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NEWS | THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2007
7
Replay named as one of country's 50 best bars
By Ben Smith
bsmith@kansan.com
The Replay Lounge was featured as one of the top 50 bars in America in a recent article by Esquire magazine. The Replay Lounge is located at 946 Massachusetts St.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
With crashes and clatters bringing about cheers and encouragement, patrons of the Replay Lounge send softballs hurling at blue and white beer cans arranged in the manner of bowling pins.
Pinball inspired murals decorate the walls, and memorabilia from The Simpsons and Spinal Tap hang over the bar. The Replay, 946 Massachusetts St., has served Lawrence residents as an arcade, bar and live-music venue since it opened in 1993.
Esquire Magazine named the Replay in its second-annual listing of "The Best Bars in America" in its June issue. The list included 49 other bars throughout the country, as some of "those harmonious and radiant places that serve us drinks, keep us company, and put up with our regrettable behavior."
Steve Topping, a Replay regular, said it was only fitting that the Replay be recognized on a list of the best bars in the United States.
With weekly events like Pabst Blue Ribbon Bowling, the Replay's patrons and bartenders participate in back-patio sports while waiting for the almost nightly musical entertainment to arrive and set up.
Roy "Buddy" Kite, an assistant editor at Esquire, said that he and other staff writers and editors for the magazine pooled together their backgrounds to write the article about venues like the Replay.
"We have guys from all over the
country, which is a pretty helpful resource," Kite said. "We also reached out to all of our freelancers all over the country."
The Esquire list included such bars as John D. McGurk's in St. Louis and The Red Key in Indianapolis. Kite said that the editors of Esquire intended to highlight the qualities of a good bar and compile a helpful list for travelers.
"Any place that is inviting and comfortable and caters to the local community is a good bar and that varies a great deal from city to city," Kite said.
Magazine editors reached out to several writers in Kansas for input as to which bars were worthy of consideration. "The name, Replay Lounge, kept coming up," Kite said. "It seemed different from what youd expect of a bar in Kansas."
Kite said that one of the deciding factors was the Replay's diversity as a live-music venue.
"We just kept hearing about how strong a music pull it had," Kite said.
Competent bar tenders, reasonable prices, good food and a tasteful lineup of music were all taken into consideration when deciding which watering holes would make the grade, Kite said.
Topping said that Lawrence was the perfect place to find the best bar in Kansas.
"Probably 15 bars in Lawrence could have made it on the list," Topping said. "The Bottleneck, The Granada, Harbour Lights, Louise's, Quinton's, dot-dot-dot. The bottom
line is that they looked in all 50 states and picked only one bar in each one."
Jason Supernaw, bartender at the Red Lyon Tavern, said he felt that some of the Replay's good attributes included the patio area as well as the drink prices and the music.
"It's a really nice place to drink with a lot of cool people," Supernaw said.
He declined to say anything negative about the Replay on account of
Kite said that Esquire is planning on expanding the online list to provide a forum allowing reader commentary making the list interactive and "more democratic."
Edited by Joe Caponio
his having "friends over there whook kick my ass."
TUESDAY'S TOP NATIONAL, WORLD STORIES
Nick Carroll, owner of the Replay, said that though the writers of the article had never actually come to the bar, he was proud and honored that his bar had been mentioned.
Libby sentenced to prison for 30 months in leak case
WASHINGTON — Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt and left the courthouse without commenting.
Libby was convicted in March of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
ROANOKE, Va. — The neo-Gothic building where a gunman killed 30 people and himself on the Virginia Tech campus will be reopened for offices and laboratories, but will never again be used for classrooms, the university announced Tuesday.
Virginia Tech's Norris Hall to reopen as offices
Norris Hall will open June 18 for the engineering science and mechanics and civil and environmental engineering departments. They had been the primary occupants of the building on April 16, when Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty members on Blacksburg campus. The second floor classrooms where the victims were gunned down will remain closed.
Fourth suspect in JFK plot surrenders in Trinidad
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — A Guyanese suspect in an alleged plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy Airport surrendered to police Tuesday in Trinidad, a police official said.
Abdel Nur turned himself in at a police station outside the Trinidadian capital of Port-of-Spain, police spokeswoman Wendy Campbell told The Associated Press.
Nur is the fourth man in custody in the allege plot to blow up fuel lines that feed the airport. Two
other men are already in custody in Trinidad and the fourth is in the United States.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic — President Bush risked further stoking a testy dispute with Russia over a new U.S. missile defense system on Tuesday, saying Moscow has "derailed" once-promising democratic reforms.
Bush: Moscow has delayed democratic reforms
and calling out places where its reach is either incomplete or lacking Bush said that free societies emerge "at different speeds in different places" and have to reflect local customs.
In a speech celebrating democracy's progress around the globe
But he said certain values are universal to all democracies, and rapped several countries for not embracing them.
Associated Press