You Don't Know What You Got Until It's Gone...

Just like that it ended. The Dream was over. The title for the "Worst Bar on the East Coast" is now up for grabs because the place known as "The Mill" closed its doors forever last night. As someone who spent the better part of a decade wasting my Friday and Saturday nights at this unimpressive bar, I can honestly I am going to miss it. I mean this place was beyond terrible, yet I went there so often I had recently made a New Years resolution to avoid the place; however, when I got word of its closing on Saturday night I was struck with shock and a little bit of sadness. Of course, it didn't help I was in hour 12 of Saturday fun day when I received the news. Fortunately, I was at a birthday party and could drown my emotions in my one and only food vice, not known as diet pills......cupcakes. After 3 or 4 cupcakes, my roommate and I wandered up 18th Street for one last Saturday night at our most common stomping ground.


Word of The Mill's closing must have made its way around town because the place was packed. Normally, you could own the place because on a good night there may have been 30 people in the joint. I guess that is what you get when you literally offer nothing except super-sized mixed drinks and a smell that would take days, if not weeks to get out of your clothes. I mean you have to try to be as bad as this place. Looking back, their ability to suck that badly was impressive. It was a dive bar in truest sense - unassuming and shitty. There was rarely a hot chick in the place although there seem to be a fair share of hotties there on Saturday night. So for good measure I struck out a couple times, including with one chick, who thought I was gay. Really?? Had she been talking to my Dad? Anyway, after one last super sized vodka soda and a few good-bye shots, the night ended without much fare.

Of course, one good-bye was not enough. Last night, my roommate and I went back for a few beers to say another final good-bye. The place was jumping. Clearly, The Mill was a neighborhood staple and meant a lot to the locals. Of course, the highlight was when someone slipped "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith on the jukebox and 80% of the bar was singing aloud - pretty hysterical stuff. In the age of trendy dive bars like the Raven, Dan's Cafe, and that crap on H Street, in my book The Mill takes the cake - such a dump, but you always went back for more. What a journey. It will be missed.....