OT: Rick's American Cafe
So, 2012 recruting ended with a wimper (no coffee for Hoke), college and pro football are done for the year, NHL doesn't get interesting until the playoffs, and the NBA is...well, its the NBA. Therefore, I think we need a change of pace to add some levity to the board. And what better way to manifest this urge but with your best anecdotes from the sleaziest hole in Ann Arbor, Rick's American Cafe.
I have many, but I will start with just one and add others later. I had the pleasure of watching Tom Brady get utterly rejected from some floozy late on a Saturday in the spring of 1999. How far he has come! Gives me hope.
What's your story?
February 7th, 2012 at 5:19 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 5:20 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 5:20 PM ^
From umichmemes.comL
February 7th, 2012 at 5:20 PM ^
I beat Michael Phelps in beer pong there at one of their weekly tournaments. I prefer to just tell people "I beat Michael Phelps" and leave off the (at beer pong) part. He honestly has an unfair advantage because his arms are so long he reaches across half the table when he throws but w/e I couldn't miss that game ;)
February 7th, 2012 at 5:38 PM ^
He and some other swimmer formed a team on some week night tournament they had at the now defunct Touchdown's Bar. He was pissed, to say the least when we and my partner beat him. What made it the worse for him was that my partner was a girl and she made the last 2 cups.
The guy had no concept of the "elbow rule", and yes, he did have an unfair advantage because his arms were literally 3/4 across the table. His partner was cool and congratulated us, but Phelps stormed off to buy another pitcher.
He would easily have won Bozo's Bucket Bonanza as a kid and won the 100$ bill in the last bucket.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:00 PM ^
i played against graham brown in a tournament and had the same problem with the reach. thankfully the guys hosting the party called him out. he was just as accurate at pong as he was at basketball when placed further than 2 ft from the rim.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:28 PM ^
Just what the hell is it that you're trying to say, andrew?
February 8th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^
that you are a large and scary person for someone who is 5'9" and there was no way in hell i was calling elbow myself. much more gracious in defeat than it sounds like phelps is though.
February 7th, 2012 at 7:56 PM ^
One of my buddies went to the casino with Phelps, and at the end of the night, Phelps drove everyone home hammered.
February 8th, 2012 at 10:58 AM ^
Hah, yeah we tried to call him on the elbow rule too but he adamantly demanded that it wasn't a rule and said something about as long as your shoulder is behind the table it's legal. I guess if I had 10ft arms I'd try to play that way too...
February 7th, 2012 at 5:58 PM ^
props on beating him. i got schooled by jeff del verne.
February 8th, 2012 at 9:27 AM ^
South Quad represent!
February 7th, 2012 at 7:44 PM ^
Phelps would have kicked your butt in a water bong league....
February 7th, 2012 at 5:20 PM ^
I was there one OSU weekend night when Kid Rock and some Red Wings came there. They were roped off in the back bar, and everybody was standing around and on chairs trying to see. Through the crowd I saw this short red head trying to fight his way up to the rope, and once he got closer I noticed it was Kris Draper. Nobody in the crowd really noticed him, until he got back with the others. Cool story I know.
Oh, and this one time, it smelled like s@#$ there...oh wait...
February 7th, 2012 at 5:45 PM ^
Except it was at Conor O'Neill's on Main--and I got to see Tara Reid brush elbows with me as she walked by post implants (when she was dating Sergei--for some reason he was there, I think it was for a charity event at Yost). Later in the night, I had the pleasure of using the urinal right next to Kid Rock. I'll just say he was holding a beer in one hand, and standing a good foot or more away...
February 7th, 2012 at 7:47 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 7:59 PM ^
I believe this was the very same charity event after which Rich Eisen went to a party on campus and heard the infamous David Terrell "Who's got the Bomb-Ass Dick?" story, which he cited several weeks later on a Sportscenter highlight of a DT touchdown.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:31 PM ^
I'm pretty sure I smelled the first puddle of puke ever given up to the floor in about 1981 when it first opened. 'tsall I got.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:35 PM ^
I got on the dance floor and spun around in circles. The dance looked like this, but imagine a far more attractive occupant.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:40 PM ^
Best laugh I've had in a while...especially envisioning Stephen Hawking doing that...at Rick's no less.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:35 PM ^
You guys know that back in my day Madonna used to waitress there?
If only I had known she wasn't just another bar floozy, but an incredibly talented floozy.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:45 PM ^
You must be thinking of another bar, because she was gone to NY before Rick's opened.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:34 PM ^
... Madonna may have worked at the BF, but I remember her serving at Miller's Ice Cream circa 1976-77. That is confirmed here:
http://madonnaquotes.weebly.com/college.html
She was definitely remarkable then. I'll leave it at that.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:41 PM ^
are getting Drew Hensen's autograph (for my sister, I swear) and taking a picture with LaVell Blanchard after his senior season and thanking him for sticking through all the tough times. (I had to look up how to spell LaVell and the first google link brought me back to mgoblog)
February 7th, 2012 at 6:41 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 5:43 PM ^
I took a dump at Rick's.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:54 PM ^
Is that how you told Mrs. Rager you got the Clap?
February 7th, 2012 at 6:13 PM ^
You sir, are a braver man than I...
-Chet
February 7th, 2012 at 5:44 PM ^
If I can expand this to bartending stories...
Threw a guy out of the bar on my first night ever working at a bar. One of our barbacks was yelling at him so I jumped the bar and threw him out. When I got back and asked the barback why he was yelling, it turns out the guy was pissing all over himself. I didn't even get a heads up...
Terrelle Pryor shoved a tip in my the pocket of my polo shirt. It was like three dollars. His tab at the time was probably $80. Only time he ever tipped me. His bar tabs always managed to disappear, if you'd believe that...
Tried to do a shot with Don Vito a few months before he went to prison for child molestation. His manager informed me that Don Vito is no longer allowed to do shots. The dude killed close to a case and a half of Budweiser though.
A buddy of mine who was my manager at the time had to meet DMX in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn with a paper bag full of money. He was supposed to be paid half up front and half after he played, but his boyz informed us that he wasn't going to perform without cash up front.
Met my wife at a bar that I managed. She was a regular, and I kept giving her free drinks, she finally gave up and let me take her out for a date after a few months of $5 bar tags. That is also the reason I'm probably going to stop with the crazy bar stories, although there were plenty more...
February 7th, 2012 at 6:53 PM ^
Kind of like Charlie Murphy's true hollywood stories, but bwgrudt1484's true tales from Ricks or something to that effect
February 7th, 2012 at 7:20 PM ^
I guess I didn't make it clear in the post, but I've never bartended in Michigan. I lived in Michigan until I was 21. My girlfriend broke up with me a week or two before my 21st birthday and I had a buddy who was a bar manager in downtown Columbus (YTC). He said he could get me a job at a bar, so I used the breakup as a catalyst for a change of pace.
My 21st birthday was spent barhopping in Michigan. The next day was my going away party.
I got down to Columbus and started barbacking at a place called Skye Bar. I ended up working there for 3 years and moving up all the way to GM before I quit. I've worked at a few other places that Columbus Wolverines fans might know; B-Hamptons, Frog Bear, Charlie Bear, Old Bag of Nails, Lucky's (in Marysville where I live now).
Now I have a two year old and I still bartend part time, but I also have a 9-5 in IT at a hospital. It's nowhere near what I used to do, pretty toned down. I've actually meant to write down some of my war stories before I forgot them all. Most of my time bartending has been right by the OSU campus, so most of my co-workers were in school at the time. They were (and are) some of the smartest, funniest people I've ever met. You'll never hear a conversation quite as off the wall as one from 3am when a bunch of bartenders are cleaning and counting tips. There is aboslutely nothing off limits. I'm rambling a bit, and about to click "Glory Days" on my iTunes, so just ignore me if you will...
February 7th, 2012 at 7:10 PM ^
When did Pryor go to Rick's? In his recruiting trip?
February 7th, 2012 at 7:26 PM ^
Haha, nah. Refer to my above post. I never bartended at Rick's, I live in Columbus. I'm a big fat phony.
February 7th, 2012 at 8:51 PM ^
Hey at least you never said you were doing all this in Michigan, so you're not like that Blue in South Bend punk...
/s
February 7th, 2012 at 5:45 PM ^
College basketball is on and is a lot better to watch than the NFL.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:47 PM ^
Penny pitchers FTW
February 7th, 2012 at 5:50 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 6:03 PM ^
Pretty sure thats how people die.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:15 PM ^
Well people die bull fighting and there are still matadors aren't there!?
Some people are just like matadors but with alcohol, they're pretty good at not dying while doing it.
-Chet
February 7th, 2012 at 6:19 PM ^
You really do not need to sign every post "-Chet". We'll be able to figure out who posted it anyway...
February 7th, 2012 at 6:38 PM ^
Thank God, someone finally said it!
February 7th, 2012 at 7:24 PM ^
and it gets confusing with the Craig James thing below it....chet, craig, wtf
February 7th, 2012 at 7:52 PM ^
Does it really bother you that much?
February 7th, 2012 at 6:00 PM ^
in 99, i played pool with woodson in the back. he was nice and talked football without being a prima donna. he gave me a nice brohug. then he left w/ 47 girls. pretty sure he boned each one.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:04 PM ^
Only 47? I guess everyone has an off night.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:18 PM ^
Sometimes you can snag one by standing close... just like thinning the herd, go for the weak ones along the edges as they're probably lacking the self-confidence to burst through the crowd.
-Chet
February 7th, 2012 at 6:14 PM ^
however I end up there far to often ...
drinks aren't cheap, cover isn't either, lines are long, and the crowd can be a bit much for me. I would rather go to skeeps/charlies/lep on most nights.
That being said, amazing moments do happen at ricks. However, my stories aren't board appropriate seeing as most of the kids still play for michigan.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:20 PM ^
Thanks for the memories - spent way too much money there from 82-84...they used to have great bands there, if I remember right...first place I saw what was left of the Stooges (I think they called themselves the _____ watusis, with the blank replaced by a different adjective every night)...
February 7th, 2012 at 6:48 PM ^