Maxine’s Tap Room Gutted By Fire!

Early Tuesday Maxine’s Tap Room–my favorite Fayetteville dive which I have written about on this blog before–was gutted by a fire.

The good news is that its structurally fine….the bad news is that its interior is what made Maxinie’s Maxines’…see my Flikr posts to see what I mean.

The fire apparently started in a trash can beneath the bar & firefighters had to cut into the roof as Maxine had fitted the front and back doors of her establishment with formidable iron gates….

Alas…Maxine dies, then the beloved Tap Room itself is torched….

This MUST be my queue to leave Fayetteville…I move to Magnolia, Arkansas this Sunday.

For more see this article on the NWAnews:
http://www.nwarktimes.com/adg/News/161592/

You Have 10 Minutes to Drink Up & Then Get The Hell Out…

Marjorie Maxine Miller started my favorite Fayetteville, Arkansas, watering hole–Maxine’s Tap Room–way back in 1950. It is a place that Kris Kristofferson might describe as having “cigarette smoke to the ceiling” and “friendly shadows.”

Sadly, Maxine died Friday, May, 26, 2006. The last time I saw Maxine at the Tap Room must have been a few years back…she was in a wheelchair (not easy in a bar as narrow as Maxine’s) and, if I remember correctly, on oxygen…it must have been shortly after her stroke. She was famous for, among other things, the “last call” phrase that serves as the title of this post…

There will be a memorial toast at the Tap Room today.

The following quote is from the Northwest Arkansas Times article yesterday:

Her funeral is Thursday and a memorial toast will be held at the Tap Room, 107 N. Block Ave., after the graveside service. “I was actually going to buy a keg and just let people get a toast, but whenever I thought about it, I thought Maxine would just get ticked off at me for not charging people,” said her greatniece, Andrea Foren. She and other family members who helped Maxine at the bar over the year have been taking care of it since Maxine had a stroke about three years ago. The family intends to keep the bar open.

Take a look at pictures I’ve taken of the Tap Room (but not Maxine) at this address:
http://home.earthlink.net/~tjnjamie/maxines/index.html or at my Flicker Stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcbrandon/sets/72057594094493775/

And finally, take a look at the Arkansas Blog for a brief blurb & A LOT of testimonials (& they used one of my pics!)….

Merry Schiltz-mas!

Ted Swedenburg snapped this great pic at Maxine’s Taproom….a favorite Fayetteville hang out of mine. I, in fact, saw this schiltzmas tree the same week as Ted, but I’m not smart enough to document it….or maybe I was too drunk to document it…..I can’t honestly remember.

At any rate, check out pictures I really DID remember to take of Maxine’s Tap Room here.

Archaeologists and Beer

I’ve always known that there is a deep connection between archaeologists and beer. My friend Greg Vogel has consistently informed his students that he has learned more about archaeology in bars (such as Fayetteville, Arkansas’ Maxinie’s Tap Room pictured below) “talking shop” with grizzled veterans of the discipline than he has ever learned in a formal classroom. This is true of my own experience as well. . . .

But now archaeologists can claim that we can make an important contribution to the world of beers (ok. . . maybe more quirky than important).

Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware has made a beer similar to a drink brewed in China about 9,000 years ago and they started with a formula from archaeologists who derived it from the residues of pottery jars found in the late Stone Age village of Jiahu in northern China.

Check out this article for more details:
http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002633.php
http://www.discover.com/issues/nov-05/features/stone-age-beer/