Stupid Stories

McDuffy's Closes; The End Of An Era..

Last Edited: 2006-06-24 16:12:44

Well, after a couple weeks of rumors and articles in the paper, McDuffy's shuts their doors in Tempe. McDuffy's was always a special place to me for quite a few reasons. First, it was my first job when I moved down to Tempe. I met many really cool people, some that are still friends of mine to this day. The sentimental value didn't really hit me until I took a break from playing and just looked around at all the people that you're used to seeing all the time (like Cheers) and whether we'll all find each other somewhere else, or disperse to different ‘watering holes' around Tempe. It was really sad when my friend HoBag (Heather) said that the only time all the McDuffy's people get together is for weddings and there aren't too many single ones left. Sad. Boo!

Last night was the last night McDuffy's would be open on 5th and Ash in Tempe. It was a really fun time! Many people got to play ‘the last show' out on the patio with me like Nick Smith, Wilson, the guy that used to work there and I forgot his name (sorry) and a few others on the patio. It was good seeing all of the alumni employees showing up to send off McDuffy's. Heather, Nellie, Cooch, Harley, Michelle, good seeing all you guys (and everyone else I didn't list). It was one of the busiest Friday patio's I've seen – it was a good sendoff.

There is a possible light at the end of the tower, though. I talked to Roger about the closing and he stated that as of now, McDuffy's plans to open a new McDuffys in the east Chandler area by about October of this year. Also, there is a possibility of a McDuffy's opening up again in Tempe in years to come. Of course, McDuffy's in Peoria is still open. Hopefully I will get to play some patios in Chandler pretty soon!

I used to play at McDuffy's on Friday nights and ran open guitar mic night on the patio on Wednesdays. Now, I will be looking at new places to play like the new ‘Tracks' where Sail Inn used to be and other venues around Tempe. I will also do some searching for a new location to run my open guitar mic night. If you are interested at all of either thing, you can check out my calendar page where you can see when and where I'll be either playing or running an open mic night. I'm pretty good about keeping it up to date, unlike this blog. Tee-hee.

Well, that's about it, just wanted to do my own little goodbye...goodbye.

McDuffy's Tempe