Bar #35: Corky's Place

The second bar of the preplanned bars was put on hold till we could get all our friends that wanted to do karaoke. Of course after 8 months the 2 original friends that wanted to come didn't. However, it was my friend Aiden's going away party; so, we had plenty of people to go to a memorable night at bar #35, Corky's Place.

My business, Pawsitive Influence, is a door down from Corky's Place. You would think I would be heading over there all the time. I run a dog daycare and bring my dogs to work with me. Since, going to Corky's requires me to drive home and then return back to work I haven't felt compelled to make the trip. Plus, everyone that I know that's been to Corky's has been there for a specific reason karaoke. I don't sing. Tonight, I would sing karaoke for the first time in 15 years.

Corky's Place did know I was coming. They did nice things like reposting that I would be there Friday night, giving me a free beer, and putting up a Every Bar in Lakewood graphic on the screen. If there is one thing I have found during this blog is that if a bar is given an upper hand then bad luck or weirdness will ensue. The first of these happened before I even arrived. I got a text from Katie that there was a fight. A couple minutes later there was a second fight (only verbally this time.) That was the end of any violence of the evening. The scuffles were between the new bouncer and the previously fired bouncer who are normally friends. The new bouncer was victorious and like a Bumble, bounced the old bouncer.

The atmosphere was dark and taverny. This helped make the open layout feel intimate while drawing your eyes to all the entertaining features. These included ping pong, a bowling machine, pool, Golden Tee, free pop corn, a shiny bar section and, of course, karaoke. None of these were the first thing I noticed upon entering Corky's Place. What we were all immediate spell bound by was a very drunk man probably named Tom yelling out made up lyrics to a song while being a stumble away from face planting.

Johnny started us off with a brave choice, Pepper by Butthole surfers. It was better than Tom. Sorry Tom. The nice thing about karaoke is no matter how bad you sing there's always someone worse...or at least your friends will tell you that there was. I was the worst of us but that's coming up.

The list didn't have all the songs we wanted but the DJ was willing to look them up to see if he could download them. Normally we picked songs via a cracked ipod. There wasn't a printed list.

I went with Me & Julio Down by the School, it was a rash decision once my first three choices weren't available. It was also the wrong version so my timing was off. For normal people this would have been fine but as my voice acts like I'm tone deaf; I'm not. I hear that I'm wrong without the ability to fix the issue. After failing I went back to drinking (it's hard to mess that one up.)

Alcohol drank that night: mead and hard cider at the first bar, then Sam Adams, a jello shot, Bell's Oberon and to finish things off a can of Busch. I find Sam Adams to be the defining line between craft beer and corporate beer. Bell's Oberon is still awesome. Busch is not good, it has a kind of stale sweetness that probably comes from being made from corn.

The high and low points of the evening came one after another. Aiden got the bar excited by his rendition of Baby Got Back, including most of the bar yelling “Yeah!” at the appropriate times. My rendition, even with two of my friends backing me up, of the Boba Fett Rap was disastrous. It was probably played too fast, since between the three of us no one could keep up for more than two lines.

Rules to follow about karaoke.

1. Singing unhappy songs well is better than happy songs unwell. Example: Me and Julio vs my friends' Radio Head and Fiona Apple songs.
   
   
2. If you sing show tunes, you are never as good as you think you are, but you can pretend this is because of the speakers.
   
   
3. If you don't sing, you can't make fun of other people who do.
   
   
4. No matter how bad, drunk, sober you are compared to everyone else sing and have fun anyway.
   
   
5. If you are stumbling around drunk we, probably, don't think you are singing well, sexy or funny; and yes, we are laughing at you. (The tough love part of todays blog.)

The DJ was pretty good and usually funny. He played funny clips in between singers.

I met a fan that was real happy with my previous Corner Pub review and said I hit it right on the nose. Compliments and criticisms are always encouraged, more so the compliments. I also, met another person that had just heard that I existed and was there. She stood in front of me as I tried to tape my friends sing Bohemian Rhapsody. But I never have a problem with any of you coming over to talk and it is a very long song. It was made even longer by randomly halfway through jumping into fast forward. You could see their brains crash to a halt the word speed hit 5x. It was fixed and they pulled it off. They also received free shots for their trouble.

Eventually, the lights came up and it was time to go. We had a really good night and saw a handful of really creepy people (you can't have karaoke without a couple.) Most of the people there were normal enough, even saw a random friend. We really didn't have anything bad to say about our experience.

I got the lunch special later that week. A small pizza and a beer/pop for $5. It was good for $5 and cooked in the toaster over in like 3 minutes.

Fun fact: Corky's Place is named after the son of the original owners, my landlord. When they were registering the bar they needed to give it a name, which they had't come up with yet. So on the spot they named it after the kid.

Corky's Place is not your average bar. There is plenty to do there and karaoke Wednesday through Saturday. There's a wide range of beer available but mainly your standard corporate varieties on tap. There's a wide range of patrons that will always give you someone worth meeting and someone that will be refereed to in a later conversation “Did you see that crazy guy/lady/...person” Regardless, Corky's Place, bar #35, is a lot of fun and lived up to its reputation as the place you must do karaoke at. Fun enough in fact, that I returned or am returning, depending when you read this, the following Saturday, May the 4^th Be with You.

13302 Detroit Ave

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Bar #33: The Corner Pub (Deceased)

When picking a new bar you will run into barriers. These are the reasons why you haven't been to these bars before. They may have a type of food that you don't think will stand up to your favorites. They may have crowd of people that you usually don't hang around, like different age groups, relationship statuses or even, dare I say it, Steelers fans. Every decent sized town will have at least one bar that you have avoided because you don't want to get stabbed in the face. This week I didn't get stabbed in the face at bar #33, The Corner Pub.

For the record, at no time did I feel like anybody was going to stab me in the face. My first impression of the Corner Pub was that this was exactly why I started this blog. The Corner Pub has a timeless, lived in feel. It could easily have looked the same a couple months ago or a couple decades ago. The mirror is decorated with written signs announcing the specials for the week and Christmas twinkle lights. The walls covered in wood paneling or whitish paint were covered in beer signs. A giant TV awaited the next person who wanted to try their hand at Wii bowling. Fun Fact: their Wii's controllers are accurate from the middle of Madison Avenue.Next to it sat a digital juke box with an odd and diverse selection of the bars favorites ranging from folk to metal in its top ten.

We found two stools at the bar and I ordered the only beer on tap (usually there are three taps running.) The beer of the evening was Molson's Canadian and it's really not a bad beer. I find it has a cleaner, less watered down taste than the sold out PBR.

There's no food.

Sandy, the bartender let us be when we wanted to be but was open to talk the night away about import craft beers and their regulars. Conclusions, included Germany has ridiculous amount of craft beer and most French and Italian expensive beer tastes like water.

The TVs played a diverse collection of entertainment that evening. Starting with Harry Potter 1, followed by Saw 1 and eventually leaving us at different performances from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The conversations at the bar followed along, with highlights like that the 1^st Dumbledore was better, movie sequels that don't suck and who's the guy singing with the beard (the latter came up more than once.)

Other than Sandy, the bar had only guys. This was partially because it was guys night, my Canadians were buy 2 get one free. This was the type of group that talked to anyone that was talking to them but were fine not talking to anyone.

The Corner Pub is primarily regulars that come to do their thing and know how not to cause drama with each other. However, I was new to the bar and didn't have any trouble fitting in. They seem to always be having a food drive for one reason or another. Currently, they are collecting food and toiletries for a mother, whose children include two autistic boys, whose house burnt down in Lakewood. There are a number of old men that come to the bar and tend to donate their extra food back and forth depending who's running low since their last payment.

There always seems to be something going on at the Corner Pub as well. Mondays are Lady's Night with the buy 2 get 1. Tuesdays are poker night. Wednesdays are the previously mentioned guy's night. Thursdays bring in the top talents out of Bird Town for a jam night, the guy sitting next to me says he is amazing.  Currently, if you buy a beer you have a weekly chance to win a beer.

I liked the Corner Pub it reminds me of bars from Tarentum, PA (where I'm from.) I may be biased in saying that I thought it had a very comfortable atmosphere. That being said, this might not be the best bar for everybody. The Corner Pub sits unpretentiously at the entrance to Bird Town welcome the locals and anyone else that wants to be there. They try to keep their patrons happy with special nights, beers and a Wii on a big TV. Have you been looking for a bar to call your own, try on Bar #33, The Corner Pub and see if it fits.

12301 Madison Ave

216-712-4990

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