PEORIA MAGAZINE June 2022

O N E M O R E T H I N G

WHERE GENIUS RESIDES Need inspiration? Spend more time in the loo

BY PHIL LUCIANO

S o, a guy walks into a bar … Tavern in West Peoria – many times before. But this was the first time my arrival immediately slammed to a halt in the face of a sudden riddle. On this visit, I’d come on business, believe it or not. I needed to chat with the owners about a new place they’d bought in Trivoli, as detailed in a story elsewhere in this issue. So, as a journalist committed to my craft, I’d planned to visit Mike’s for an in-depth (and in-beer) interview. But before I could get to such important matters, I noticed a new That looked good to me. Why not put a satellite office there? After all, over the years, I’d churned out a good number of news stories from folks I’d met at Mike’s. Plus, whereas the main WTVP office provides a water cooler and coffee machine, Mike’s offers a much wider array of beverages. But then I noticed that the sign had an Actually, this particular guy – as in yours truly – had walked into this particular bar – Mike’s placard on the wall: “WTVP 47 OFFICES”

argument he didn’t like to fight, one way or the other – decided to not let the women have the last word. The next night, when they came in again, they found that Ward had removed the door to the lone restroom. They could buy all the drinks they wanted, but – come nature’s call – they’d have to abandon modesty or the bar. Ultimately, Ward got bored with the kerfuffle, deciding he’d rather expand than irritate his clientele. He put the door back on the restroom, and women enjoyed their full constitutional rights to hang out at a dive bar. The restroom door is still there, as is the lone toilet. But that spot, as I later learned, is not a new office for my employer. One of the saloon’s owners, Mark Donahue, recently had spotted the WTVP sign at Urban Artifacts. He is always looking for new things with which to festoon the saloon, which is decorated like an Applebee’s for the canned-beer crowd. So, he plunked down $10 for the sign – “I thought it looked pretty cool,” he says — and stuck it on the wall near the Mike’s restroom. He meant it as a joke, though not

arrow. And it pointed directly to the lone, nearby restroom – a cramped, ancient one-seater. That seemed like an odd (and tiny) place to put an office. Then again, I haven’t worked for WTVP all that long. Perhaps this scenario involved a seriously weird management decision. Plus, in a historical connection that’s almost like something out of a PBS documentary, Mike’s was the site of perhaps Peoria’s only restroom-centric gender-rights standoff. Yes, for real. For decades, the 1930s-era tavern had been a stag bar: men only. One night in 1977, with women’s rights gaining momentum nationally, a group of Bradley University sorority sisters decided to challenge Mike’s stag policy. They were spoiling for a fight as they bellied up to the bar. But they got no battle, just beers. Still, owner Tony Ward – a gleefully cantankerous sort who never met an

98 JUNE 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE