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 11:49 PM ^
I worked there from 80 - 83. The stories I could tell...............
February 8th, 2012 at 12:01 AM ^
Tell your stories!
February 7th, 2012 at 6:28 PM ^
One night while I was bartending, Dhani Jones and Ian Gold were watching a group of guys doing flaming Dr. Pepper shots and thought it was a good idea to try one. Dhani had one of the dirtiest, scraggly beards you've ever seen. Apparently it was pretty flamable too as he spilled some of the shot down his chin and his face burst into flames for a second. It went out right away but it scared the hell out of everyone around.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^
Flaming Dr. Pepper's are nothing to screw around with. If even a little 151 spills while lit, it can spread like mad. I've only seen one spill in real life, but there are some funny clips online too.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:48 PM ^
I definitely burnt my hand spilling a shot of 151. My hand looked messed up, there was a blister the size of a quarter on the palm of my hand.
February 7th, 2012 at 11:36 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 6:32 PM ^
Welcome week, one of my teammates face-planted outside of Rick's and needed stitches. She did not get to perform at that Saturday's game.
Another friend stepped on broken glass at Rick's and ended up on crutches. They gave her tons of "skip the line / no cover" passes so she wouldn't sue.
I smell a pattern...
February 7th, 2012 at 6:34 PM ^
A word to drunken coeds, as I know many follow this blog religiously, don't take off your damn shoes. Don't wear heels if you can't dance in them. You will hurt yourself. 10 times out of 10.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:40 PM ^
And Rick's is literally the worst place on the planet to have an open wound.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:50 PM ^
i too once got wounded at ricks, it was rough
February 8th, 2012 at 9:53 AM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 7:01 PM ^
Wyclef was in the house my senior year, in the spring. But my favorite Rick's moment was when we ordered fifty Yagerbombs ca. 2003.
February 7th, 2012 at 7:03 PM ^
Although not a flattering story for the Michigan football program, Chris Perry got knocked the f out by a bouncer at Rick's one night after he decided, unwisely, to spit in the bouncer's face after he was asked to move from where he was standing because he was blocking the entrance to the bar for the guys getting ice and beer and whatnot. It was the classic one punch, knocked totally off his feet and dropped flat on his back. He jumped back up and a bunch of people grabbed him and broke it up before anything more could happen. The look on his face was priceless.
February 7th, 2012 at 7:04 PM ^
The OP doesn't even acknowledge college basketball. What a turd.
February 7th, 2012 at 7:15 PM ^
and discussing Rick's, a friend of a friend started this website for the folks out there who like cutting lines:
February 7th, 2012 at 7:29 PM ^
Not a bad concept. A lot of bars make use of the 'fake VIP' crowd with stuff like this. Typically it is in the form of Facebook or something similar, as they can control who has access to the freebies. It is a good way of crowd grooming.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:21 PM ^
LOL. $25 to skip the line at ricks, then $20 a person for your buddies?
That's only worth it for MSU and OSU weekends. And even then you can probably feed a bouncer a hundy to get your group of 8 people in.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:54 PM ^
A fool and his money are soon parted. Luckily, there are a lot of dumb kids with rich parents in Ann Arbor.
February 7th, 2012 at 7:44 PM ^
Back in the late 80's a (former) friend of mine invited me to dinner at that pizza joint on Liberty (near State). Can't remember the name of the place, but it had those silly/cute names for various pizzas on the menu (like the "Fungus Amongus" for their mushroom pie). Anyway, I get there and find that my friend failed to tell me that she had also invited my ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend! Tried to be polite and ate my pizza, but lost it after we went to Rick's afterwards and got to watch my ex dance and snuggle with her new boy toy. Made up some lame excuse to leave and never went back to Rick's or the pizza joint again.
February 7th, 2012 at 7:55 PM ^
Was that pre or post addition of the wooden "stall" doors??
February 7th, 2012 at 7:58 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 9:15 PM ^
Pretty sure Jeter was there OSU weekend for the 100th game which I believe was 2003.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:20 PM ^
February 8th, 2012 at 12:33 AM ^
I was there too. Penned the following poem shortly after the game. And although I never disemboweled at Rick's there is a reference in the poem to another local watering hole that may not have been so lucky.
Sweet Potatoes on the Ceiling (Nov. 2003)
"What a game, " we cheered,
As we drove on out of town,
The Blue looked dominating,
Those Buckeyes sure looked down.
"I'm hungry," croaked a voice,
From a Navigator seat,
Let's stop at the next exit,
And get something to eat.
We pulled into a one-horse town,
And disembarked that rig,
The demon looked as if he could,
Swallow down a pig.
Near empty was the restaurant,
As we headed for our booth,
But the kitchen was still open,
Good news for tongue and tooth.
We ordered up a feast we did,
An entree for each man,
Burgers, steaks and cokes and shakes,
To gorge, that was our plan.
We stuffed our bellies full of grub,
Dessert, we didn't miss her,
A couple fellas thought they'd better,
Head into the pisser.
A plate was spied with taters sweet,
None ever looked much finer,
A smirk appeared across a face,
Let's launch them in the diner.
The spuds were placed upon a spoon,
Down low we were a kneeling,
A flick of the wrist and a wink of the eye,
Kersplat upon the ceiling.
Now some may say it's juvenile,
To play such stupid tricks,
But I reply, "They're lucky,
This could be Dominick's"
February 7th, 2012 at 9:47 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 11:01 PM ^
I was waiting in line solo, but when I got the word who was inside I called my fellow Yankees fan and got him out of his girlfriend's bed. He made it from Granger in about ten minutes on foot. The two of us get in and Jeter is a model of professionalism: standing straight, chest out, smiling and shaking everyone's hands. The little side bar has a soggy little "velvet rope" cordoning off the back corner. We wait until the bouncer is distracted (didn't take long, the place was shoulder to shoulder) and climb into the promised land.
Football players, the usual celebrities, are fawning over the three Yankees (it was Jeter, Giambi, and Juan Rivera, LOL). Giambi was in his first offseason post-cycle and looked like a wreck. Pale as a ghost, drenched in sweat, and best of all, slobbering all over the face of some gross bar skank, even laying her down on a pool table to smooch and grope. He was an absolute mess and I really thought I could have taken him at 180 lbs.
But the important part of my story... a bit before closing time, the three musketeers quickly decide that they will do after-hours in Touchdown's, so they start plowing through the crowd and pulling a sea of people out behind them. Some poor giant lineman from our football team, could not recognize him, barges in front of Giambi and says "here you go, Mr. Giambi, I got you a jack and coke!" He had a puppy-dog smile on his face and probably waited in line 10+ minutes to by his hero a cocktail. Giambi nodded, grabbed it, walked three more steps toward the door, and set it down on a table on his other side. Don't wanna be taking drinks from strangers! Well, I had no such compunction. Taking care not to step on his coattails, I snatched up the dixie cup and chugged down Giambi's drink in ten seconds. No point in letting it go to waste!
Never got into Touchdown's (the inner circle was hand-picked at that point), but it was a great story.
February 7th, 2012 at 8:03 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 8:06 PM ^
I got thrown out on my 21st birthday for puking all over our drink table. 3 wise men x 3 was the coup de'grace.
Insert cool story bro meme here.
February 7th, 2012 at 8:11 PM ^
Scariest thing I've ever seen in my life was the sole time I went to Rick's with my then-girlfriend and her friends. It was a late-night "let's go to Rick's!" decision of which I didn't approve. Some Tuesday night in the middle of the summer. So we get there at like 1:45, right as they turned the lights on.
Some things you can't unsee.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:10 PM ^
Some idiot drunk frat dude was yelling pretty desperately at Darius Morris "you better not leave us!!!!!!" in April of last year. I blame him for Darius Morris leaving.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:22 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 9:23 PM ^
First, pooping in the Rick's bathroom is a legendary move, and one performed by a few Michigan legends. Jim Harbaugh is rumored to have done this many years back (well after his undergrad days though) and Bennie Joppru once shit in the sink.
One night in 2005 or 2006 I think I ended up hanging out with John Navarre and his uncle during the Cardinals bye week (as John was in the NFL at that time). Navarre you could tell had some real mixed feelings about the treatment he had received from fans during his early years, but that's not really the fun part. His uncle apparently just sort of hung around with him all the time and man that guy could drink. He was essentially Don Vito without the lazy eye. I must've done somewhere near a dozen shots alone with that guy and proceeded to blackout. From what I remember, he was not faring so well either.
Another year, Jeter and a bunch of Yankees came to Rick's and got a whole area blocked off in the back where they could pick up chicks. I think Posada, Giambi, Jeter and Gerald Williams (yeah, I know) were there, holding court and having to turn away women. However, one of the Yankees who I had noticed with them at the basketball game earlier in the night was not there. It was middle reliever Tanyon Sturtze, he was at the front bar telling girls he played for the Yankees. I think the best he could pull was a makeout session with some girl that my buddy had made a habit of hooking up with at Rick's on the regular. I somewhat appreciated his effort, given what he must have witnessed by his teammates on a regular basis.
There are infinitely more non-athlete related stories, but I'm sure they would all venture into cool story bro mode, so I'll spare you.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:01 PM ^
February 7th, 2012 at 10:04 PM ^
FWIW I am not Jim Harbaugh but I did go 2 in rick's bathroom.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:59 PM ^
I have as well. After attending about 5 nights a week for the duration of my last year and a half there, I didn't feel the need to curb my enthusiasm about anything anymore. Wear it like a badge of honor.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:25 PM ^
Used to be a fun place. Saw Buddy Guy and Matt Murphy there (lost a good portion of my hearing with BG). The most fun was a band called Loved by Millions. They used to let you come up and sing some of the songs and, with the right amount or alcohol, we sounded so good. Only athlete I recall interacting with was Bruce Kimball who was quite drunk and given his history, quite sad.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:27 PM ^
I feel like it's a universal truth in Ann Arbor that every circle of friends has at least one person who knows a bartender at Rick's.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:35 PM ^
I have two memories from Ricks...
My Sr. year flew back from Spring Break in FL on a Sat night, it was snowing and single digits outside. Met up with a friend, went looking for another friend on North Campus. We "found" a fire extinquisher in Bursley so we drove around campus spraying people with water. Ended up at Ricks and there were only about 20 people there. The "wonder twins" came in and sat next to us (if you were class of '86, you know who I mean). The rest of the night is history.
A year later I brought my ex-girlfriend's curious roommate to Ricks. Jimmy Harbaugh and Mike Husar came in and sat at the bar right by our table. She kept saying she wanted to meet them. Then some dolt friend of hers came in crying and told her his girlfriend broke up with him. She went off to console him. I got tired of drinking along so I went over and introduced myself to Jimmy and Mike told them what was going on and then started chatting about football. While we were drinking beers, she came back and said let's go. I told her to have her dolt friend walk her home, I'm hanging with Jimmy and Mike.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:59 PM ^
Ask me about checking beer expiration dates at the grocery store sometime.
February 7th, 2012 at 11:29 PM ^
Any old farts here remember Del Rio?
February 7th, 2012 at 11:54 PM ^
the same year this was made, and then many more times there. These guys are still playing!
Many dicey games of 9-ball against Cam, the chicklet grinning, ticket scalping, pool playing bar rat who often frequented Rick's.
February 8th, 2012 at 12:05 AM ^
You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done
February 8th, 2012 at 12:42 AM ^
My favorite moment was partying with Kid Rock and the Detroit Red Wings after their "celebrity" game with the USA U-18 team. Nothing more will be said.
February 8th, 2012 at 7:28 AM ^
Jake Long and Taylor Lewan got kicked out the night after the OSU game this past year.
February 8th, 2012 at 11:07 AM ^
Or were the bartenders just concerned they'd drink all the beer themselves?
February 8th, 2012 at 4:48 PM ^
Matt Vogrich slapped in the face at Rick's one night this past summer.