Friday Night Bug Juice

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Welcome to Friday Night Bug Juice, a Metro Detroit bar review site. We're here to give you a look into the dive bars of the Detroit area, so you can hopefully spend your cash wisely, and get a little insight into the lives of a couple of hapless irish louts.

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Welcome to the section of our site where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know and way too much more about the gang that works hard ruining their livers to bring you all you need to know about the dive bars of the Metro Detroit area!

LONGSHOT'S BAR/PLYMOUTH ROADHOUSE

He heard the voice easily above the murmur of the skimpy Friday night crowd, but chose to ignore it in hopes that it would go away.

   “Dennis, come on God Dammit, help me get this roll of paper in the cash register.”

He heard it again, released his stare from the growing pool of water gathering at the base of the ice machine behind the bar, and looked at the pained face of Lori fumbling with the cash register on the formica countertop.  He hated that she called him Dennis, preferring Scud, a nickname he gave himself after hearing it in a Megadeath song.

He walked slowly out from behind the bar and stood too close to Lori, almost rubbing against the fat tits spilling out of her stained tank top.  He hated that this didn’t scare her, that she didn’t back up or break from what he thought was a menacing stare.

   “The cash register is over here...” she said, stretching out the word here until it became a whine.

Dennis could see that she had tangled the roll of paper around the metal stem inside the machine and it was upside down to boot.  He was shaking his head in exaggerated disgust when he noticed the two strangers leaning against the bar talking closely to one another.  Didn’t recognize them, didn’t belong here.  He pretended to be more interested in the problem at hand, slowing down the easy repair, taking time every few seconds to bitch at Lori for being a ”typical woman breaking stuff and needing a man to put it back together.”

Between tweaking the register and shaking his head at Lori, Dennis would sneak a peek at the two strangers, probably fags who wandered in to the wrong place, and he knew that they were pissed at being ignored.  Lori saw them too, but when she started toward them, Dennis stopped her hissing,  “I need you here, to help fix what you broke.”  His voice stopped her in her tracks.  That’s more like it Dennis thought.

Back to the register repair , Dennis working slowly, Lori watching.  Dennis thinking of ways he could fuck up the night of the two assholes shifting from foot to foot waiting for their drinks.  A filthy finger in the neck of their bottles, a shot of spit in a mixed drink, the dented metal bat hidden behind the bar .  Lori wondering if she could increase her tips with her fat tits, or better yet, rip them off by short changing them.

One thing both were sure of, these two could never cause a problem in Longshot’s Bar in the heart of Redford.

The register was fixed, Dennis chided Lori again, more good naturedly this time as each considered how to fuck with the two strangers at the bar.  Dennis absently stroked his straggly chin whiskers, Lori adjusted her tits.

Both were disappointed to see the empty space at the bar railing.

That was the fictional account of Longshot’s Bar in Redford.  The following will be the factual, newspaper style account of that portion of the evening (remember, I am a trained journalist).

Longshot’s Bar is a disaster.  The expectations of Friday Night Bug Juice during peak hours the night of a huge Red Wing playoff game were dashed in front of a gathering of fifteen (you couldn’t call a group that small a crowd).  It may have been a mild spring evening outside, but it was stifling and smelly inside.  Not cigs and stale beer smelly, dirty feet and butts smelly.  The grimy bartender and the wench who walked the floor were interested in fixing a cash register, not serving beer.  When they finally tired of the cash register, they continued ignoring us and instead turned their attention to the two huge bellies who had just waddled through the door.  Though little brother and I were desperate for a beer, and the Red Wing game was in high gear, we put our money away and walked out the door.  The Redford spring air never smelled sweeter, no better decision has ever been made.

Hey Longshot’s Bar...Fuck You!

What do two veterans of the Friday Night Bug Juice wars do when they strike out?  They call on their vast knowledge of bars in the neighborhood, reviews from their prize winning website, and make a decision.  On to Kicker’s Bar in Livonia ( see October 2008 review).

A funny thing happened on the way to Kicker’s...we stumbled into the Plymouth Roadhouse on the south side of Plymouth Road, east of Wayne.  Never heard of the place, but there were cars in the lot and it got us drinking eight minutes quicker than Kicker’s.  Made perfect sense.

Roadhouse is a neighborhood joint, easy to park and no cover to enter.  It was appropriately dark and lined with televisions, many of the hi def, flat screen variety.  Tony and I were stalking the bar, looking for a place to get a couple of beers when the young lady behind the bar motioned us over to an open area with a clear view of the Red Wing and Tiger games (bless her heart).  $5.50 later, we were finally drinking.

This place has its act together in the broadcasting of sporting events.  During intermission, they kick out the jams.  But, when the playoff action begins, the music disappears and is replaced with the welcome cheerleading of Mickey Redmond (by the way, Mickey is on my Mt. Rushmore of local broadcasting along with Ernie Harwell, Budd Lynch and Lord Athol Layton).

Perhaps I failed to mention that both the young lady behind the bar and the waitress working the room were wearing bikinis.  A couple of observations:  Tony and I have always found that a bar with bikini staff means a leering crowd of guys and little in the way of ladies.  It is no different at Plymouth Roadhouse, as there was exactly one woman among the forty or so Red Wing fans in attendance. Secondly, you better have a rocking body if you make a living wearing two square feet of fabric.  These two fit that criteria, though the young lady behind the bar could have selected a better fitting bottom (I didn’t really notice, Tony mentioned that to me).

I have no idea what goes on at Roadhouse when there isn’t a big game to grab your attention.  Maybe twenty-somethings dressed to impress sip martinis and prowl.  But I doubt it.  More likely, neighborhood types quaff a few, listen to tunes and have a low key good time.  Nothing wrong with that.

We enjoyed our stay at Plymouth Roadhouse, possibly because the beer is cheap, it was brought to us at the end of a long, cold winter by two girls in bathing suits and the Wings raced past Phoenix 7-4.  Or, maybe we had a good time because it wasn’t Longshot’s.

Cheers!

Jim



Longshot's Bar and Grill: 27189 Grand River Ave Redford, MI 48240
0 OUT OF 5

Plymouth Roadhouse: 34101 Plymouth Road Plymouth, MI 48150
2 OUT OF 5
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McNEIL's PLACE

Tony and I have been spending our lunch breaks for the past twenty years at the South Oakland YMCA.  How we have managed to keep our bodies rounded over that time is anybody’s guess, though I imagine the fact that a good deal of our time at “The Y” is spent arguing about sports and music instead of sweating, may be a contributing factor.
   These are some of the sights, sounds and smells from those lunch hours:
  •  A nude person, more troll than man, doing leg lifts on the wood benches between the rows of lockers.  
  •  An increasingly senile long tenured member washing his wretchedly shit stained underwear out in the common sink.  Yes, the same sink that unsuspecting others will brush their teeth and shave in later that day. 
  •  A man sitting in the lobby, with his shoes and socks off, cutting his toenails.  For the record, the whereabouts of his yellowed nails did not seem to be much of a concern, either to him or the oblivious staff.
  •  A boner.
  •  An old guy in the open shower room, backing away from the shower head, putting one leg out in front of him, foot flat against the wall, making room to slide a long handled brush under his droopy balls and into his ass region.  Though the sight was mostly grim, I did admire his agility.
  •  A thirty something dandy, striding into the weight lifting area clad only in a Speedo. He went about his vigorous workout as if it were perfectly normal to be clad in a small piece of latex with your pathetic button pointing the way.  My curiosity got the best of me and I asked him “What up?”  He explained that he forgot his workout duds and still wanted to workout.  Perfectly reasonable.
  •  Vomit.
  • A trail of fresh shit leading the way into the men’s locker room, ending at a senile woman calling for assistance.  Many members, Tony and I included, continued to dress for our workout while she was being attended to.  I seem to recall some gagging from my brother.
  •  A mentally challenged young adult on the walking track above the gym, covertly spitting at Tony and I as we played basketball.  It wasn’t until the spit began to pool at my favorite spot near the three point line that we figured out what was going on.  Our subsequent inspection revealed a bevy of spit pools. How he wasn’t dehydrated I’ll never know.
  •  A man flossing his teeth in the common shower area.  My sensibilities about what is gross have been somewhat dulled by “The Y”, but I’m pretty sure that fits the bill.
  •  Nude people sitting on benches and chairs reading books or eating apples.  No towels, just bare asses and hairy balls plopped where other bare asses and hairy balls previously plopped.  Go home and read or eat!
  •  Urine.

Fellow stumblebum Tony and I answered the Friday night call for sensory overload of a different persuasion by heading to McNeil’s Place in Warren.  How did we hear of this roadhouse sitting on the east side of Schoenner Road just south of I-696?  They don’t advertise or have a shit website like so many do (ahem).  I saw this joint while driving by and liked it’s big parking lot, dirty white exterior, mismatched marquee letters trumpeting a live band and crappy surrounding neighborhood.  You know you’ve been to a lot of dumps when this type of inspection leads you to recommend, and Tony to excitedly agree.
There was no cover to enter, a plus that lead me to believe that we would get socked by the beer pricing.  A reasonable $6.25 for a Michelob Light and Miller Light calmed my jangled nerves.  We found a nice tall table and two chairs against one wall, offering a commanding view of the stage, long bar opposite, mismatched tables and chairs throughout, televisions and Keno.  The lighting was kind, my red nose muted.
Tony and I were anxious to hear Alibi 5 rock the house, having bet ahead of time and without seeing the band, what the opening salvo would be.  I can’t recall what we guessed, but I know it wasn’t Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes.  The song was a hair slow, the voice more than a hair thin, but we appreciated the effort.  And judging by the dance floor, so did the crowd.  A young woman, with stronger pipes but less personality, shared the lead vocals and sang on a wide variety of songs ranging from The Pretenders to Pat Benetar (that’s a joke, The Pretenders to Pat Benetar is not really a wide variety).
The crowd was exactly what I expected from the outside of the bar.  Strictly neighborhood, a great mix of ages and split evenly between regular guys and girls.  Tony pointed out that this bunch seemed comprised of groups of four or larger with a common denominator of loud.  The dance floor was populated exclusively by the ladies, so we were spared both the stiff old white man’s dance and the overly aggressive young white man’s dance.  I did not see much in the way of hooking up going on, not really that kind of place. 
The service at McNeil’s left a bit to be desired.  Our waitress always seemed to stop short of making it through the crowd to our table, forcing one of us to go to the long bar to re-up.  Oddly, when ordering two beers, the barmaid asked me to point out who the second beer was for.  I pointed to Tony holding the back wall up, he responded with the nod and wave and the two beers were mine.  Was she just curious, or was there a reason?
As an interesting(?) aside, earlier, during my work week, I stopped in at 220 Restaurant above posh Edison’s Bar and picked up a fancy pack of matches that I would surprise Tony with during Bug Juice Friday (one of us likes to smoke Capone’s and is saving the proof of purchases to score a free hat).  After a few beers, the time seemed right, so I proudly tossed the fancy matches on the table, only to have little brother trump me by producing identical matches from his pocket and tossing them on top of my pack.  Prick!
Anyway, a good time can be had at McNeils’s.  You won’t have to get gussied up, drop a ton of bank (as the kid’s like to say), or get hassled by walking testosterone.  Judging this book by it’s seedy cover turned out to be a good thing.
Cheers!
Jim


McNeil's Place:  26700 Schoenherr Road Warren, MI 48089

3 OUT OF 5
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