Chris Wolf admits his bar might seem a tad rough around the edges. The bearded old men babbling in dimly lit corners sometimes scare off potential customers.
As do the cold pavement floors and posters of scantily clad women, some even completely nude, adorning the bathroom walls.
In a city where town-gown relations are often a hot button issue, Wolf said the Smiling Skull Saloon, 108 W. Union St., has been a watering hole for Ohio University students and townies alike since he opened the establishment 20 years ago this August.
A far-cry from Court Street’s few famed blocks of bars that often cater to OU students, Wolf said the Skull sees three distinct waves of crowds throughout each day.
“If you come here at 10 in the morning … it’s like an old man’s club … some drinking coffee, some getting their shot of whiskey already,” Wolf said.
Once late afternoon rolls around, the atmosphere changes. Wolf said he’ll see blue-collar workers stopping by for a drink on their way home from work.
For 10 years, roofer Doug Black said he’s made the Skull part of his daily trip back to his home near Shade after work.
“It’s a family here,” the 42-year-old said.
Once workers like Black head home, Wolf said, OU students tend to take over.
The 61-year-old Wolf can sympathize with all three scenes; he graduated from OU with a degree in secondary education in 1975 and got a job a week later working in the coal mines of Meigs County — an occupation he held for 28 years.
Wolf said he bought the building the Skull calls home in 1993 — only for the sake of making a bit of cash on the side.
“I’m a Capricorn, by the way,” Wolf said. “Capricorns seem to be addicted to greenbacks or something. I didn’t know that for the longest time, but as I got older I figured it out.”
Keeping the cash flowing is something Wolf takes pride in doing. He and his team of five bartenders keep the Skull open 365 days each year.
They’ve braved snowstorms and the monster derecho storm that rocked most of Ohio in 2012 to keep the bar open, Wolf said.
Whether customers are ordering up drinks or teaching her how to play the harmonica, 22-year-old bartender Jess Markowitz said it’s typically an interesting time at her job.
“It’s a lot more than people here just to get drunk and people working here just to make money,” Markowitz, who recently graduated from OU, said. “We all hang out here.”
Wolf, on the other hand, tries not to get too attached to the regulars, though he said he’s visited a customer in the hospital and driven some home when they’re too drunk to drive.
Between the quirky customers and rustic atmosphere, Wolf said his bar has become a cultural icon in Athens — for better or for worse.
“I tell the bartenders, ‘If you see some hillbillies in here that are friends of ours that are running off the college kids, then you throw the hillbilly out,’” Wolf said. “There are enough college kids that are already a little anxious about coming in here so you’ve got to … be nice to them.”
sh335311@ohiou.edu
@SamuelHHoward
