Air Devil’s Inn

I did the same thing that TJ did, just popped in for a quick drink. I love dive bars and this definitely qualifies. It’s full of locals who were very welcoming and look out for each other. A fight almost broke out while there, a guy sitting at the bar was wasted and being very rude to the woman sitting next to him who was one of the regulars girlfriend/​wife. I think he quickly sobered up and got out of dodge.
After the Air Devil’s Inn we didn’t know where to go so I asked one of the regulars and he proceeded to tell us of every bar within a 5 mile radius. Apparently we looked like Latin music lovers as he tried to get us to go to the bar down the street that was having a Latin night

To be fair, I only popped in for a drink, looking for a spot to catch up on a NCAA basketball game as I happened to be meandering about town. I had always wanted to check out this dive bar across from Bowman Field, but never had the gumption to enter before. The exterior, painted with murals of planes and days gone by, the quaint antique neon sign, just draws a little history bug like me like a moth to a flame. And this just happened to be one of those nights where boredom and curiosity simply spurred me on.
If it had happened to be just me and the bartender, I would likely have stuck around far longer than my drink required, listening to him regale me with drink and the bar’s history. However, this night was limited to one drink only and whatever my eyes could happen to take in on their own. The décor was left somewhere a couple decades ago, no big screen TVs, a little portable sitting behind the bar. The crowd was decidedly local, I suspect the bunch here that night would be found here most nights, and the drinks are cheap. I appreciate that.
I can imagine a bar like this sitting on the outskirts of some armed services base, where the servicemen came to blow their pay on a few drinks and the local girls, possibly getting a little rowdy before being carried home by their fellow friends-​in-​arms, laughing all the way back to the barracks. And I suspect, Air Devil’s may have served a very similar crowd from when it began in 1934 and on. Alas, it only makes me wish for that Wayback Machine I keep thinking about and experiencing ADI in its heyday.
P. S. Nice article here, check it out at the HIllVille: