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Buster's: Beer-only pool hall thrived because it was different
By Walter Tunis Contributing Music Writer
Buster's, The Dame's next-door neighbor, has a jukebox and pool tables and serves only beer. Its unpretentiousness is part of its charm, and even big-city out-of-towners appreciated it. Photo by Nathan Eckelbarger
The wall next to the beer-only bar at Buster's tells quite a saga.
The ties to its next-door neighbor, The Dame, are emphasized through a series of fliers for performances there — most of which took place months ago. But older postings that have been stapled over tell of local theater, film and dance events. And near the bottom, almost undetectable, are remains of posters for shows at High on Rose, a longtime local bar and music spot that closed three years ago.
The most revealing poster, though, is plastered en masse all over the place, especially on the windows that look out on the late-night comings and goings along the corner of Main and Upper streets. The five words that dominate the poster's black-and-white design explain the inevitable: ”The End of Busters ... as we know it.“
Friday, in a daylong farewell that begins at noon, the mainstay bar, music joint and pool hall, which would have turned 18 years old this Halloween, closes down as part of planning for the proposed CentrePointe project. Like The Dame, Buster's is looking to move. But the end of the downtown Buster's, coupled with the already vacant former home of Mia's on its Upper Street side and the closing Sunday of The Dame to the right on Main, foretells the end of one of Lexington's most frequented corners of downtown nightlife.
”It's going to be interesting to walk around that corner real soon,“ said Johnny Shipley, a bartender for seven years at Buster's and the principal organizer of the bar's intimate local music performances. ”There won't be anything there.
”It's disappointing, of course. A lot of people that come in Buster's may be turned off by the music on the jukebox or that we only have beer. But others really appreciate it for what it is and the character that is has. Countless times, someone comes in from New York City or Chicago or Los Angeles — any big city, really, with a lots of bars — and goes, "This is one of the coolest bars I've ever been in' or "I wish L.A. had a pool hall like this.' And they're saying this about a little bar stuck in the middle of Main Street in Lexington.
”For those kinds of people, this is going to be a big loss.“