asked my listeners to name the snazziest, classiest bar in Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018Bloated Goat\u2019 in Fowlerville,\u201d joked State Senator and camel farmer Joe Hune.<\/p>\n

Cheryl Lutz liked three colorful northern Michigan doozies: Grand Hotel\u2019s \u201cCupola Bar\u201d for the \u201cbest views in Michigan\u201d; the historic \u201cNoggin Room\u201d in Petoskey\u2019s Perry Hotel; and \u201cLegs Inn,\u201d in Cross Village.<\/p>\n

Construction developer and author Craig Wieland preferred what he called the \u201cclassic woodwork, fire pit and outside dining\u201d at Troppo in downtown Lansing. When asked for his favorite \u201cdive bar,\u201d Wieland nominated the \u201cOak Grove Tavern\u201d in Irons, citing the thousands of $1-dollar bills tacked to the ceiling. \u201cAnd once a year you can ride a horse in the front door and out the side door,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeyhole Bar\u201d in Mackinac City has thousands of old hotel room keys strung up, and Jeff Huard says, \u201cIce cold Stroh\u2019s, whitefish fingers and onion rings make it my #1.\u201d Huard\u2019s culinary taste for beer-pairing gave runner-up status to \u201cDagwood\u2019s,\u201d in Lansing, where he prescribes a \u201cburger with a thick slice of onion and a cold pitcher of Labatt Blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cShoopers\u201d of beer at Lansing\u2019s \u201cArt\u2019s Bar,\u201d near the tracks on Kalamazoo St., were popular even if Regina Stout, decidedly from the other side of the tracks in East Lansing, affectionately described the place as: \u201cshady.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe\u2019s Gizzard City,\u201d in Potterville, got the nod from Patrick Saylor.<\/p>\n

Curiously, the oldest bar in Michigan is \u201cShiels Tavern,\u201d in Hubbardston, and even with my matching last name, I have yet to drink there!<\/p>\n

Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0<\/em>InviteYourself@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 His talk show can be heard weekday mornings in\u00a0Lansing\u00a0on 92.1 FM. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People reacted similarly when I mentioned that I\u2019d be giving the keynote lunch speech Monday\u2026to the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19164],"tags":[998780,975884,2834,498928,895799],"class_list":["post-2077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-offcourse","tag-bars","tag-alcohol","tag-michigan","tag-mackinac-island","tag-lansing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2016\/05\/Grand-Hotel-Cupola-Bar.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2077"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2081,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions\/2081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}