Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Crooked Bar and Tavern

A relic of a sign on Broadway Avenue near Boise State University. It's now the Suds Tavern, I think, and someone once told me in between between being "Crooked" and "Suds" it was a small grocery store.

10 comments:

  1. Great capture. These old signs have such appeal.

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  2. I love these old signs. There are even websites devoted to them.

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  3. I didn't know that so many people liked these old signs. These are faded but beautiful in their own way...

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  4. I don't recognize this! I'll have to watch for it next time I'm headed downtown. I'll be in town for Thanksgiving, so perhaps I'll see it then...

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  5. Great sign! Hope they will not change it for a new one soon...

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  6. It has been "Suds" since at least circa 1965-- they expanded into the adjacent space... one side of bar is straight and original side is curved (crooked)... now grand children are getting crunk adn la*d in same dive bar as their grandparents did.....

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  7. My great grandmother (Nana) owned this property for all of my childhood and well into adulthood. She was always my favorite. Every time I drive by this sign I think of her. The Idaho Statesman ran an article in the June 30, 1990, newspaper that had lots of facts about this Bar and its history. My Aunt and Uncle (Jim Morrison) The reason for the article is because that is when the bar sold to the new owner. It was called the Crooked Bar (SUDS) Tavern. Nana, ran a small grocery store and service station when her husband Jack Bonner died in 1941. She later built the tavern building and her apartment and my Aunt Velma and Uncle Jim moved into the store/house and they no longer sold gas at the service station. Nana operated the grocery store with Aunties help until they closed the grocery store and turned it into the Crooked Bar in 1952. They continued to own and operate it until they sold it in 1990. The bar got its name from the S shaped bar inside. Uncle Jim (I called him Peep) and Auntie always had free meals on Super Bowl Sunday when cooked up to 20 gallons of chili and on Xmas eve when they roasted two whole pigs, a few geese and several ducks. On Easter they always had an egg coloring party. Through the years most people called it the SUDS but the Crooked Bar Tavern sign stayed on the property and still does to this day. My Dad never worked there full time but he helped my Aunt out when she needed him, 1963-65. My Mother met my Dad through my Aunt in June 1965; They married in October 1965. I was born February 3, 1967. There were also two small houses and a huge tree with a yard on the property where now there is just a parking lot...over the years various tenants rented those places from my Nana. That property has lots of memories for me growing up in Boise.

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  8. 5:30 a.m. Monday at 1024 Broadway Ave.

    Edition Date: 01/29/08

    Nana's house burns!

    It may be the Suds Tavern to everyone else but in Tracy history this is Nana's house! The place that I spent more New Years Eve Midnights than anywhere else, with Nana! I think I started that event when I was 3 or 4 in 1970-71 and the last time I spent the night there was as a senior in high school. We played cards (Gin Rummy) until midnight and watched Guy Lombardo & his Royal Canadian Band on the television. It doesn't look like what is used to but if you look with your heart you can see that this doorway used to go inside the home that Nana kept filled with all the love she shared with all of us for her 80+ years. I was never alive to see the grocery store that once was in the space that is the Sud's Tavern. At the rear of the building that grocery store she had her home. At some point Uncle Peep and Auntie took over and started a bar where, Mom & Dad met when Dad worked there. Auntie and Peep sold the bar years ago to some unknown owner and when Nana finally moved out of her home (a day I am sure was one of the saddest in her whole life) the bar owner incorporated more of that space into the bar. I have never been inside the Suds Tavern since Auntie and Peep owned it so I am not even sure what the rear of the building houses today but I do know that when I look at this picture I can still see the beautiful yard Nana had with all her lilac bushes and garden space with her beloved tomato plants that she used to cut up and turn into stewed tomatoes (I don't think I ever had a stewed tomato since Nana passed away all those years ago) or when she let us sprinkle sugar on them and eat as a treat! I am teary eyed as I write this, it is the first time I have thought SO hard about Nana in a few years. It is crazy to me that this picture can evoke such an emotional response! I can still see the long extended wood patio walkway that ran the length of this photo toward the tree line. Remember all her raspberry bushes? She spoiled me every time I came over with a big bowl of raspberries and let me put a bowlful of sugar on them! All those memories came rolling back when I was this picture in the paper today on page 5 of the front section; it is easy to understand why all the kids and grandkids are sad to now see Mom and Dad move from their home after 30 years on 36th Street. The only think I can imagine sadder than seeing the doorway burned in this photo is to imagine the day they tear the building down for something new.

    Teary-eyed but happy to have thought of Nana today

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  10. I use to drink in that tavern in 1968-1970 when I was a Air Traffic Controller at Boise Air Terminal. Anyone have any pictures of the crooked bar. Also loved a prime rib joint called Manleys for good food on US 30. Good times in old Boise and some lonely nights at the tav.

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