TICK TOCK TAVERN

They are a shrinking breed but there are still neighborhood bars in St. Louis. The Tick Tock Tavern is in the Tower Grove East neighborhood, not a high traffic location. Cash only, no more food than bar snacks, just local and regional beer (although that includes Anheuser Busch products). Frequent musical entertainment. You can go there because you want to have a drink and talk to someone, or sit in a corner by yourself yet not be alone.         

NOW, WHERE WAS I?

There are still Tiny Totem photos to get through. These are right in front of or approaching the Tick Tock Tavern.  We will finish the series with that.

The birdman we saw recently has put his regalia to rest for a bit. It shows birds who hunt for a living, nothing like our pretty local cardinals and jays. The bar has a policy of no raptors inside. Other people ambled across the street with a collection of toy plush pigs.          

Teeny Tiny Totem Parade To The Tick Tock Tavern

It's that time of year again. My friends at Artica conduct their early spring ritual, the Teeny Tiny Totem Parade to the Tick Tock Tavern. What, you ask?

Artica rejoices in creating art in all of its many forms. If it is a little weird, so much the better. Tiny Totems are small rolling or hand-held objects, whimsical sculpture that makes a viewer pause. Costumes are in order, if you like. Our head guy, D. Lohr Barclay, kind of looks like Sergeant Pepper in the second picture. And then there is the pan-avian marcher.

Everyone assembles in Tower Grove Park, walk down busy Grand Boulevard to Wyoming Avenue, cross the street, walk back up to Magnolia and The Tick Tock Tavern (more about which later), which is next door to Steve's Hotdogs (more about which later). The neighbors have no idea what to make of it. A good time was had by all.

    

There's A Billiken In My Pocket!

Another iteration of the Billiken, the bizarre mascot of St. Louis University, where I attended college and law school. There are different stories of its origen and meaning (see here and here). I have personally visited The Billiken Store in Juneau, Alaska, and stayed in a small ryokan in Kyoto that had a Billiken in the sitting room.

One of the Articans had this pair hanging out of his coat pockets, scanning the street for the Tick Tock Tavern. They were successful.

              

Tick Tock Tavern

It was a parade to the Tick Tock Tavern after all. It's a neighborhood bar on Magnolia Avenue just east of Grand Boulevard and Tower Grove Park. Good beer selection (someone asked for Bud Light and was rebuffed), lots of liquor, no food. I didn't even see potato chips or Doritos. Still, it was warm, friendly and full of Articans.

The third picture reminds me of the Toulouse-Lautrec poster of Aristide Bruant.