Sportspage Bar

This is the only bar in Minneapolis, Kansas.

Although there are sports league logos on the outside, and it's called the "Sportspage Bar," this really isn't a sports bar as you might imagine it. No flat-screen TVs tuned to sports networks when I walked in. The only monitor TV set was tuned to a country radio station on satellite TV (sometimes turned down when somebody fired up the jukebox). It's a small-town pub.

The only beer on tap is Budweiser, and you're not going to find much better on bottle.

The flavor here is from the people. The couple bartending started chatting with me when I sat down, and other customers were equally nice.

Residents of Minneapolis are reflexively self-deprecating, perhaps because they know they live in a bedroom community of Salina, which is itself not much of a city, in a town that shares a name with a much better-known city in Minnesota. As I was leaving, the bartender said, "well, now you can go back to Chicago and tell them you know what the gates of hell look like." Heh, not hardly.

Will almost certainly be back if I'm in town.