Bar #9: Jim's Time Out

7:00pm, Friday, June 17

746 N. James Lowell St., Milwaukee, WI

Price of Old Style: $2.75 a bottle

On Friday night, I was in Milwaukee to see an old friend who was in town from Hong Kong. I got to the hotel a little early, and decided to hit up a bar I haven't been to in ages, which was conveniently down the street.

Jim's Time Out (JTO) is like many Old Style bars out there...it's a house that someone turned into a bar, except JTO is in the middle of downtown Milwaukee. It's amazing that it's still open, and if it was in any other city than Milwaukee, it would have been torn down long ago. It's a half block from the Milwaukee Public Museum, and that is how I became so familiar with it in my college days. I worked and interned at the museum while in school, and JTO was the place where we ended our day, along with the drug addicts and degenerates and college kids in the city. JTO wasn't a shady place, it just had a wide range of clientele.

A few buddies were picking me up, so I had time for a quick beer. I walk in and the place hadn't changed much at all. Curtains on the windows, a jukebox in one corner...video poker in another, one of these, and some interesting looking people sitting at the bar. Tom the bartender takes my order, and asks where I'm from (this is becoming a trend). I tell him I'm visiting from Chicago, and haven't been here in a while...and that much hasn't changed. He says, "yeah, I think we moved the video poker from there to over there....thats about it". Funny, I didn't notice.

A young couple walk in the bar and order two shots of Jager for the road. Just got in town for a wedding. They do the shots and leave...Tom looks at me and says, "They looked 21, right?" Then an older guy walks in, and this exchange happens between him and Tom:

Tom: "Hey, you ain't locked up any more?"

Old guy: "Nope, just got out last Sunday..."

Tom: "Sure you need a drink?"

Old guy: "Yeah...as long as I blow a 0.0 when I get home I'll be alright."

Tom: "Right, because if you don't you'll be back in prison blowing dudes..."

Jim's Time Out, ladies and gentlemen.