The Embassy...

I was quite saddened to learn yesterday that the Embassy in Urbana is closing. While I was growing up in Urbana, my mother played on a softball team called the Bad Girls. Each Thursday night, after the games, the team went to the Embassy, and that was my first bar experience. I learned how to play darts there. I played a lot of pinball. I begged for quarters to play the jukebox. I ate my fair share of cheeseburgers, and probably your fair share as well. I knew the bartender, and he knew me, and everything was good.
I've probably gone there once since I graduated college, and I think it was because Ali and I had an idea to eat at as many restaurants as we could. Embassy was one. Still the same burgers...still the same dark ambiance.
It also had been a great local music venue for blues bands especially.
But I spent a lot of time there as a child. I probably ate more meals there than I had at McDonalds. Weird.
But it's closing at the end of this month. I wish them well, and say thanks for all of the good memories.