The Esquire Tavern was opened the day after prohibition was lifted in 1933 and has been a beloved (or at least notorious) landmark in San Antonio, TX ever since.

While serving as one of the city's premier watering holes up into the 1970's, where we were told you could sit next to a homeless man on one side and the mayor on the other, it started to get a bit seedy in the 1980's. In the 80's and 90's the Esquire served as the headquarters for the dangerous Mexican Mafia, based out of San Antonio.

The gang turned the Esquire into a drug dealing haven and destination for prostitution, with a "VIP" room above the bathrooms (the VIP room contained a bed and a sink...ewwww).

There are tiki bars and then there are tiki bars. And then there is the Tonga Hut!

The Tonga Hut is located at 12808 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood, CA. What makes this place so fantastic is the fact that it is the oldest surviving tiki bar in the LA area. Two brothers founded this joint in 1958 after they were inspired by a trip to Tonga.

When it opened, the Tonga Hut joined hundreds of other tiki bars and restaraunts making their appearance across the country. But this one is different in two respects. First, it opened in what would have been the vortex of the surfing and tiki culture in the late 1950's. And second, because it's just about the only one that survived so long.

The Longbranch Inn in Austin, TX, was opened on 11th Street in 1935, almost 80 years ago and It's been supplying Austinites with good drink and hospitality since then.

It ran into some problems and was a bit run down at a couple points, but luckily it found owners who care about our historic bars, like Kevin Crutchfield, who restored her to her glory days.

If there was ever a holiday to make the drunken historian smile, it’d be Saint Patrick’s Day!

Not because of the drunken debauchery that has come to define March 17^th each year, but because of the history of the man behind the holiday, Saint Patrick himself.

We all know a little bit about his history. While a 16 year old living in Wales he was captured by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland. He escaped year later and entered the church. When he was ordained a bishop he was dispatched again, sometime early in the 5^th century, back to Ireland to spread the Word of God to the tribes.

Within 200 years of his death he was recognized as the Patron Saint of Ireland and the Irish.

Now on to the ‘drunken’ part of the history.

Most often, St. Patrick is associated with Irish whiskey than anything else, mainly because the origins of whiskey as we know it reside in Ireland. Whiskey was distilled by monks in the 12^th century in Ireland and then transported out of Ireland throughout the rest of the world.