I visited Louisville a few weeks ago. The last time I was there several years prior our band U.K. Grief played a show at a dive bar that goes unremembered. But it was where we debuted a new song there, “Pretty Little Johnny.” We went bar hopping after the show and discovered The Louisville Hugger. She was about the age of Courtney Cox when “Friends” ended and wore a brown leather jacket, loose green pants and blue heels. Long scraggily brown hair covered the parts of her face that weren’t already hidden by large sunglasses. She called herself The Louisville Hugger. She would go around offering free hugs. She had one of those little Louisville Slugger souvenir bats they give you at the end…
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Posts from the “travel” Category
Chicago’s smallest bathroom may be at a no-frills neighborhood BBQ joint on Granville Avenue in Edgewater.
And getting to the bathroom at Sam’s Chicken & Rib is an experience in itself.
I visited Sam’s one recent late night with a friend who ordered food to go. I asked the kind man behind the counter if there was a public bathroom. He pointed to a door in the corner of the small dining area. Expecting to walk through the door and into a bathroom instead exposed the kitchen and back area of the restaurant. Just like in “Goodfellas” I made my way through the kitchen past a few workers doing their thing. I exchanged short pleasantries with them and was led to another door in the corner of that room.
I could not immediately find the light switch because it was placed on the opposite wall and a little higher than your usual switch.
This bathroom with its green glow is tiny. It reminded me of an apartment I had in which the bathroom was so small your knees practically hit the sink while sitting on the toilet. In fact it was about the same size minus a shower stall.
After I did my business (No. 1, thankfully), I walked back through the kitchen, nodding to the workers as I met up with my friend and got our food. I don’t know if they let everyone use the bathroom but I was thankful the kind man at the counter allowed me too. It reminded me that I have several Chicago bathroom experiences (don’t we all), which will be the subject of an upcoming post. Cheers. And remember, if you use the bathroom at Sam’s Chicken & Rib, the light switch is on the opposite wall. And even though I didn’t need it, by the looks of it they keep a lot of toilet paper rolls in there, right on top of the toilet. Don’t get your right foot stuck in the garbage can.
The door that leads to the bathroom via the kitchen at Sam’s in Edgewater.
Not long ago I traveled to Austin, Texas with my friend Mosquito. We called it the “Beers, Barbecue, and Biking” tour. “You guys don’t look ready for biking,” said the friendly bicycle rental man. “But my man, we are ready for beers and barbecue,” I said. The man runs Streamline Cycles where Mosquito and I were renting our bikes. Maybe he thought we didn’t look ready for biking because it was 100 degrees and Mosquito had his bike shirt tucked into his blue jeans. I had a cotton T-shirt and shorts that only became shorts because they unzipped from the lightweight hiking pants I wore. We biked along the pea gravel trail around the Colorado River and Lady Bird Lake. Just off the bike…
The Dodgy 