The Society of the Old Hat Part 2 - The Evolution

I’ve always liked taverns and bars. I spent a lot of time in them during my college years. But after I got married in 1980, I only occasionally found time to venture into them, usually Friday with the people I worked with. Business trips often gave me a chance to frequent them more often but this was usually at venues in remote cities that I never got chance to truly know. Most of my bar experience in the first 40 years or my life was the same. Bars and Taverns were places you occasionally went to, maybe with some friends to have a few drinks, maybe shoot some pool. In college we went to disco bars (yes the Microe discoed), to drink, dance and date, but otherwise things were pretty impersonal.

That all changed in 1998 when I went to Stockholm for 6 months. There I discovered this wonderful little tavern, 2 blocks from my apartment called the Loch Ness. The Loch Ness Tavern is a very small place about a quarter the size of the Old Hat and while we visited frequented lots of bars in Stockholm, it was different some how.

Most of the Loch Ness clientele lived in about 8 square block area around the tavern. Most were Swedes, there was an occasional Fin, and a couple of Americans who liked their beer. I drank a lot of Bemish in those 6 months! It would take forever to pour because of the thick, creamy head. If the bartenders (there were only 2) saw me turn up the side street from the subway station they would start pouring one before I hit the door.

I got know everyone. I would sit at the bar and try out my broken Swedish and they would all laugh at me and correct my pronunciations. Stella the owner introduced me to some very tasty Swedish home cooking, even though she wasn’t a natural born Swede, (Moroccan I think). Lars, the 20 something bartender was a hoot, telling jokes. When he wasn’t behind the bar, he would be sitting at it, drinking and carrying on. Occasionally we would see him playing with his street band in a subway station during the day for tips. They had a guitar on the beer cooler and quite often would bring it down and pass it around. I played some blues and the locals got a big charge out of it.

The music seemed to draw people together. It was more than the bars I was used to, these people became my extended family in Stockholm. If I didn’t show up on a particular night they asked where was I? If I was feeling down or home sick, they picked me up. On my 40th birthday they had stuffed a band into this little bar and invited me to play. That was the first time I played in front of a packed house and sang.

When I came back to Paw Paw, I tried to settle into my old routines. But I had changed. I found myself restless quite often, TV had lost all of its appeal and while I was glad to be back with my family, I missed my extended family in Stockholm. As luck would have it I found the early pre-Cats in the Hat at the Dyckman saloon. I couldn’t wait for Sundays to go down and play. But the Dyckman was missing something. It wasn’t the personal little tavern that the Loch Ness was. Though I enjoyed it, it was lacking something. Lady Luck smiled on me again, the band had a falling out with the owner and moved to the Old Hat.

I became an instant regular at the Old Hat on Sundays because of the Blues Jam. I started to meet a lot of people, friendly people. Everyone was a local and they all went by their Mug Club names. The undisputed ambassadors of the Old Hat, Buck and Comrade. There is Ginger, Kinsey Report, Eggroll and Belle Belle, Cable Rat, Wild Bill, Princess, Cookie, 10-8-ious, ShortStory (yes of the same blog names!), Too Much Fun, Bill the Dog, Tolerance and so many more that it would take pages to mention them all. I quickly joined the Mug Club with the Mug name, “Microe”, of course.

There were the Cats in the Hat which included Hunt, Chilton, Buggs and Howard. And all sorts of local musicians that would show up and play. I’ve seen so many local bands there, Seventh Son, Crossroads Blues Band, Bus Stop Bullies, Hackneyed Quips, Blue Moon, to name a few. Plus touring acts, Deke Dickerson, Cigar Store Indians, Billy Bacon and the Forbidden Pigs and many more. And I’ve met almost all of the musicians in these bands.

The bartenders were also a big part. Scott McMullen, Kelly, and Sara all did extensive stints as bartender during the Sunday Blues. After Buggs left the railroad, he started tending bar during the week. I had started to do some music recording work with Buggs and one of his bands the Tone Chaperones and I would go down quite often on week nights to talk to Buggs about recording and marketing issues. It was kind of an excuse though as we would sit and talk about just about anything often till closing time. I met more regulars, the weekly crowd.

At first I went to the Hat by myself, my wife and family stayed home. This went on for a couple of years. After my daughter graduated from High School in spring 2002, I started to get my wife to go down to the Hat. As she got to know people she became more comfortable and she also joined the Mug Club, Mug name, “Sweetpea”. My son goes down on Saturday quite often and has a very good friend he met there. They both have Mugs and fill them with Root Beer and play board games and have a great time.

In the Old Hat I found that same friendly atmosphere that I had found at the Loch Ness. They had differences, but it is the people and their relationships that make them both a cut above. So what is the formula that makes the Old Hat, “The Hat”? Here are some ideas that I think made it flourish during the 4 year periods between 2000 and 2003. I’m sure others have their opinions and I welcome them to share those in the comments.

First and foremost are the people. The Old Hat regulars are a melting pot of personalities, professions and backgrounds. There are professionals that work for large corporations, laborers that do odd jobs, construction workers, landscapers, small business owners, police officers, secretaries, bank officials the un-employed and everything in between. But at the Hat we are all on the same playing field, at the same level. People are more concerned with who you are personally not where you work or how much you make. Everyone is themselves and in an interesting twist I think this is because we all go by our Mug Names!

Which brings me to point number two, The Mug Club. By using Mug Names it kind of lets everyone leave at the door that day to day persona that each of us keeps up all week long in our jobs and careers. At the Hat we are Mug Clubbers or Muggers for short. Everyone is equal. Wednesday is Mug Club night and from 2000 – 2003 this was a major weekly event. It is a chance in the middle of the work week to unwind over a couple of beers and talk with your friends. The core group of Muggers has become very close. These friendships have carried beyond the Hat. There are several regular private parties and events every year hosted by Muggers and attended heavily by the same. The Mug Club has extended far beyond the walls of the Hat. And the core is always more than happy to welcome others in.

But many Breweries have Mug Clubs and friendly patrons, what else makes the Hat different? The music is a key factor. Most of the core Muggers love the Blues. And you will typically hear a lot of Blues at the Hat. This is what made the Cats in the Hat Blues Jam so crucial in the ramp up of popularity the Hat has enjoyed in the past. It was great Blues played by local musicians and it was dependably every Sunday 6-9 pm. People come and sit in with the band for a few songs and then go have a beer with their friends. The Cats in the Hat have always been very accessible, part of the bar regulars and blend with everyone.

Blues is not the only music you will hear at the Hat. Country and Rock-a-Billy also send there own unique sounds across the copper covered bar. And the Muggers love these too! Muggers love most music, when done well. So when the Tone Chaperone brought their version of Country Swing to the Hat, popularity of the bar exploded. Muggers showed up in mass on Friday nights to dance to there honky-tonk and swing originals.

A couple of interesting observations about Muggers and music. Muggers love weekend music. But on Mug Club night, they want to talk and socialize, unimpeded by a loud band. A band on Wednesday (especially with a cover charge) will often keep them home. Also Muggers loved the no cover charge Sundays. They would often tip heavily on Sundays. When Sundays went to a cover charge, attendance went down and so did the tips! Covers are ok on Friday or Saturday, but Sunday? Lastly, the Hat is a local bar in a small town and it doesn’t support bands well on back to back nights. A large attendance of Muggers on Friday will almost guarantee that the turnout will be light for Muggers on Saturday. Hangovers maybe? A big, well attended act on Saturday will almost always mean a low turnout on Sunday.

Beer…. Good Beer. It is a must for Muggers. They like their beer and skunky beer will send them home. Beer quality and consistency was pretty good and Muggers drank a lot during that four year stretch. And they took growlers after growlers home with them. It was very common to go to a private party and everyone would bring a couple of growlers of Old Hat beer. Even when they weren’t at the Hat, they drink it’s beer. Stubbin’s Stout, Hefewiezen, Alt, Seasonal Bocks, Pumpkin Ale in the Fall, and Red. Not as good maybe as Duster’s Wing Over Red, but a good solid everyday Red Lager.

And finally the service. Most of the time during those four years, the Old Hat was attended by a single bartender and a cook in the kitchen when food was served. No table service, no wait staff. You had to order at the bar. I mentioned some of the best of those bartenders above. They were masters at keep a whole bar full of people happy with full Mugs. And they enjoyed what they were doing. They contributed significantly to the culture.

So it was a combination of things that caused the Old Hat to evolve into this local institution, the Muggers, the Mug Club, the Music, the beer and the bartenders who served it. It was chance that brought all this together, circumstances that allowed this little local brewery to become more than a bar.

And it still exists. Muggers are still Muggers and they still get together. But things changed in 2003. Everything does and the Hat changed. Luck brought it together, and luck threatened to tear it apart. The interesting twist is the luck that threatened the Old Hat was Kalamazoo Brewings good luck. When because of the increased popularity of Bell’s Beer, Larry Bell had to sell the Old Hat, change was at the door.

As I stated in my last blog, while this is not to analyze why the business, it is worthwhile to review some of the changes that occurred between January 2003 and February 2006 and put the Hat where it is today. Again it isn’t to judge the owners at that time, they did what they felt they had to.

One factor remains. When Kalamazoo Brewing owned the Old Hat, it was making a lot of money at Bell’s Brewery. So making a profit at the Hat wasn’t a huge concern, as compared with Bell’s, the Old Hat was a very small side venture. When the bar changed hands in 2003, it had to turn a profit. For some of the new partnership, the Old Hat was their only source of income. The mortgage needed to be paid. This would prove to be a huge challenge.

The first thing that happened was after the New Years Eve party Dec 31, 2002, the Old Hat closed until Memorial Day weekend 2003. Muggers missed it, immensely. Just as I missed the Loch Ness when I came back from Sweden, we all missed our weekly Old Hat socialization. We needed our friends, our extended family. So during the hiatus, Muggers started frequent other taverns. A roving Mug Club started to meet on Wednesdays meeting at a different tavern every week.

When the Hat reopened, Muggers trickled back. It took a while for it to get back to it’s normal self. This I’m sure was a concern of the new ownership as attendance was slow in building. And Muggers came back to changes, some they liked, some that they weren’t sure of.

Wait staff was added, along with increasing the kitchen staff. The Menu was expanded. This seemed to be accepted well with the patrons.

The new ownership seemed to struggle with the music. The first struggle was over volume, especially on Sundays, as the Cats had a tendency to play loud and some people complained. Bands were monitored with a Sound Level Meter. This caused conflicts with some musicians which seemed to spill over into the regular crowd. Bookings went through several struggles as the new ownership tried to turn a profit while maintaining the quality of the music. The Cats in the Hat went on hiatus for a period of time and Sundays went quiet, and Sunday beer sales followed. When they finally returned it was to a cover charge on Sundays, and they didn’t play every Sunday. Some regulars were turned off. Beyond the control of the ownership, the Tone Chaperones changed and eventually disbanded. They had become a main stay at the Hat and this was a blow to the consistency that everyone had come to enjoy.

As finances got tight, the owners took more and more to tending bar. The bartenders that everyone had grown so comfortable with started disappearing. A different bartender was behind the bar every night. Not that these bartenders were all bad, but the consistency disappeared. The comfort level was gone. During this same time, the kitchen staff started turn over quite often, and the quality of the food suffered. Wait staff turned over. Service suffered.

Mug Club went through some changes. Mugs were changed for a while from the stoneware black mugs, to clear glass mugs. They weren’t received well. After unbridled expansion of the Mug Club, membership was closed to new members. Dues collection became sporadic, as did birthday recognition and other familiar Mug Club traditions. Eventually the Mug Club was reopened to new members.

As profits became harder and harder to come by, other changes were made to keep the Hat afloat. Beer prices went up eventually, but curiously most regulars didn’t seem to mind. But brew master Tom Fuller struggled personally with the Old Hat being his only source of income. He took a second job and started to share brewing responsibilities. A bad batch of Malt contributed to major problems in beer quality. In addition dwindling profits made it harder and harder to buy the quality ingredients needed for high quality beer. The beer became inconsistent and this hurt sales.

Through much of this the core Muggers persevered. Mug Club Wednesdays were still a great place to meet and socialize. But attendance on was quite often down. A good band would still bring them out in mass. Sundays with the Cats in the Hat still drew well, though they didn't play every week. Muggers just didn’t turn out like they once had. Some regulars quit coming at all.

Rumors started to run rampant. Rumors of the bars finances, ownership disagreements and attempted buy outs abounded. Most of these were just rumors, untruths manufactured out of frustration. But they hurt the Old Hat institution. Conversations often turned to the bars problems and everyone was an expert on how to fix them.

And thus the Old Hat entered 2006. Deeply wounded financially and struggling to stay afloat. The bar and the social institution that it had become was in grave danger of disappearing for good. As I have said before, the ownership had poured their funds, sweat and souls in trying to make it work. Muggers wondered what would become of the Old Hat with its copper covered bar, wood floors, stainless steel brew kettles and the stage lights which so many musicians had played under. And we worried about the owners, our friends who were struggling personally from this unfortunate turn.

March 2006 came and another change with new ownership. Hope springs eternal. My next installment will look at the future of the Old Hat, and why I think it might have turned the corner. As always I welcome comments and different points of view as to why the Old Hat became so great and how it got to where it is today.

microe