Scooter’s 847th bar, first visited in 2010.

We were expecting a dance club, but stepping inside we found that it was nothing of the sort. It was a good dive bar just like all the others we had seen in town.

This was the busiest place we had been to in Quincy, which made sense since it was now the only place open. We grabbed a couple of Busch Light bottles and started out seated at the bar, but later moved to stand at the end of the bar.

A familiar-looking dude approached us. “Wow, you guys are still going at it?” he asked. “You really are going to all the bars in town.”

B explained to him how we were on a road trip and on our way back to Kansas City, and how we go barhopping everywhere we go and log all of the stops on a web site.

“So THAT’S why you were taking notes!”, he suddenly exclaimed as a look of realization and relief came over his face.

At that moment, I realized why this guy looked so familiar.

“You’re the bartender from North End Tavern, right?” I asked.

“That’s right,” he said. We were wondering what was up with the notebooks and the pictures you were taking.”

“But, you were in the other room shooting pool,” I protested, “how did you even see me doing that?”

“I was a scout in the Army,” he replied, “Nothing gets past me in my bar.”

So much for thinking I was being stealthy earlier. Oh well. Having a beer with the bartender from our first bar in Quincy made a good bookend for the evening now that we were at our last bar in Quincy.

906 Hampshire Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 223-6681

Scooter’s 846th bar, first visited in 2010.

We finally found Player’s, but as we parked the car, two men stepped out and the lights went off.

“Are we too late?” we asked.

“Not if you hurry,” one of them replied, “the bartender is still in there.”

We went on inside and ordered a couple of bottles, promising the be quick. All of the lights were off, so we drank quickly in nearly total darkness.

The men from outside came back in, and B began to wonder if we were making them all uncomfortable. After a couple of minutes he straight up asked them if we were making them nervous, and reassured them that we were harmless.

We finished out beer and thanked them, and they locked the door behind us as we left.

Here is the least helpful interior picture of a bar ever… this is a pretty accurate representation of the light level in which we were drinking.

225 North 5th Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 223-1185
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Scooter’s 845th bar, first visited in 2010.

“17 miles,” he said, after checking the GPS.

It was then that I realized that the bar I was thinking of was actually located in Hannibal, not Quincy.

“Oh, hell, have it just find us the closest bar, then.”

After a short but tricky reroute down almost to the Mississippi River waterfront, we pulled up in front of Kutter’s Bar & Grill.

This was a large, clean, and very nice restaurant-bar. Our bartender, Tina, showed us some of their bar merchandise and told us a little bit of the history. For instance, the riverfront strip we were on had been a red light district several years ago. “Little Chicago,” is what the locals called it.

236 N. Front Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 223-5888
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Scooter’s 844th bar, first visited in 2010.

• While I cannot for the life of me figure out why we would have been driven north to Cherry Street after leaving Jimbo’s Place, this bar is in the right spot to have been seen in the rearview mirror if we then turned left onto 5th Street.
• Circling around the block to go back to it would have taken us to B&R Tavern.
• It’s the only building in all of Quincy whose satellite view shape seems to correspond with the photo I took. And believe me, I checked them all!

So why are we confused?

Because when we arrived, we saw a sign that said “Halftime Sports Bar” and recorded that as the name of this bar. But we can find no listing for a bar by that name in Quincy, nor can we find a liquor license issue to a place with that name.

So, I am working with the assumption that we were in French Quarters, and that at sometime in the past it was known as Halftime Sports Bar.

With all that said, the only note I wrote about this bar is “Beer was served in plastic cups.” That’s it, that’s all I thought to write. But, as you can see in the interior photos, it’s pretty similar to the other bars we had visited so far in Quincy.

1139 North 5th Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 222-9177

Scooter’s 843rd bar, first visited in 2010.

We had decided to stop this portion of the trip and head downtown to barhop on foot. But as we made a turn I noticed a bar in my rearview mirror and decided we ought to go ahead and stop. As I circled around the block to get to it, we found yet another bar! (I love this town!) We pulled up to what turned out to be the B&R Tavern.

We parked the van across the street from the bar, but just as we were about to get out, B’s phone rang. While he was on the call, I decided to pass time by taking pictures. But a man had just left the bar, and I didn’t want him to think I was taking pictures of him, so I waited, fumbling with my camera in the driver’s seat. After a moment B had got out of the passenger side and started pacing beside the van while on the phone.

The man who had stepped out of the bar would not stop looking at me, and I noticed him get on his phone. Thinking he’d never leave, I got out and walked around to the back of the van, pretending to rummage through our cargo just to pass the time until the guy would get out of my way.

FINALLY he got into his vehicle and drove away, slowly, talking on the phone the whole time. Meanwhile B’s phone conversation ended and he dashed on into the bar, entering the side door. I was still outside, and hadn’t taken any photos yet. I took one quick picture (which sadly turned out crappy as you can see above) and entered through the front door.

I stepped inside to see B seated at the bar, perfectly still, The female bartender, with her phone pressed to her ear, looked at me nervously, then seemed relieved. “Okay, the second one is in now,” she said into the phone. “I think it’s okay.”

As it turns out, this bar had recently been nearly robbed, and our arrival had set off so many red flags with the man who had just left that he called the bartender to warn her about us!

After she warmed up to us and learned about our travels, she had a good laugh with us about her worries. She then told us about the attempted robbery, and it’s a tale of criminal ineptness and stupidity with few rivals!

It seems that one of the B&R’s regulars came into the bar with a ski mask over his head, intent on robbing the place. The bartender, the same woman we were talking to now, immediately recognized him and assumed he was joking. She laughed in his face and told him he looked ridiculous. So he took off the mask, sat down and had a few drinks, paid his tab, and left. A few minutes later the Scrub-a-Dub Laundry across the street was robbed. The bartender was shocked when the police showed up and told her that she had been the original target of the robbery.

But it doesn’t end there. A few days later, out on bail, the robber had the cajones to show up back at B&R Tavern to shoot some pool! He seemed genuinely surprised when they kicked him out and banned him for life.

So, back to the B&R Tavern. This is a rather big bar with unusually clean restrooms. It had started out as a smaller building, then later had an addition wrapped around its north and west sides which now served as space for pool tables and restaurant seating. There’s also a newer outdoor area.

This place has been the B&R Tavern for about 20 years. Prior to that it was known by the longer form of its name, Bob & Rays, for about 50-60 years.

I wonder what “other unhygienic acts” they had in mind?

339 Cedar Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 222-7356

Scooter’s 842nd bar, first visited in 2010.

When we pulled up the bartender (who was alone) had just stepped outside for a smoke. He came back in to pour us our drinks, we offered to behave ourselves so he could go back out and smoke but he wasn’t comfortable with that idea.

We told him about our travels, and when we mentioned we were from Kansas City he list up, remembering visits to a huge hospital in Kansas City when he was young. The description he gave did not ring a bell with either of us, but we later identified it as the McCleary-Thornton-Minor Hospital in Excelsior Springs, MO. So, if you’re reading this, Mr. Bartender, that’s the hospital you were thinking of!

He also gave us additional info on the history of the town. The original German immigrants had set the town up with a church and a pub on nearly every corner. During Prohibition there were as many as 120 bars or more in town. By the 1960s that number had thinned to somewhere in the 70s. He estimated that the number was in the 50s today, which fit with the estimates I had made while planning this trip.

Our conversation about the town’s history came to an abrupt halt when a very distraught woman ran into the bar and pulled the bartender away from us. After several minutes passed, during which time we channel surfed on the TV to pass the time, the two returned from the back. The woman was in tears and just when we thought she was calming down, she started yelling at us and accusing B of being a cop. The bartender tried to assure her he was no such thing, but she wouldn’t believe it. So we took that as our cue to leave.

(I don’t know what it is about B that gives off the cop vibe, but this isn’t even close to being the first time I’ve seen someone in a bar accuse him of being a cop. Or from Vice Squad. Or an FBI agent. Or an INS officer. Or a private detective. Or a sheriff’s deputy. It’s crazy!)

B channel surfs during the crisis…

601 Chestnut Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 224-3361

Scooter’s 841st bar, first visited in 2010.

“The Club, formerly The Saddle Club,” the bartender informed us after I asked where we were. “And it was called The High Hat quite a long time before that.”

The bartender here was pretty friendly and helpful. He told us a little of what he knew about the town’s history. It had been settled by German immigrants, and he suspected this was a good part of the reason for so many taverns.

We asked him what place we should check out next, and he recommended a place called Jimbo’s. Though I had to re-ask him what it was called a few minutes later, we were quickly able to find it after we left.

1023 North 10th Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 222-7169

Scooter’s 840th bar, first visited in 2010.

This town is awesome!

We decided to start out with the one on the left, which was a tiny little converted house called the Silver Moon Tavern.

Officially the capacity was 21, but there’s only seating for about 16.

B chatted about football with the lone other patron, while I admired the broken shuffleboard game.

Gotta love this mugshot from a theft that occurred here a while back!

1020 N 10TH St.
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217)-228-0854

Scooter’s 839th bar, first visited in 2010.

Unfortunately it was pretty quiet in here and the bartender stayed in conversation with his friend after serving us up with some Busch cans, so I don’t have much else to say about this place.

1301 North 12th Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 224-5601
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Scooter’s 838th bar, first visited in 2010.

The Cedar Club was fairly busy, one of the busier bars we visited this Monday evening. The bartender gave us info about bar closing times (1am, except for a couple of bars open until 2am).

We noticed a virtual shuffleboard game, something we had never seen before until today, so we took our beers to the back to give it a try. It took some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it it’s very similar to the real game.

2001 Cedar Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 223-1603
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Scooter’s 837th bar, first visited in 2010.

Quincy is a dive bar lover’s paradise, with at least 55 that I had identified before we embarked on this road trip. In fact there are so many bars that as we approached town, I told B, “Tell The Bitch (our affectionate name for his GPS device) to find a bar near 24th & Cedar (an intersection I pulled out of my ass) and then we’ll work our way west from there.” As luck would have it, there was a bar at that very intersection.

Beer is very cheap at the North End Tavern (as it would prove to be all throughout Quincy), with domestic pints at $1.75 and Blue Moon at $2.25. We opted for our trademark 10oz beers, however.

We sat under a large back umbrella at the horseshoe-shaped bar. We were alone at the bar, save for a couple sitting catty-corner from us. The bartender was in the other room shooting pool with an unseen person, though he was quick and attentive despite being out of sight during his game.

The couple sitting at the bar kept watching us, and this made me too nervous to take pictures. But eventually they relocated to the back room, and I quickly snapped my shots before they returned. I was proud of myself for being so stealthy.

Eleven bars later, I would learn otherwise…

1130 North 24th Street
Quincy, IL 62301
US
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(217) 222-8103