Bannister is my home town. It's a tiny village that oddly supported two bars, two churches, and two…read morerather large reception halls for a long time. It lost its grocery store a long time ago. Now it's down a reception hall now, but the churches are stable. While the bars, both of them, go up and down with the economy and interest.
This bar has been remodeled and opened up. They run karaoke some nights, and when I was here during Lent, they served a huge crowd fish dinners on a Friday night. Even though we arrived a little late, there were only a couple of tables left. It was filled with regulars and groups of folks that travel around checking out Lenten Fish Fry nights.
Except for the kids, everyone in our fairly large group had fish. It was available fried or baked, with a choice of potato, and a salad bar. The salad bar is exactly like what you find at many small town places. Several mayonnaise dressed salads, some lettuce from a bag, a few toppings, and dressing, particularly ranch. It was clean and fairly fresh -- from such a crowd. The dinners were all good and arrived fairly quickly, though they weren't particularly interesting.
This is good, solid food for the same kind of people. The beer is cold. And the drinks are cheap. There are babies in the bar. Some nights there are still bar fights, and some nights someone drives home a local drunk, so no one has to worry. Tipsy bridesmaids and groomsmen will find their way down to ease the pain (and get lost for awhile) when the reception at the hall down the street is too hot.
I love this bar.
