Southern Kansas

This past weekend my wife and I were in southern Kansas for a wedding; it was a classmate of my wife's daughter.  So in planning our visit, I did my usual amount of research to find local breweries or brewpubs.  Unfortunately for us the closest brewpubs were in Wichita an hour away from Arkansas City. So there was no trying out of brewpubs since our main intent was the wedding on Saturday.  Instead we spent the day roaming Arkansas City, KS.  An aside here it is pronounced "R Kansas City" in Kansas not "R kan saw" as in the state of Arkansas.  Locally it is made much easier since they just call it Ark City.

First we went to a museum for the Cherokee Strip Land Rush.  It is a cool museum telling the local history of the Oklahoma land rush.  At the museum one of the pamphlets we received was a walking tour of the historic architecture of the downtown. When we were on our walking tour we noticed across the street what looked like a bar with a barber shop in it.  Since I needed a haircut we decided to check it out when we came back on that side of the street.

 Our place of interest was about two thirds of the way through the walking tour so we worked up a bit of a thirst and were ready to check this building out.  When we arrived at the doorway we saw that there are actually two doors one for the bar and one for the barbershop.  We went in the barbershop door and found a sign in the barber chair "The barber is in the bar", so we headed through the common door between the two establishments and we saw the barber walking towards us.  I got seated in the barber chair and joked about having a beer while I was getting my haircut.  The barber said right back you can if you want to.  I decided to hold off on the beer, since did not want a bunch of hair clippings in my beer.

 As I got my haircut we find out a little about the barber.  His name is Adrian and he graduated from Ark City in 2005.  He then went to barber college and after graduating he was recommended to the Barber/Owner of the shop we were in.  So he began working there and now is in the process of buying the shop from the current owner.  His prices are great for a haircut it was $11. Can't beat that!
 After my haircut was finished I settled up and thanked Adrian. Then my wife and I headed back into the bar to have a beer.  We took seats at the bar, joining a couple of locals and the bartender.  My wife asked what beers they had and the bartender mentions all Bud products and Coors Light.  I got a Bud draft and my wife gets a Bud bottle; the good thing is the beers are only $2 a piece.  Fitting for the beer we purchased.

 The bar itself has seen better days; it was dark, dirty and age worn.  With that said we still enjoyed ourselves. The locals and the bartender talked with us, telling stories about the relationship between the bar and barbershop.  They told us about a previous barber that you only want to get an a.m. haircut from, because he was bombed by the afternoon.  When he was not cutting hair he was in the bar drinking.  He also kept a bottle of whiskey in his shop and one day he was drinking from the bottle when a state inspector arrived for an inspection.  Somehow though the barber passed inspection.

To me this is a great idea to combine a bar and barbershop and the only one I know of is located in Ark City, KS.  So if you find yourself in need of a haircut in Ark City go here for a cut and a beer.  It is a cool place.

 After we finished our beer we paid up and finished our walking tour. When finished we went to a local liquor store to see what beer we could find.  We found enough beer to fill up two cases with some local like Free State in Lawrence, KS and Marshall Brewing in Tulsa, OK.  We also picked up a couple six packs of Gordon Biersch in bottles.  So we will be enjoying some beer that we cannot normally find.

 That evening we headed to the wedding and then the reception.  They had a margarita machine and several kegs of Bud.  After a bit of time they provided a bottle of champagne for each table, so my wife switched over to champagne for the rest of the night.  When the kegs ran dry, which was about the end of the night, we raided our stash that we purchased that day and shared them with our friends.  Also one couple came from Colorado and had a bottle of Breckenridge Bourbon.  It was a little harsh, not smooth like Mississippi River Distilling's Cody Road Bourbon, so I will don’t think I will be purchasing the Breckenridge Bourbon any time soon.

 All said my wife and I had a great time in Ark City.  Even though we did not find a great new brewpub or brewery for us, we still had a beer adventure.

 One last thing, someone please open up a brewpub or brewery in Ark City, KS so when we go there again we will have someplace to go for good beer.  Also probably more important the people of the town deserve some good beer!

QC Beerguy