If you spend anytime in Ottawa back in the late early ’90s you would remember this guy.  He watched over all the partying at the Yucatan Liquor Stand.  And I can say I was there.  For a good period of time my girlfriend and I were quite the regulars there. We danced, we met friends there, we just simply had fun.  And the fact that it was all decked out in surfboards and all things beachy meant that I loved it even more.

Then one day, one Canada Day, the Liquor Stand may have let in a few too many people.  So they had to close for a week or so and it would seem they never did recover from that.  A few new places opened and everyone seemed to go to those places so Yucatan’s just closed up shop.  With much less fanfare than we would have liked.  One day it was open the next it was not.

It has been several bars or restaurants since then, but nothing seems to have lasted as long nor been as popular as Yucatan’s.  I miss it.  I don’t miss the creepy guys trying to pick me up, but I miss the fun times that were had, I miss that you could dance on the surfboard tables and speakers and you didn’t get kicked out.  I miss that you could show up in your surf shorts and a tank top or a dress and heels and you were always welcome at Yucatan’s.

Of course, I guess this post really should be about the fact that I miss being 22 sometimes and since I will be hitting 40 in a couple of months I was feeling kind of nostalgic on Saturday when I walked around the Market for the Scott Kelby PhotoWalk (more here).  All the places I used to know and love are long gone and replaced by places so foreign to me it is like they never existed. And Yucatan’s was by far my favorite of all the places that have come and gone. Thanks for the fun.