It's fun to be a fan and do weird fan things. I was lucky enough to have a cool cousin growing up who shared with me her passion for Tom Waits, the sexy, dark, raspy voice behind songs such as Red Shoes by the Drugstore and Romeo is Bleeding.
In Filipino Box Spring Hog, he sings:
Kathleen was sittin' down in Little Red's Recovery Room
in her criminal underwear bra
I was naked to the waist with my fierce black hound
And I'm cookin' up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Where's Red's Recovery Room? Cotati, California... a small town between Petaluma and Santa Rosa... I highly recommend pilgrimages. This little shanty of a bar was filled with jager-bombing middle-aged women at 6pm and a few mediocre pool-playing, beard-wearing men.. although i felt a bit out of place (right when we walked in a lady embarassed me in her crackly voice, "Don't be scared of us"), i quickly realized that me and my lompoc roots fit in nicely. no tom waits sighting, but we did play a round or two of pool and talked it up with Simon, the bartender from Mendocino. I was super bummed that Dee, the infamous bartender, didn't show her face, and that the cd-playing jukebox had been replaced by a high-tech digital box. but all the same, the beers were cheap, people were nice, and i want to go back soon. Best idea ever, Carson.. Anyone up for a road trip?
The New York Times described my new favorite bar as:
Immortalized in a Cropduster song, mentioned in Tom Waits' "Filipino Box Spring Hog" and hailed by a little newspaper called the New York Times as "the second best bar in the world," Red's Recovery Room is a divey little shack. But those who frequent it know that the Times is right, and they know Dee the bartender. She's worked at Red's for over 25 years and tells true stories that the best fiction writers would envy. Swearing like a sailor, she drinks right along with you, screwing up your drink (in your favor) by making it too strong, and she plays ferocious pool. On a recent night, Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here provided the soundtrack as Dee poured free shots of hot sauce. An axe rested lodged in a pile of firewood, which struck me as a dangerous thing to have in a place where people drink. But that's Red's. Leave your pretensions at the door, and let Dee take it from there. Red's Recovery Room, 8175 Gravenstein Hwy., Cotati. Opens at 10am daily and closes at . . . well, you know when closing time is. --M.P.
