Scooter’s 612th bar, first visited in 2009.

There were two things about this placed that cracked us up. One was all of the KISS decor throughout the bar. The other was the redundant urinal. The men’s room contained two urinals, but one of them was pointless because they were places side-by-side at 90 degree angles to each other so only one could ever be used at any one time. (Except I suppose in the case of conjoined twins, I guess I shouldn’t rule out the possibility the restroom was designed to accomadate two very specific regular customers.)

2521 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601
US
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(402) 563-3002

Scooter’s 611th bar, first visited in 2009.

Micek’s was really busy, we couldn’t sit at the bar and had to take one of the few remaining tables.

2506 12th St
Columbus, NE 68601
US
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(402) 564-3093

Scooter’s 610th bar, first visited in 2009.

We had trouble finding this place. First off, the building doesn’t look like a bar. Second, we went inside and the first set of doors took us to a fancy restaurant. Then we tried another direction and found ourselves in a business office. Luckily a friendly person there told us how to get to the bar through the restaurant.

B tried their American Gold, while I tried the 1916 Irish Stout. We met the brewmaster, who had actually just started working there a few days earlier. He had applied at a few places, including the 75th Street Brewery back home in KC. 75th Street had apparently called to offer him a job just after he accepted the job here.

We also learned that the Gottberg brew pub is owned by the same guy who owns Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing.

By the way, $2 draws. How often do you see that at a brewpub?

2804 13th St
Columbus, NE 68601
US
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(402) 562-6488
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Scooter’s 609th bar, first visited in 2009.

Having opened in 1876, this is the oldest continually-operating bar in Nebraska and one of the oldest in the west. It was a favorite spot of Buffalo Bill and more recently of Leon Sphinx. We really, really wanted souvenir glasses from here, but they were in the basement and the bartender had a broken foot and couldn’t get them for us.

2301 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601
US
[launch map]
(402) 564-8615

Scooter’s 608th bar, first visited in 2009.

This was the busiest bar we’d seen so far today.

2403 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601
US
[launch map]
(402) 564-2909

Scooter’s 607th bar, first visited in 2009.

75-cent draws! I discovered I had left my camera in the car so the pictures for this and the next few bars all had to come from my phone.

2501 11th St
Columbus, NE 68601
US
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(402) 564-5767

Scooter’s 606th bar, first visited in 2009.

We picked this place first because we happened to stumble across it first. We ended up parking the car here to do the rest of Columbus on foot. The bar had just opened and the bartender wasn’t quite ready for customers but she took good care of us. She told us about the railroad construction that had nearly cut the town in half and how several trains roll by an hour.

1061 26th Ave
Columbus, NE 68601
US
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(402) 563-3635