Berg memories

I can not believe the news. I spent many nights
"studying" at the 'Berg. I used to work for Mr. Walls
at Boone Tavern and while I did not enjoy giving that
week's pay right back to him, the 'Berg was where so
many important college moments happened. My future
wife and I spent many evenings there talking, drinking
and enjoying time with our friends. I somehow passed
Spanish by the grace of a wonderful friend who tutored
me countless times over beer at the 'Berg. I had my
going away party there.

I am so stunned to hear this. I hope nobody was hurt.

Jason L. Young

I am saddened. I moved to Columbia in August of 1980
with stripped bare pockets to attend the famed Missouri School of Journalism.
It had been over 100 degrees for 20-some days in a row, and everything was
burnt brown. Buzzards circled the bluffs over Stadium as I pulled off 63 and
turned toward my new life. I had a reservation at the barely air-conditioned Tiger
Hotel, where I finally fell asleep only to be jarred awake by the Blind Boone
Drill Team on the street below. I had two days to find a job and a place to
live. Ratty and exhausted, I dragged myself into the Heidelberg. Ten minutes
later, I had a job. But first I had to get a jean skirt, and I had no money.
Someone directed me to Leo's, where I transformed myself into a Columbia-style
hippie, and my nights pushing through crowds with two pitchers in one hand and
six mugs in the other began. I probably only worked there a year -- the sexual
harassment component was much too high for me -- but I met great people, one of
whom I almost married. Ironically, the Heidelberg fire happened just as I
have finally moved AWAY from Columbia, to another college town, again alone,
(although not, thank goodness, broke.) Are Osama's and the other businesses along
there okay?

Janine Latus
MJ '89

I could see the burned out hulk from my parking space this morning. What a bummer. Love it or hate it, no other place in town had the "atmosphere" that was the 'Berg.

That place was critical to my daily routine during my junior/senior years in JSchool. My wife would drop me off there every morning (she needed to get to work early and we were down to one car) and for, I think 37 cents with tax, I'd sit at the bar, drink coffee and get my head on straight in time for those 8:40s.

It's a habit (though probably a bad one!) that stuck. I still get up extra early every morning and drink coffee for 45 minutes or so before tackling the day.

Greg Horstmeier
BS AG J 83

I swear to God, I feel like my house burned down.

The Berg was like "Cheers" for the journalism school set. Everybody knew
your name, and everybody knew your drink. There was no such thing as a bad
night at the Berg. It was fun, it was comfy--it was like home, but with more
beer and more places for your friends to sit. I remember watching the Tigers
make the Elite Eight from a table at the Berg. I remember ordering my first
(legal) drink there. I remember the night after I graduated I spent at the
Berg, and I said goodbye to it like it was an old friend. Whenever Mizzou
j-school grads get together, we toast the Berg. Everybody remembers the
great times there, and everybody has a few times there that they can't
remember. That place--dark wood paneling, juke box, eternally indulgent wait
staff--is an institution. They can't build it back up fast enough.

Diana Raschke
BJ 02

I can't believe this happened! You must be kidding me!!! This is just awful!
How did it happen? Give me all the Ws and the H!
Heidelberg was the first place me and a small crowd of journalism-student
friends of mine started frequenting right after coming to Columbia in the
summer of 1999. It quickly became our favorite hang-out place, where we'd
drink Killeans straight from the pitcher, eat spicy chicken wings and
discuss the hottest j-school gossips. After I moved to DC, I was looking
forward to coming back to Columbia and visiting the place. The Heidelberg
was a Columbia landmark and will certainly be missed. So, when does
restoration work start?

Nina Ognianova
MA, Journalism, 2002

As a J-school alum and a former editor with the Daily-Tribune, I am truly
saddened by this news.

Anyway, I'm on deadline here, but take this as a quick memory. Throughout my
years at Mizzou, the Heidelberg became a place of refuge for my friends and
me. We'd take breaks from studying in the library or just to go catch a few
games on the Galaga machine there. It was a meeting place, a hangout, and I
will always associate its aura with the friends I made in college.

Thanks for the e-mail.
Mike
BJ '00

Michael Eng
Managing Editor
The East County Observer

That's a shock!

I spent a lot of time at the 'Berg, as did all my j-school colleagues.
Heck, that's where I got half of my education by sitting at a booth and
hashing out all the new things we were learning over in Neff. It's also
where I heard of and consumed my first Long Island Iced Tea (and this
coming from a native of Long Island!)

Well, that's a shame. Looking forward to reading your story.

cliff

I just told my boss, who's also an MU grad, about this, and her response was similar to mine. We're both in complete shock. She said she had her first legal drink there.
During my final semester in college, I had a class on Tuesdays and Thursdays that ended right before Heidelberg's afternoon happy hour began. My friend Julie Seabaugh and I would gather as many willing bodies as we could and troop over there for a few hours of cheap beer, food, and Tom Petty on the jukebox.
The best was the day we convinced Dr. Ranly to come with us; after his first sip of Killians, he yelled out "DAMN! That tastes good!" which will always definitely be one of the highlights of our college days.
We'd go to Heidelberg to celebrate anything; my friend's last day in town before moving to New York for the summer; her first day back in town; several 21st birthdays; beginnings/ends/middles of semesters; we'd go there to study for a test, or to forget how badly we did on a test, or to forget about the test entirely.
Maybe it's just a J-school thing, but Heidelberg was the one place in town where you could walk in and know people sitting at three or four different tables. You could go there alone and wind up running into multitudes of friends.
I probably spent more time in Heidelberg while I was in college than I did in an actual classroom; that's not an exaggeration. And after graduation, whenever I'd meet up with friends in Columbia, Heidelberg still was the meeting point. I wasn't always too fond of Columbia, but in my short list of things that I wholeheartedly missed about the city after moving away, it ranked number 2 (behind Dr. Ranly).
I'm devastated.

Heather Mitchell

I heard you were taking stories?.
While I don't have wild stories about the Berg, my memories of time spent there are as rich as their chocolate pancakes and as flowing as their tap beer. The Berg was just a given as THE place to meet on early weekdays: the only free time available to hang out and catch up with other student leaders on campus. While even at 6 am the place smelled of smoke and stale beer, the ironic coziness of the hardwood booths was both comforting and invigorating? or was that the coffee? The Berg also served as a classroom? not only in the cheesy metaphorical sense (as cheesy as their cheese fries), but in actuality. Coach Rick McGuire chose the Berg's back room to teach many classes of students the art of sport psychology. Discussions on the pertinent material were only begun after everyone had placed their order?usually pancakes, a cheese omelet, or biscuits 'n gravy? the $1.99 choices always fit into a college student's budget. Strangely enough, the Berg was also the site of my sister's post-wedding brunch, along with numerous other after-church brunches? one of the best and cheapest in town. Soooo? here's to the Berg, and to the generations of Mizzou students and families who have relished some of the best moments that college has to offer. A glass and a blueberry pancake are aptly raised.
Nicki Webber, Ph.D.
Velasquez Psychological Corporation

Thank you for sharing the heart-breaking news.
In the late '60s the Heidelberg was a significant gathering place to explore all our opinions about the Vietnam war. An image of those pitchers of cold brew and the red-checked tablecloths which were always flipped over, not sent to the laundry, when one crowd left, still comes to mind when I'm engaged in political debates.
We had vets on campus who had fought in Nam and they brought to our deliberations a perspective which stretched us; some needed reassurance we didn't disapprove of them personally and some needed us the become more aggressive than we were in our opposition to the war. Without the Heidelberg, would we have encountered as many diverse students and townspeople as we did to debate hot topics? I doubt it.
I was on campus in June for a travel writer's exploration of key sites along the Lewis & Clark Trail; this was my first return in many years, and, of course, the Heidelberg was a vital stop. I learned to form my political opinions there and I had to wonder what was the tone of conversations there today about the Patriot Act and other troublesome government actions.

Class of '70 BJ News-Ed
Christine George Tibbetts
Tibbetts Communications
Tifton GA

I don't know what to say. I do have rather fond memories of
watching Paul Wilson slur his way through an evening and then attempt to go
to sleep on a table, but that was probably a pretty typical Tuesday night.

I suppose my overall mental picture is walking in and finding that the whole
damn main room had been rearranged to the convenience of what looked to be
half the J-School--chairs placed in the most troublesome position for the
staff, seven people crammed in a booth, cigarette butts and spilled beer all
over the place. Ah, the ambiance. What a loss.

The Berg was the first stop on my 21st birthday. A pink feather boa and a
free Bowjob shot.

Our class convinced professor Don Ranly to go there at the end of classes on
semester. My God, can you even IMAGINE him in a bar?!? And we got him so
drunk on Killians, he couldn't remember his wife's phone number.

We took comedian Dave Attell there after his stand-up comedy performance at
Jesse last year. He got me obliterated on Jagermeister shots. Now in New
York, I've done two freelance stories on him and consider him more than just
a professional acquaintance.

Sept. 11. The only logical place to go and drown our sorrows in a pitcher
after professors limped through morning classes. We watched the TVs and
remembered the previous year's annual Magazine Club trip to NYC, where our
hotel was right next to the towers and we took the subways under them at
least twice a day.

The semester of "instant gratification." We were graduating soon and going
our separate ways. Tuesday and Thursday at 3:15; get out of class, hit the
happy hour, order a pitcher of Killians, veggie quesadillas and mushrooms,
to pretend to study but mostly to dream. Sometimes we'd come back again for
late-night happy hour the very same night. Returning for post-college
visits, it was always the first stop back into town, friends and relatives
be damned. Goodnight sweet prince. I never thought I would cry to hear of a
bar burning down.

Julie Seabaugh BJ '02

Favorite memory from the 'Berg
Sharing drinks and stories with Dr. Ranly after a grueling (but wonderful!) semester of General Semantics.
Monique Van Meter
Three Wide Marketing

It shall be a day of mourning.

I'm off to a morning staff meeting, but I wanted to share the following
memory of the 'Berg:

The 'Berg had a breakfast special during the week, and I would weekly meet a
small group of other Mizzou j-school friends before our first class of the
day for a $2.49 breakfast. The food wasn't great, but the coffee was hot and
it was a good way to catch up mid-week. The sugar canister would be
half-emptied into our cups by the time we finished breakfast. One of the
students whom I met for breakfast would just have finished an overnight
producing gig at KOMU, while the rest of us would be heading off to our 7:40
classes. One morning our producer friend fell asleep, sitting upright, during
breakfast.

Amber Leberman
BJ '99, BA '99
Chicago, IL

From a BJ'71 who has a daughter (BJ '98) on your e-mail list, I certainly can share the following:

In the winter of 1996, my wife and I brought our daughter (Rachel Cohen) to Columbia in order for her to visit Mizzou. The visit included a J-School tour and a basketball game (which we won).

We arrived at the St. Louis airport from Connecticut in the early evening and drove to Columbia in time for dinner. Rachel's very first Columbia, Mo. experience was dinner that night at the 'berg.

She was so impressed by the weekend that the only school to which she applied the following year was Mizzou.

Dinner at The Heidelberg set the tone for that weekend. Sorry to see it go.

Laurence Wm. Cohen
President
Northeast Media, Inc.
5 Sylvan Road South
Westport, CT 06880 USA

I earned my J-degree in 1997. I lived in the J-slums, next door to the Berg,
for two years. I'm devastated by the fire.

The Heidelberg was the scene of my first and last beers during my college
career in Columbia. To me it was less a restaurant and more like an
extension of my apartment, being only about 35 paces from my front door. The
food was fried beyond recognition, the carpet an amalgram of crumbs and spilt
beer, the bathroom nearly unspeakable. It was glorious.

The Berg was an old, stretched-out sweatshirt of a bar, the kind of place you
never got tired of going to. For four years after I left Columbia, every
time I opened those heavy wooden doors I would see somebody I knew. It was an
the unofficial welcome center. If you were going back to Columbia, it was a
given: Meet at the Berg.

I've heard the old-timers talk about the Shack and what it meant, how a part
of campus was irretrievably lost the day it left this earth. Only now can I
understand that feeling. For hundreds of thousands of students, a piece of
their past went up in smoke this morning. How can they start the football
season without the Berg?

Damn, I'm gonna miss that place.

- Patrick Strawbridge
BJ '97
Omaha, Neb.

Ah...when we had money, we actually ordered food! French-fried ravioli in the 1960's! (It must've been a grease fire.) Whatever happened to the Berg's carbon-copy, the Ivanhoe?
Kathleen Webster, BJ '67

The Heidelberg seemed to be a place of "love" for me. It was the first
eating establishment I graced in Columbia, and I do believe it was one of
the last.
The first time, I visited it with my high school boyfriend and his family.
We both had decided to go to college together, and it was the last meal
before our parents left us to fend for ourselves. When I left and headed for
my dorm for the first time, I had a fried pork sandwich in my belly and
dreams of the next four years in my heart.
Within a month, my high school boyfriend and I had broken up. I was moving
on. I know I visited the berg tons, maybe hundreds, of other times but the
last real vivid memory I have of eating there was the night I got engaged to
my husband. It was Jessica's 21st birthday party and I was on cloud nine.
That night, I ate chili cheese fries. You were there. I have pictures. We
stayed really late and then, I headed to my duplex with the future staring
at me from my left ring finger. I always hated the way I smelled when I
left. But I always like the way I felt when I was there.

This news is devastating and I know you will be very busy today but I want
to tell you why this hits home for me.

It holds a special place, not only because I have gotten drunk there, but
because I've made friends there. I've learned a little bit about people
there and remained friends with them to this day. I've gotten angry there
while discussing some issue that I don't even remember now. Those are just
some of the little things that made the place great.

But there is more. I used to bartend at the Forum Smokehouse, which was
owned by Richard Walls, Sr. I worked there for over 4 years. It was recently
bought out by a former football player and many of my friends went to the
'Berg to work. Megan Gouse, a former assistant manager at the Smokehouse who
transferred to the 'Berg, was just starting to fit in and get to know the
place. Now what is she going to do?

So now I have lost all the places I feel comfortable in. Oh, I can go to
other places and know people but the atmosphere will not be the same.

Megan and I were just talking to Dick (Richard Walls, Sr.) last weekend. We
were in the 'Berg having some adult beverages and he said that this place
was his gem and he knew he could always count on it to do well. He is very
proud of the place.

If you have ever worked in a restaurant, you know the special bond everyone
forms. This is like a death in the family. I know it will all work out and
I'm sure he will rebuild, but it will leave a scar on the Walls family and
its restaurant family.

Thanks
Tricia Falter

The Heidelberg was a refuge for weary J-school
students, kind of like an old friend that would always
be there. They were one of the few places open late on
weeknights, so thoughts of a cold beer there were what
got me and my friend through a semester slaving over
the computers on the evening shift at the fledgling
Digital Missourian.

Martha Everett
MA, MU School of Journalism, 1994

Being right there on campus, the 'berg was quite the place for Mizzou
spirit. We were out one night with one of our fraternity alums who was a
university recruiter, as well. One of the guys in the house had his
girlfriend there and she ordered a Miller Lite. The alum went
nuts. "Miller Lite, do you have any idea where you are? My God, girl,
just take a look at everything Anheuser-Busch has done for this
university!" Not so much a Heidelberg story, but it did happen there.

Bob Buckley
BJ '84, MA '87
WGHP-TV anchor/reporter

By the way, the burning of the 'berg is obviously a case of chickenhawk
arson. I'd begin my investigation in Lawrence, KS.

Bob Buckley
WGHP-TV

The 'berg was our ad hangout--playing pac man and drinking diet Dr. Pepper with an order of fried mushrooms between classes; the place for beer at happy hour. On my last day of classes senior year, a group of us gathered for beer and pancakes in the morning with our favorite ad prof, Russell Doerner. We asked him if he remembered his last day of classes. "Nope," he said, as he ordered another round of beer. "And neither will you."

Janet Kleve
BJ '83

I'm soo sad! And I thought the horrible Monday morning traffic was going to be the worst of my day! Do you know what caused it yet? Was anyone hurt?
As far as memories go, it's 8:30 am here, but I'll give it a shot.
The 'Berg is a constant symbol of my childhood and my youth.. I lived in Columbia when I was four and five while my dad was getting his PhD at the Vet School. He used to take my friend Danny and me there for breakfast every Sunday morning before dropping us off at the Hillel for religious school. I remembered the syrup spilling off the Texas-style French toast onto the shiny wooden tables as the pretty dark-haired waitress, who, along with the building itself, was probably still recovering from last night, had to clean. It was a relaxed space where Midwestern men in too-small jeans and faded college T-shirts drank black coffee and ate never-ending plates of scrambled eggs.
It wasn't until I entered Mizzou in the fall of 1998 that I realized that I should have cleaned up my own syrup. Then, the Berg became a meeting ground, our little college town version of Cheers.
One early Sunday morning, I groggily answered my dorm-room phone.
"Morning," my mom perkily said on the other line. "What did you do last night?"
"Umm .. went to the Berg."
"Oh, did you have French toast?"
"Uhhh ... sure, Mom."
Ok, I'm going to cry now ...

Whitney Friedlander

Noooooooooooooo! Say it ain't so! I can never go home again.

The 'Berg was the place to be if you were a journalism student. The cheap, unfiltered wheat, the greasy potato wedges, the pretty waitresses, it was the ultimate.

My cubicle mate here at the Desert Sun put it best: "When you're college pub burns to the ground, you know you're a man." It's true. Going back to Columbia will never be the same.

Brian Joseph
staff reporter
The Desert Sun

I loved the 'Berg. It was my haven. Every Thursday night we'd have a group
there - sometimes just 2 of us, sometimes 15. We'd close the place every
week, and walk over to serenade the columns. We'd collect quarters and play
Marching Mizzou music on the jukebox. Probably no one but us band nerds
liked to hear it, but we felt so much school pride there. The Heidelberg
was Mizzou. I'm going to miss that place, but I cherish the memories I made
there.

Liz Dehnke
BJ - Advertising '02

Oh man, that sucks. There are several bars in Columbia I'd rather never hear
about again, but the Heidelberg was one of the great ones.

Here is a Heidelberg memory from me (Steve Mazzucchi, BJ 2000).

On graduation night (May 2000), my friends and I weren't organized enough to
have a party, so we headed over to the Heidelberg around 10 p.m. There we
found a huge crowd of kindred spirits, some we knew, many we didn't. After
several hours of celebrating, drinking and eating potato skins, we invited
everyone at the bar back to our off-campus place to continue the party, and
many of them showed up. This was characteristic of the kind of warm, open
place that it was.

Unlike some of Columbia's other bars, which sometimes seemed to shun those
of us who were not Greek, the Heidelberg always welcomed anyone with a few
bucks to spend and a few stories to share.

Good luck with your article.

~Steve

Here's another one. Man, this is depressing.

After losing in a shootout in the finals of intramural soccer, our team
headed over to the Berg to drown our sorrows. As bummed as we were, just
sitting with the guys in that lively atmosphere, I knew I was alive.

It was a place for rites of passage. Everybody turned 21 at the 'Berg.
This was the place where friends and co-workers would proceed to hand
you shot after shot of Jägermeister, or Wild Turkey, or things with
exotic names (and even weirder methods of execution) like Flaming Dr.
Pepper or Blowjob. Then, when it was all over, you would leave your
mark for the night in a multicolored puddle on the sidewalk, not twenty
feet outside the Berg's door.

--Christian Cosas, '98 MU graduate
(BA English)

I have memories of some of sharing laughs with friends late at night ... and
drinking the best Long Island Iced Teas mixed in Missouri.

I also remember a few teachers who had office hours there ... and how much I
I enjoyed those classes.

Sincerely,
Lewis Preddy - BJ '90

There's a guy in my office here in St. Louis who ate there in 1963 when it opened, and just ate there last night (he's in shock) after dropping his youngest off for Freshman Rush.
-Erin
BJ '02

Amy Schmaranzer
J school grad 1999
Chicago, IL

If i had to make a david lettermanesque top ten list of why i love Columbia,
the heidelberg would be number one on my list. I even had my future visits
to Columbia played out in my head. I would pack up my imaginary kids, take
em to a basketball game and then on to the berg for some breaded mushrooms,
scoobie snacks, and an Oreo cookie bash. i didnt even work there but every
story from Columbia revolved around the berg in some sort of way. (Autumn
was hitting on some med student at the berg and ended up sleeping in our
bathtub, rustie is such a jerk...., rustie is in love with me..., when
autumn got back from the def leopard concert she met up with us at the berg,
Id always have to pay for blair even if we were at the berg, the first time
i drank beer at a bar and i was under 21 was at the berg, dave got us stoned
at the back of the berg, tom would bring us home free food from the berg
when we were piss ass poor.) I could go on and on. These are just off the
top of my head. It just seems like a cliche that our peach pit would burn to
the ground, with nothing left but memories. if it's not asking too much mo,
please pick a flower for me and place it at the sight, and then take some
pix, which i am sure you already did.
sorry i am upset and i cant imagine how you guys feel because i didnt even
work there.

A favorite: When Ted Koppel came to do a "Nightline" segment on the press and elections (spring of '83, I believe), I was working the night copy desk at the Missourian. My parents were ribbing me about missing my 15 minutes of fame, because I wasn't in the audience at Jesse Hall to pose an amazingly insightful question and be on television. Of course, the night crew went over to the 'Berg to decompress and chow down after putting the Missourian to bed.

And who should stroll in but: Ted Koppel and then-Gov. Jerry Brown of California. To share pizza and brewskis with me, grad student Mary Kaull, Greg Hitt and a few others (I think profs Brian S. Brooks and George Pica were there). I sat in those polyurethane chairs, between the governor of the largest state in the union and the most respected TV journalist in America. It was a big moment for a starstruck suburban Chicago girl.

-Susan Clotfelter, class of '83

I lived in the shoddy, run-down, typical college student apartment building just to the north of the Heidelberg. I would spend late nights there in a booth in the back studying until it closed. I would often stop in for breakfast and was surprised that there were people there already drinking pitchers of beer, screwdrivers and gin & tonics at 8:00 a.m. Only did I find out later that they were all working the graveyard shift from the hospital and would stop in after their day/night had ended. On the Tuesday afternoon before Thanksgiving in 1986 I finished my oral exams for my Master's in Journalism. Five minutes after thanking the professors I was out the door and heading to the Heidelberg to keep up the fine Mizzou tradition of buying the drinks for your friends. I spent ten years in Columbia and all the people that were dear to me (at least those who were still in town) gathered with me that day to celebrate. It was simply THE place to meet.

Ray Preston
KMOV-TV

Wow - reading all of these entries just made me so sad. Yeah - the 'berg was where I had my first legal drink, too. It was the first stop, while Shattered was the last stop.

We'd head there after almost every city council meeting to relax and unwind from the exciting planning and zoning arguments going on in Columbia at the time.

J school without the 'berg will never be the same. Poor, future J-heads.

The 'berg was where I took my parents for my post graduation lunch. It was MY place.

Maria (Lozano) Neels BSJ '02

Andrew Careaga, BJ'83

I also post a bit about the Berg at <a href="http://bloggedyblog.blogspot.com/">bloggedyblog.blogspot.com</a>

The first place I went out for dinner with the other
international students I met at MU was Berg'. I had
spent a couple of days kind of confuse, trying to get
used to MIZZOU life (so different from my home
country...) and suddenly I was there, with a bunch of
new friends, with a brand new student life, drinking a
soda and thinking of the wonderful experiences I was
going to share with all those nice strangers... Berg'
became the place where we used to meet after our
classes, to talk about everything and really about
nothing important, to drink a beer and just relax...
After coming back to Spain I decided I'd come back
someday and I'd go to the old Berg' to let all the
memories come back to me... I guess now Berg's just
another memory from that incredible year I won't be
able to experience again! It's a pity!

Un abrazo,
Sara.

My best friend, Jim Barkley, worked behind the bar for many years. The
'berg had a deal, in 1972, anyway, that offered all you could eat for a
buck. The meal was spag..with a couple of meatballs. The trick was that
the second, and third helping got progressively more MSG added. It was to
make the additional helpings inedible. Or, perhaps, so that you wouldn't
order the "all you could eat" ever again.
Great memories.

Wes Rosenbaum
MU Grad 1975

The Berg was J-school East. It was where I always visited when I came back to Columbia as an alum. You know, go to all your old haunts and think fondly about being younger, more idealistic and perhaps a bit poorer. It was the Berg, Shake's and Osamas in that order which always brought me back.

Sure, it was just a restaurant, but it was our restaurant.

Andy Kravetz
MA 97
Peoria (Ill.) Journal Star

Also, it took me four and a half years, but I finally got my parents to step foot inside that dive for a drink on my graduation day. My grandma too, for that matter.

Take care all,
Joe Stange
BJ '99

there i was sitting in a booth, supposedly studying for my J200 final when OJ was pronounced innocent. it will forever be my trivia question answer. i'm just glad i got back there one last time last year.

brad perkins BJ '98

I didn't have my first legal drink at the Berg, but I did knockdown a load of underage ones on my tour of tucked away booths (the beer was at its best, while I was at that age.) I remember saying goodbye to old girlfriends and giving all-so-happy greetings to new ones, while sipping a brew at the Berg (I do recall the beer was always a bit warm.) Most of all, I cherish sending back cold ones between stories at the Missourian. It was old-time Journalism, a bit of a buzz made the words flow out.

Farewell Berg,
Sergio L. Piedra
BJ '93

My best and favorite memory was also of Mike Royko. After his talk I was was talking with Royko and the Dean (Royko's former boss at the Sun-Times) and we retired to the Heidelberg. Many stories were told, and many pitchers of beer were drunk. Mike regailed us with many of the racier stories that did not make the paper. We lasted until the 'Berg kicked us out.

John Dittmann
ABC News
BJ 1982

I live in Brooklyn, NY now. Have two bars on my street corner and many many more in the area and not one of them feels like the 'berg. That place taught me many things, including that even if I told the waitress I wasn't 21 she would still serve me. that place never carded -- another of its many charms.

Hope they rebuild the 'berg to its original splendor so I can go back.

Jenny Reisinger
BJ '99

Jen Groves
BJ '02

I have a few as well. I lived in the J-slums next door and the state of intoxication I was in prevented me from remembering which apartment I lived in. I strolled into the wrong one, which was just like mine but mirrored and in the other building. They were having a party, and didn't mind that I didn't live there. Brendan Kelley yelled "Kropp! this isn't your apartment!"

Then there was the night I was there with some newman people (Christian Cosas most noteably) - drank way too much fat tire and became very ill as people who drink way too much fat tire usually do. The chancellor at the time just spent what I thought was way too much of the university's money on a new supercharged buick, so I directed christian to lead me across the street to his lawn where I promptly threw up.

The best story I can't really give details as I might still get arrested - Christian Cosas, Neryssa, and Shannon all know what I'm talking about. It started at the berg too.

There were these two philipino brothers - Roger and Oliver - can't remember the last names - I live in florida now and every time I was back at the berg for something, one of them would seemingly always be there. It was a great place to meet people. If you guys are reading this - we'll have to meet somewhere else.

I went there with my mom, dad, priests, girlfriends, weinzirl - pretty much everyone who was important in my life. May the heidelburg RIP.

Stephen Kropp
BS in well, BS

I'm glad I had a chance to visit one last time last summer! I used to date my now ex-wife there. I introduced the Berg to wife #2 on a summer trip last year.

The Berg was a regular post rehearsal hangout for my church choir on Wednesdays when I was a very young director. Or was it Thursdays? It's so hard to remember after a few beers.

Comfort food rocks.

Richard Townley
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
BMus 91, MMus 94

In college, I would take friends there that came in from out of town. I will never forget our infamous "appetizer list" and Matt having to figure out the bill down to the last penny. The 'Berg didn't just belong to us J-students, even out-of-towners remember it fondly. Matt e-mailed, asking about it today.

Here's to a lot of great times.

Mary Mennemeyer
BJ '97

nick kenny, Finance & Econ ('04 - a possibility now w/o the 'Berg)

... the first stop for a beer on my 21st birthday, It was also the first stop for a pitcher on many a night before that.
... the first stop on an unofficial J-school graduation pub crawl in '98. I'm missing a good portion of the night after that.
... the only bar I have ever gone to for a class. I was taking a comparative religion class as a junior, and the prof decided we needed to get out of GCB and into someplace a little more lively.
... the place where I worked up the courage to ask out my future wife for the first time. After working through a plate of skins and a couple burgers that lifed our hangovers from the previous night, I walked out of there sure we would go out that night, even though I had to move heaven and earth (and cancel another date) to make it happen.
... the place we have made sure to visit every time we've been back. I haven't needed to look at a menu there since my first visit there as a freshman.
... the place my wife and I reflexively compare every neighborhood bar and restaurant to, knowing none have come close.
... the place I always think of when I start a new job. Every paper I have worked at since has had a bar within stumbling distance, much like the 'Berg was from the J-school.
... the place I committed my last act of petty theft, snagging a glass (not one of the plastic cups) two nights before graduation. I don't remember doing it, I just know that I have a glass in my cabinet that may never get used again.

Nate Trela
BJ '98

Cheers!
Kristen Foht BJ '99 (Magazine)

That said, I'll throw in a few memories.

It was May 18, 2002. In the course of one day, I had taken my last college final (J302, of all things), and watched many of my best friends who grew up with me walk across the stage. I had a semester of school left, but I was to spend it in Washington. The next morning, I would leave for an internship, and basically, college would be over.

I stood in the Heidelberg's back room with that group of people who came to mean so much to me. There was a joyous/terrified feeling in the air. We heard "Piano Man," and just about every other song that we played constantly on that juke box. We sang along, drank too much and remembered. Last call went out at 1:30, and a group of us stood near the exit fighting tears, without much success.

We walked out, but no one wanted the night to end. For what must have been an hour, we stood on Ninth Street, singing, hugging and hoping a couple minutes would last a couple more years. Of course they didn't, and eventually, the last of the group made its way to my apartment, hallowed 402 S. Ninth St., Apartment 1C. Within an hour, everyone was gone and college really was over. I left at 7 a.m. the next morning.

I was at the 'Berg for my own graduation night six months later. I went drinking with Maneater elders after my first week of college in 1998. I went there the night I was elected editor in chief of that paper, and I got an MIP there as a 20-year-old in 2001. I sat there watching footage of the crumbling World Trade Center on 9/11 with other Missourian staffers. My first date with the only girl I've ever loved was in one of the 'Berg booths.

Columbia will never be the same.

Paul Wilson

Staff writer, The Charleston Gazette

I also remember all-you-can-eat spaghetti night, when I ordered four refills, which I passed to the others at the table. Either the waitress wasn't too swift or was taking pity on bedraggled and hungry-looking students. She did get a decent tip.

Kirk Arnott BJ '73

This first generation college student's college bar career began and ended at the Berg. I gulped down my first beer there just after my 18th birthday, and slowly sipped my last as I wrapped up my Mizzou J-school career in 1995 and departed Columbia to begin my first PR job with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

My 21st birthday started, and more or less ended there in a blur of shots, beers, greasy food, and that bizarre Fruity Pebbles cereal smell emanating from the bathroom.

Every year since college days at MU my friends and I have gathered there to start off our alumni football weekend escapades. There was never any need to discuss where we'd all meet up, we already knew. And I'd gladly bet money my car could find its way to the Berg by itself, completely unaided like a sailor at sea honing in on a lighthouse signal in the fog.

We came from far and near and always managed to cram at least a dozen young alums into those dark wood booths, along with multiple pitchers of beer, greasy appetizers, and an endless supply of quarters to play Marching Mizzou and Uncle Tupelo on the jukebox.

We plotted our Saturday night victory parties there, and later we'd stumbled out of the bar to go find Marching Mizzou downtown somewhere for Friday Rally Nights.

And we ALWAYS celebrated MU basketball victories over that inferior Big XII institution to the west in the shadowy confines and dark-paneled walls of the best college bar you could ever ask for.

You know you've spent way too much time in one bar when you know the one spot high up on the wall near the video games where the Mizzou wallpaper border didnt match up correctly and as a result read "Mizzzou."

Or maybe that was just a natural result of my overly-analytical journalism editing skills acquired from that building across the street. What was that hall's name again?

Go Tigers. And long live the 'Berg.

Ron Sammons
BJ, BA '95

I remember my first visit to the 'berg -- I was in high school visiting Columbia for one reason or another and the teacher I was with was an alumni -- she took us there because she craved the French Onion Soup.

Months later I was there with my parents in one hell of a snow storm -- some of you may remember it -- I was doing my campus visit and it ended up being the snowstorm that closed down campus! (What a great first impression).

When I finally got to MU, the 'berg became my favorite Columbia spot. Even though I was not a J-student I, too, have numerous memories there. Hell, most of my college memories involve the 'berg in one way or another.... I lived in the Frederick building my junior & senior years because of the 'berg!

Sunday night dinners were always at the 'berg when I lived in the dorms (back before any of the dining halls were open on Sundays); The three Z's; the fruity pebble air freshener in the bathroom; playing darts with the QT boys; Antler parties; my student teaching seminar class met there; pre-game rallying; post-game celebrating; birthdays, birthdays, birthdays; holding Mary Ann's hair back on her 21st; Black & Gold shots on my 21st; seeing old friends; meeting new friends; the afternoon I never left; sneaking out the back door; the veggie wraps; the 2-for-1 appetizers; those damn wooden booths that my friends always insisted on sitting in then complaining how painful they were!; watching more sporting events than I care to mention -- including Big Mac's 62nd homerun when I was supposed to be in a mandatory class (I couldn't miss that moment, though!); I went there after 9/11; I went there to celebrate the end of every education class I ever had; I went there to celebrate the end of school my first two years of teaching; I was there for my 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th birthdays; Playing the Marching Mizzou CD on the jukebox & signing the alma mater; taking my cousin/best friend there for happy hour on her 21st even though she had 3 finals the next day!; starting every rally night during football season there; hell, starting every weekend of my 7 years in Columbia there!;

I just can't believe it.

I feel so sorry for the incoming freshmen -- who won't know college life with the 'berg as we all did. I feel so sorry for my younger brother who turns 21 this year & won't get to spend it at the 'berg -- his heart is broken about that, by the way.

Here's to the 'berg...

Katie L. Kelly
BS Ed 2000

For the record, the 'Berg is NOT just the stronghold of J-School students. In fact, I spent far, far more time in the 'Berg with Marching Mizzou and the Geography department than I ever did with the J Schoolers.

I have many, many warm fuzzy memories of the 'Berg (accent on the fuzzy).

* A 'Berg classic: several of my geography grad school colleagues talked the establishment owners into letting them drink out of the steins from behind the bar (if you thought the bar was dirty, you should have seen the inside of the steins!)

* My last trip to the 'Berg, in April 2003: I had been away from Columbia for two years. Despite this long absence, I walked in and saw several people that I knew from Marching Mizzou, as well as a former co-worker from the Missouri Bookstore (that burned, too, remember??) Thanks to a well-timed jukebox request by the Marching Mizzou folks, I left the 'Berg singing the alternate lyrics to the Missouri Waltz at the top of my lungs. (God bless you, Mary Margaret Truman.)

* The first time I was COMPLETELY drunk, nearly to the point of losing consciousness (a tip to smaller built women: don't accept a triple shot of SoCo after you've already been doing shots for an hour. It's a bad idea). Kristin Foht said it best -- what was up with that slight sloping ramp next to the bar, on the way to the bathroom?? Man, I don't know how I never fell going up and down that on my multiple trips to the bathroom.

* Tau Beta Sigma (honorary band sorority) always went out to the 'Berg after formal events. We'd take over the whole place -- it was fantastic! I also remember being "invited" there by my "mom" at 6 am one morning for breakfast -- that's a TBS tradition that I am VERY sorry to see end!

Even if they rebuild, it will NEVER be the same as it was before. Where else can you go at 12 noon on a weekday that makes you feel like it's 3 am?

Let's compile all of our stories into a "Save the 'Berg" tribute book and sell it -- proceeds go to rebuilding it EXACTLY as it was before, stained carpet and all.

Amy (Shields) Roust
BJ News Editorial '99
MA Geography '03

Kim Rutledge
BJ '97
Oakland, CA

Graduate school consisted of almost nightly visits (we only took Wednesdays off), and usually we arrived sometime around 4pm and stayed until close. The weirdest thing when the staff turned the lights on 15 minutes before closing time to let everyone know that it was time to go home. For those brief 15 minutes, light illuminated even the darkest corner of the Berg. The rest of the time it was dark as a cave, even at lunchtime in the middle of summer.

Geography TAs had breakfast conferences at the Berg...Biscuits, Gravy, and Long Island Ice Teas...I can't believe they actually were willing to serve that at 9am.

I'll never forget the steins sitting in the case next to the bar. When one grad student asked the waitress if we might be able to drink out of the steins, instead of saying "no" she got one of the managers to come talk to us. He quickly explained that the steins were a gift given to the owners and that there was no way we could use them. A drunken Eric Gates tapped on his chest pocket of his shirt and exclaimed, "I've got $800 right here that says WE'RE ALL DRINKING OUT OF STEINS!" In no time, they were pulled from the cabinet and filled with beer (though not washed out or dusted off).

Most people are in agreement that the food at the Berg was not the work of any culinary genius, but it kept us from starving. Nachos, Chicken Wings, Decent Burgers, and pork fritters that were actually larger than the plates on which they sat...Although I am deeply saddened by the loss of the Berg, I think my intestines are secretly rejoicing.

One of the best things about the Berg was the jukebox. Where else can you hear the Theme from Shaft, 'On the Dark Side' from the Eddie and the Cruisers Soundtrack, AND the Marching Mizzou Fight Song all on the same dollar!

Ryan Cooper
Reno, Nevada
BA '99, MA '03

I remember Byron Scott's Global Journalism class getting out for the semester, and swapping beers and tales among classmates and the prof, until only Scotty, myself, and a few other classmates remained. Throughout my college years, I was always a strong proponent of drinking with one's professors.

But that is neither here nor there.

I recall one night in the summer of 1998, when I stayed in Columbia through the summer to take classes and work a soul-crushing job at a local diner. A fight broke out over something -- something of insignificance, I am sure, as it always is -- and one of the pugilists was carried out over the shoulder of a bouncer, kicking, screaming, and, in the end, crying like a babe.

I am quite certain that those of us who put time in at Vox Magazine in 2000 wandered to the 'Berg many times after work. My car was dented as I brushed up against a poll while trying to maneuver out of the 'Berg's parking lot on one of these nights. The brave Chavy Cavalier still bears the marks of that night.

Looking back now that I am a Professional reporter of bars, clubs, music, and the accompanying ill effects, my jaded senses remember the place as a hallmark of a more innocent time. College and innocence -- strange to think of the two in one breath. Only three years ago, and yet it seems like decades. Can it really have been just that? It was several lifetimes ago now, though only three short years, and it was a lifetime that I shall always cherish.
Hoist one to the 'Berg, lads and lasses. They don't make'em like that no more.

Ok,
Dan Sweeney
BJ '00
Fort Lauderdale, FL

Laura Winzen Filla
Kansas City
BJ '90

I'll never forget hanging out there with all my girl friends the night before I got married, and the after-Mass meet-ups with Newman folks (although I went far too rarely). One of my favorites was the time my English capstone met for a class session and everyone ordered a beer...

I did live in the J-Slums, like so many others, and I love that I can say that, too.

Here's to the 'Berg, and good ol' CoMo!

Tanya (Reese) Roth
BA English, BA History '02

* Happy 19th birthday hooch! Happy cinco de mayo! Blues win! Blues win! Should I really have worn that "Class of 2002" shirt?
* Leinie's Red. About the only place in Columbia that had it on tap.
* The tortured waitresses drunken buddies would inevitably ask out.
* The mascot and his tropical drink.
* Spending that hard earned campus job paycheck on the late night happy hour appetizer one-two punch of loaded potatoes and breaded mushrooms.
* Stretching out in the discreet wooden booths upon arrival; comfortably slumping in them an hour later.
* That damn ATM machine outside and its $2.50 service charge.
* Black Wednesday. My Gophers are mired in academic fraud and my Timberwolves have traded Stephon Marbury. So I'm at the Berg drowning away my sorrows while across the table my roommate shows a prospective student an unconvincing "night on the town."

Charlie Anderson
BJ '02
The Kansas City Business Journal

E. Richard Webber, B.S. Business Administration, 1964, Juris Doctor, 1967

I was there probably too often during my J-school days, but the truth is I have more fond memories (and positive life experiences) from my hours there than from anytime I spent in the J-school library. Plus, it was hard to get a beer at the library.

And had it not been for the darkened atmsophere and nightly drink specials, I might never have had a date while I was at Mizzou. I am truly thankful for the Berg.

We all toasted Walter Cronkite back then. Let us all toast the Berg now!

Ron Nichols
BJ '81

The 'Berg was one of the few bars in Columbia that I felt comfortable enough to walk into alone on any night of the week, knowing full well that there would be at least one table -- and usually several tables -- of friends with whom I could sit. It was a favorite gathering place for my circle of graduate school friends, including the psychology grad student who later became my husband.

I also lived in the apartment building next door (although I had not heard those flats referred to as the J-slums until this forum, which is a great description). It was an extremely convenient place to live, just a stumble across the street from the J-school. I lived there during the summer of 1977, when I was TA-ing a 7:20 a.m. section of 104/105 for two semesters. Yep, the parties went on all day and all night! I remember trying to grade students' news stories while others around me were having fun! My roommates would frequently skip plans to cook dinner in favor of carryout from the 'Berg.

My husband, Gary W. Neal, Ph.D. '83, returned to Columbia in April for a counseling psych program, and spent an evening at the 'Berg with some of our old friends. Fortunately, he brought home two large plastic cups from the 'Berg, which we now cherish.

A toast to the 'Berg and the many fine moments spent there, none of which I can really remember anymore!

Sue Merkner
M.A. '77
Regional Editor,
United Parenting Publications
San Antonio, TX

Election night, April of 1996. I had just covered my first election as a reporter on the education beat at the Columbia Missourian. I had worked hard to contribute to all the stories going into the paper the next day as one of the many student reporters canvassing the polling places and getting quotes. When it was all over, we headed to the 'Berg with all our professors/editors and TAs for pitchers of beer. We had the entire private party room to ourselves.

The other memory I have is a bittersweet one. During college, I had a crush on a guy I called "The Grad Student." It took me four years to get up the nerve to ask him out. I finally did and he agreed, but our outing kept getting postponed. He was sick, then I was sick. Finally, at the end of the semester in early December -- the very last day I would be in Columbia until January -- we met for lunch at the 'Berg. We had a great time. But it was the last time I ever saw him.

Stacey Bohning
BJ '98 in News-Ed
KMOV-TV
St. Louis

Tricia Polley
BJ '92
San Antonio, Texas

Jon Foerster

I had only been there a few times with my friends while I had been at Mizzou, but the place had taken on a sort of legendary status in my mind thanks to the stories from my Dad. He used to talk about that place before I ever even went to school there. To me, the Berg was as much "Mizzou" as the columns.

What's strange is that I was home from England in July, and I wanted to take my husband to Columbia to show him the university I attended. I made sure to point out the Berg to him when we drove past, and of course, my dad piped in with the "I remember when you could get twenty-five-cent beers there" speech that I remembered so well. So when I heard from my best friend Mary that it had burned down just weeks after I had been by there, it was a somewhat surreal moment.

Lara Nicosia Pascoe
BJ '97
West Sussex, England
(formerly of St. Louis)

I look forward to the new 'Berg.

Trent Duff, Boeing Software
BS AG Atmos Sci '79
MS Comp Sci '82

Robert Frizzell
A. B. in History, '69

RK
PhD Engineering, '96

Rick Buening
BA Social Work 1974

Ed Woodyard
BS Journalism 1970

There was another fire there in September of 1966 - I was all set to go to work there after turning 21 and becoming legal - came back to school and found the berg gutted. Re-opened later that year and I worked there thru grad school, had my first date with wife of 37 years, played lots of pinball, watched Jeopardy at 11 am (no 1040 classes). Used to have Hamm's beer on tap, draught was a quarter, and on busy nites we did not use a register, just threw the money in a wood salad bowl until it overflowed, then we would ring it up.

Great to see so many people have so many fond memories. I always thought the shack was a dump, especially after you turned 21.

Doug Ahlert
BA 67, MA 69

Since Mizzou, I've married, raised a family, established a career in New York City, survived the attacks on the World Trade Center just one block from me -- as well as the blackout of 2003 -- and am enduring my son's tour of duty with the Air Force in Iraq. Although there was no Old Heidelberg in my own memories of Columbia, I do remember the town and campus and ambience with fondness. I felt free there for the first time (although in my day, women undergraduates still had to live in an approved residence and observe curfews, couldn't wear pants unless the temperature went below 14 degrees or we were going to a picnic, weren't allowed to wear curlers during dinner at the dorm dining room, and CERTAINLY didn't drink publicly to the extent that more-liberated berg customers evidently did). I only heard awe-struck stories about this fantastic colored singer named Tina Turner who was performing at one of the roadhouses outside of town, where the more-adventurous partyers with cars would escape the town's tight drinking regulations. At least I was free to explore life in Columbia and to begin the journey toward finding myself (I'm still looking).

Marti(cia) Moore Madory BJ 63

he was a terrific boss and manager. the 'Hoe ran like a swiss watch.

the A&P was next to the Ivanhoe, the berg up the street and off 8th. 1/2 block.