Little Bo’s regulars look back at good memories

COLUMBUS -- For four decades George Evans would go to Little Bo’s to unwind, have a drink and converse with friends.

Evans doesn’t know where they will congregate after July 31, the last day for the locally owned and operated bar and night club.

Evans has been a loyal customer since the bar was The 20s Lounge and continued to patron the establishment after it transformed into the Backwoods Bar and later Little Bo’s.

He said he remembers when there was little in the area, sans Hy-Vee and the mall.

“It use to just be a mud lot. (The area) looks a lot different that it use to,” he said.

Brad Baker, co-owner of Little Bo’s, said a bar establishment in the building has been the only business that has endured since the facility was built in 1964.

Rod Baker, another co-owner, said they have known this day would come for more than three years, since the plans for Hy-Vee were in the works.

“We have known for three to four years that the lease would not be renewed,” Rod said, meaning the end of Little Bo’s 20-year tenure.

He said no one at Little Bo’s wants to leave, but he understands the vision the building owner has for the place and holds no grudge since it is simply a business decision.

“He could have had us out last year, but allowed us to stay through the last year of our liquor license,” Rod said. “To me it’s just a business decision,” and Little Bo’s may not fit in with a jewelry store, fitness facility, housing agency and sophisticated grocery store.

To replace the local watering hole, the area will be divided in half with one section already leased by a gift and home decoration store and the other open to a tenant who wants to lease the property, according to Tom Kumpf of Re-Max Total Realty Inc., the leasing agent for the building.

Dr. Jagmohan Desai, a former Norfolk physician and owner of the building, said a bar did not fit into the remodeling plans he had for the area.

“We did not renew the lease because we have plans to remodel that area. It was a business decision,” Desai said, and a drinking establishment did not fit into that picture.

Rod said as for him and his brothers, they are in the process of buying The Vineyard with the potential for expanding the building to transform it into a sports bar and grill.

“It would not be a night club or have a dance floor,” he said.

As for the last three weeks, he said they would operate as they have been, but offer more drink specials.

“We have blowouts every weekend,” Rod said, but he foresees a lot of people wanting to support Little Bo’s on its last night, especially “a lot of them old guys,” such as Crip Sedlacek and Evans.

Sedlacek, who also has been a patron since the 1960s, said it will be sad to see the pool table gone and the bar close.

“It has been a good place for a long time,” he said. “I don’t like seeing it close.”

Brad said the things he will miss most come Aug. 1 are the loyal and dedicated customers and staff, like Dave Flannigan.

Flannigan has seen the changes to the bar and was a patron during The 20s Lounge era and has been an employee of two of the bars, having worked as the night manager for more than 25 years.

He said although people in the area have a bad perception of Little Bo’s, the regulars, and there are a lot of them as the bar is at capacity every weekend, know that reputation is undeserved since such story heralding incidents are infrequent.

“We had a great reputation with the customers that did come here,” Flannigan said. “We’ve had really great, loyal customers.”

Rod said he often hears stories of fights or debauchery happening on a weekly or daily basis, even if such an incident hasn’t occurred for months, which are often echoed by people who rarely, if ever, enter Little Bo’s.

Rather, Little Bo’s has tried to appeal to a broad audience, Rod said, by offering a wide variety of entertainment, from hypnotists and comedians to karaoke, bands and DJ dances.

Flannigan said Little Bo’s closure is disappointing, but he may have a way to relive this chapter in his life.

“I may have to buy a gazebo (from the new shop) and put it in the back of my pickup, he said, “and have a drink in the parking lot” in honor of the long-standing bar.

Evans said he may follow the Bakers to The Vineyard, but at this time he is disappointed to see the doors close.

But “a bar is a bar,” he said, and “all good things must come to an end.”