Pascual’s & Jimmy’s

Getting a bunch of drinkers to agree on anything — much less
give their whole-hearted applause — is impossible, so it was with
wondrous surprise this past weekend as two jam-packed bars raised
their glasses and clapped their hands in unison for two very
different occasions.

The first, which happened on Friday night at Pascual’s on
Victoria, was a goodbye. It was Cinco de Mayo, which meant the
scantily clad Dos Equis girls were in full force, passing out beads
and fluorescent stickers to the dozens who huddled up to the bar or
sat in the naugahyde red booths awaiting their tacos, cervezas, and
margaritas. But the most celebrated reveler in attendance that
evening was Pascual himself, the short, sweet man who’s owned and
run the bar/restaurant for decades now. The ovation began when
Pascual was leaving the bar, for rumor had it that it might just be
the legend’s last night there given his aging health and the
restaurant’s remodeling that began this week. He got two or three
full rounds of applause, and waved as he exited the door. It was
the warm and fuzzy highlight of the weekend.

But the bar cheering didn’t stop there, for on Saturday night,
it was all about new beginnings. After a ceremony/bash at the
Rockwood Woman’s Club, the newly wed Leann Anderson (an Indy sales
rep) and John Schnackenberg (a longtime S.B. sax player from an
even longer-time Carp family) sashayed into Jimmy’s Oriental
Gardens around 11:30 p.m. The crowd — which was a mix of
wedding-goers such as trumpeter Nate Birkey and singer Spencer
Barnitz (who both played the reception as part of The Wedding Band)
and strangers — promptly stopped what they were doing to toast and
applaud the new couple, both beaming with matrimonial delight.

Two nights in a row with full-throttle ovations at our town’s
best bars? Here’s a hearty cheers to that.  — Matt
Kettmann

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