Barber's and The Rox

As much as I enjoy working in Theatre there is always the very important down time needed to recharge and get ready for the next project.
A standard expression be those working in Theatre is that we work hard but play hard too.

The days, and nights, can be long and it is important to find a place for food, drink and good company that friendly too loud Theatre people can enjoy.

I mentioned the cast parties when I was doing Community Theatre and how the cast would sing the whole show we had just finished at a local bar or restaurant.
Every night is not a cast party but many a night after a long rehearsal groups of people go out and unwind before heading home.
So in my first days at Brockport I had to find those places that I might go for that all important first cold beer after work.

Back in the fall of 1982 the drinking age was still 18 and being a college town there were many bars to chose from.
There were enough bars back then that each one had their own distinctive atmosphere.
There were two bars that I was told about more than any others, Barber’s Bar and Grill and the Roxbury Inn.

I was told that Barber’s was where the Theatre and Dance students and other members of the Artsy crowd hung out.
I liked Barber’s and in my drinking years spent a good deal of time, and money, there.

Long and narrow it has a pressed metal ceiling and had a very unique set of beer taps.
There were four large glass globes at the counter level in which the beer would flow up from the kegs and be held until dispensed into a glass.
As the level of beer was lowered the bartender would have to open the value that sent more beer into the globes.
Unfortunately the taps no longer work and the bar has lost some of its appeal.

Barber’s always had good food and I learned to enjoy chicken wings, something that I surprisingly did not do too often when I was a student in Buffalo.
I had even had wings at the Anchor Bar, the birthplace of the Buffalo wing but it was not until I got to Brockport that they became a regular item that I would eat, especially on 10 cent wing night.

The other Brockport bar of note was the Roxbury Inn.
The Roxbury had a bit of a bad reputation, which it truly did earn, but it was still a fun place to go.

As it turned out my old roommate from Buffalo, Matt, went to high school with one of the owners and called him up just before I moved to town and told him in his best fake Mafia voice to treat me like a brother.
When I finally made it to The Rox and introduced myself to Al the owner, I was both pleased and surprised as how I was treated.
I was made to feel at home, treated as someone special and my money was never taken, well for a week or so at least, but I always left a tip.

Postcard of the old Rox, the porch is long gone.

When the owner of a bar treats someone very special so does the rest of the staff and as bartenders move from bar to bar after a short time I found myself being treated well at other bars too.

The Rox was in an old building, had a full size pool table, great music and live bands on the weekends.
It would close just a few years after I got to Brockport but I had many a good time there.
For some reason it was the bar that everyone wanted to go to at closing time.
If you were there at 11:00 PM it might seem empty, but by 12:30 you could not get in.

When the Grateful Dead played in Rochester they had a bootleg tape of the concert on by Midnight.
Other Rox stories are sure to follow.

It was during my first weeks at Brockport that I ran into John, the only guy I knew in Brockport and also a high school friend of Matt’s, coming out of The Rox.
He was happy to see me and invited to a house party he was going to.
I was eager to meet some people who were not my colleagues or students.

As it turned out it was a group of Deadheads and I am still friends with many of them 29 years later.
I was never your stereotypical Deadhead but I enjoyed hanging out with them and listening to great music.

I was only 26 and was much closer to the students’ age then most of my colleagues and I had to make a conscience effort to keep an appropriate student/teacher relationship even if I was having a beer with them after work.
With time I would make other friends away from school, but at the time it was important for me to find some friends away from Theatre.