Late Night at the Tik Tok

One of the kool-b33nz things about our new 'hood is the Tik Tok.

Officially the sign proclaims "TIK TOK Around the Clock Restaurant and Bar". It's on the NW corner of the intersection of SE Division Street and 112th Avenue. It's a old-guard sort of place; greasy-spoon diner food, good stuff like taco salads and Reuben sandwiches and burgers and big breakfasts for not a lot of cash.

The bar is separated from the restaurant only by a chest-high divider; architecturally speaking, it's not really separated at all. There's a U-shaped bar, and the "back" bar is contained in wire cages hanging from the ceiling. Along one wall are video-poker machines. Pretty standard Oregon tavern stuff, but it's all the more special because it's ours now, it's in our back yard, our home, we, the Heavy Eastsiders.

The bartender was a lovely gal. One of the regulars won about $40 playing video poker; The Wife[tm] called out Drinks on you?!?!?, he said yes, and I got another Cuba Libre. She had a Scotch and soda and a shot of Canadian Mist. The Westerns and the film Noirs are having thier effect on her.

Anyway, the Tik Tok is a fine thing. We went in there with our Powell's purchases (about $100 worth of Graphic Design reference books for me, a heap of heraldry and Raymond Chandler for her [we didn't intend to spend all that on books, it just happened {too many brackets!!!!!}]), had our meal, then larked over to the bar.

It's amazing what drink will do. People you never saw before in your life become your friends.

But that's the pulse of life in an Oregon tavern. I don't think there's taverns like it anywhere else in the world.