The Grove: Much Like Beech Grove Itself

The Grove Sports Bar & Eatery, 3206 S. Emerson Avenue in Beech Grove, is much like the city of Beech Grove itself: medium small, tidy, and comfortable.  The city grew up (if I have the history right) around the repair shops of the Big Four Railroad (officially called, uh, the Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, I think), which became one of Amtrak's main repair facilities, so most of the houses in the older part of the town are modest Cape Cod-types or similar, although there are some upscale areas on its fringes.  The Grove is kind of like that-- three decent sized rooms, one with two pool tables, another with a bunch of tables and three or four electronic dart boards, and the bar itself which is fairly big.  It has some nicely paneled walls in addition the painted concrete block, but there are no windows, so the regulars had the door propped open for most of the nice Spring day.  They had some pretty decent beer and drink specials, including some REALLY decent prices on a new liquor product, which tasted terrible to me, but HEY, that's the "adventure" part of adventure drinking, right?  The bartender that day was one of the best bartenders I've ever seen.  Angel (not the same Angel who worked at the Colonial, who is also a good one) has a knack for making everyone feel like she wants to hear what they have to say, and that's a special talent in the bar business, where every nattering drunk acts like Goober the time he grew a beard-- They think they're George Clooney, Jerry Seinfeld, and Josh Groban rolled into one.  In short, we had a great couple of rounds there, after which we adjusted our Terminator shades and said "We'll be baaaaach...."