Restaurants

Bar Exam

The Reincarnation of the Bus Stop

by Bethany Jean Clement

When we last saw the Bus Stop in late 2007, it was on the doomed 500 block of Pine Street, shut down and eventually torn down. Three other bars—Kincora, Pony (formerly the Cha Cha), and Manray—went along with it. The condominiums that were to replace this Valhalla of drinking have yet to materialize; the entire block was paved and turned into a parking lot. (Way to go, progress!)

Despite lobbying from the gay community, the management of Pony has yet to take over a nearby empty KFC (an ideal new home for a bar that was decorated with cans of Crisco—Kentucky Fried Pony?). The Cha Cha, however, has been successfully transplanted to a subterranean space a few blocks away on Pike Street. And now the Bus Stop has reappeared—also not far, joining another stumbling-distance paradise on the swooping curve of Olive Way. In downhill order, its neighboring drinking establishments are: Cafe Metropolitain (faux French), the Stumbling Monk (excellent beer), the Elite (wholesome homo), the Buck (Western themed), Clever Dunne's (prototypical Amer-Irish), the Crescent (divey karaoke), the Saint (fancy, tequila), and Faire Gallery Cafe (adorable, wine). If you can't find a place you like to drink here, it's no one's fault but your own.

The layout and furnishings and feeling of the new Bus Stop are eerily similar to the old. The mural has transformed from bad graffiti ("It was terrible," the bartender agrees) to a light-streaked city corner at night, including an improbably glamorous Metro bus. (The actual bathroom graffiti, replete at the former location, is off to a fine start, with Sharpied discussion of the birthday of someone named Rodney and tributes to the complex sexuality of Adé, the Bus Stop's gorgeous muse.) The neon "BUS" and "STOP" are again in twinned front windows.

The actual city corner at night outside the new Bus Stop's windows would be picturesque—with busy traffic and brick buildings and a stoplight—if it weren't for the billion-candlepower sign stuck to Amante Pizza. This hate crime of signage is so bright it ought to be illegal. (The pizza-by-the-slice is reportedly good.) Those intending to sit facing the street at the front tables should bring sunglasses, Valium, and a friend with a very large head. Alternately, the Bus Stop could reinstate the red velvet curtains of the former location (one of few things lost in the move) to provide eyeball relief.

While buses do go by the Bus Stop, it's no longer at a bus stop. It's in a former manicure/pedicure salon. If they'd decided to honor the geographical in a similar way, it'd be called Style Nails—not a bad name for a bar.

The Bus Stop, 1552 E Olive Way.