In the heart of Central Avenue High Society, The Penguin offered cold beer, greasy burgers, and no pressure. You could hang around in there all afternoon, and some of us did just that, back in the 70s. It was a bland little place, reminding me of a sad and ancient snack shop at some ne'er-do-well golf course.
Jones always stopped at the Penguin en route to my old rental house several blocks away on Kensington. Sometimes I went back with him to the Penguin, or to the Happy Days (or was it Happy Times?) farther east. The head shop was not too far away either, where Jones and I bought underground comics. There was another tavern up the road where a lot of us hung out too. I think it may have been called the Swayback Mare. Slick Eddie hung out there sometimes. Big Daddy CEO had lunch with us one day at the Swayback and raved about their fries. Jones didn't care for the Swayback because they played loud rock and roll, and there were no topless dancers to make the music tolerable.
I think the last time I was in the Penguin, it was with K. We pounded Budweisers and muttered about life at Phoenix, Inc. We came to no conclusions. Everything in those days was about loose ends. Nothing seemed to get resolved.
I live near there and I walk the neighborhood often. On weekdays, I see business folks having business lunch. Families are lined up outside for lunch on the weekends. I’ve been in there several times when the same old dude shows up in the same classic car, plays the same Hank Williams song on the jukebox, orders the same burger, eats and leaves. Almost every night, the “after dark” crowd takes over and the tiny place is filled with smoke and rowdy drinkers. I think tattoos might be a requirement for the servers and cooks. The volume on the jukebox gets cranked up at night forcing everyone to yell their conversations over the music. I’ve seen several people thrown out for fighting, including my brother (although he wasn’t really fighting…he was just yelling a bit too energetically). It can get a bit too crowded these days, but it meets my requirements for a bar because it within walking distance and it’s not overrun with yuppie banking types.
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