In a Courier Journal remembrance of the The Back Door, writer Amanda Hancock spoke with Sandy Metts, a co-owner of Mid City Mall.
(Metts) said there are no immediate plans to rent out the Back Door space. “I’ve had a dozen people call about the Back Door space wanting to put another bar there.”
Our friend and colleague Kevin Gibson also posted thoughts about the Highlands bar’s expansive legacy: Saying Goodbye to the Back Door.
Greg and I played pub trivia in the neighborhood, ate at Wick’s and Café Mimosa (RIP), went to Judge Roy Bean’s and Barret Bar, and pretty much every night on the walk home, we stopped at the Back Door for one last beer or margarita. Sometimes, we played pool. Mostly, we just hung out and talked to women. (And this stuff happened on work nights, too. We were much younger and dumber then – it’s much easier to be old and dumb and get home by 7:30 on a Tuesday.)
Sara and Laura often met us at the Back Door on weekends (Laura lived behind the side parking lot for a while), and we would share wings and wontons. We laughed. Told bad jokes. Talked about our dating woes. Greg always wound up spending his change on handfuls of peanut M&Ms from the vending machine by the men’s room. It truly was the good old days, and while the specific memories have blurred with time like a pixelated photo, the feeling of that era remains strong in my soul.
I loved those times and I love those friends.
You’ll glean from the tone of Kevin’s essay that whenever a beloved third space goes away, one’s perspective almost immediately flips sepia-tinged and elegiac. There’s a finality to it, and they really are memories now, to be filed away. It’s sad and reaffirming all at once.
So, farewell, Back Door. If you were a living entity, I would give you the biggest hug ever, with a tear in my eye, and wish you well. That would be closure. All I have instead are memories. But boy, are they happy ones.
