80 years can't sink the Nick's

It's people like Buddy Newlin who know exactly what makes Nick's English Hut a Bloomington staple 80 years after its creation.

After all, Newlin, a Nick's regular, has been continuing the Nick's tradition for more than 30 of his own years, but now with business lunches twice a week instead of beer-soaked 21st birthdays and NCAA basketball championship celebrations.

The "brick and barnyard wood" restaurant, as managing partner Gregg Rago calls it, is just the beginning of what makes Nick's feel so much like a part of IU. Next come the memories scattered across the walls from all who have been there before. Indiana license plates spelling "NICKS," newspaper clippings from IU basketball games and neon lights spelling out "1981 NCAA Champs" adorn the walls. There are more than 1,500 objects covering the walls of Nick's and not one comes without a story.

As Newlin and a couple hundred local businesspeople and Bloomington Chamber of Commerce members gathered last Thursday to celebrate 80 years of Nick's, he attempted to explain what it is that makes Nick's the chosen bar of Bloomington.

"It's just Nick's," Newlin said. "How can you come to Nick's and not come back?"

Nick's history

It hasn't always been smooth drinking. Though Greek immigrant Nick Hrisomalos founded Nick's in 1927, he found himself strapped for money and struggling to get his license to serve alcohol renewed by 1939. Then-IU President Herman B Wells wrote to the Federal Security Agency in Washington, D.C., in a letter that said, "We feel that we must use our best efforts to keep the University community the proper type of place in which young men and women should live."

Eventually, the permit was renewed, and when Nick Hrisomalos died, his wife and son Frank Hrisomalos took over and worked long hours. In 1957, Frank Hrisomalos asked longtime friend Dick Barnes, a man who was currently running what is now Cafe Pizzaria next door, if he'd like to buy the restaurant. Barnes, who graduated from IU in 1952 from the business school, still serves as Nick's primary owner, along with two managing partners -- Mike Hall and Rago.

Since the trio took over, Nick's found a way to serve as a sort of fountain of youth.

"For a lot of people, this is where they have their first drink," Rago said. "There's no place like this. When people come back here -- especially alumni -- they feel young. It's our job to make sure those generations keep coming back."

Kirkwood chaos

When Rago recalled his craziest Nick's memory in his nearly 30 years there, he briefly debated between the 1981 and 1987 basketball championships, then decided on the former.

The Monday night 1981 NCAA championship game didn't begin until late evening, but people started lining up at Nick's doors at 9 a.m., then drank all day, he said. But what also happened that day was unpredictable -- an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. Though the TV stations were filling the news with an attempted murder, all several hundred Hoosier fans wanted to see was that basketball game.

"If they didn't play that basketball game, there probably would have been a riot," Rago said.

The game went on, and after IU's victory, the whole place emptied into the streets. Many people climbed the building, and the street remained full of people all night long.

"It'll maybe happen again, but not like it did then," Barnes said.

A local tradition

Though pizza and stromboli have long pleased Nick's customers, traditions like Sink the Biz -- a drinking game classic at Nick's -- remain a part of IU alumni's reasons to make additional visits to Nick's.

It's not exactly clear -- even to Barnes and Rago -- how exactly Sink the Biz started, but Rago guesses it was sometime in the late '80s. A private beer-drinking club called the Bucket Brigade established itself enough to have its own 52 ounce chrome buckets for drinking.

If accepted into the brigade and paid the fee, a person had his or her own bucket and spot above the bar. Eventually, this club became less exclusive and expanded to include students. Soon enough, people began floating a glass in the middle and pouring beer in to sink it.

"There's probably someone out there who wants to take credit for that," Rago said.

An 'institution'

As customers continue to pour into Nick's -- a place that once barely served 100 and now serves more than 500 from the many expansions -- they can enjoy the extended space due to a renovated bar in the Hoosier Room upstairs, along with the 16-inch flat-screen, high-definition TVs.

Though a lot of money has been spent improving the building, Rago said he has never anticipated changing the entire place.

"We're not gonna tear everything down and be steel and plastic," he said. As a nationally-- and internationally--recognized bar, restaurant and place to be with friends, Rago is not about to disappoint people who have brought him years of business.

"This is more of a real IU place," he said. "Any place you go, people from IU -- they know about Nick's … IU's tentacles go far."

Because Kirkwood Avenue, described by Rago as "a gold mine, property-wise," remains a prime place for business, there has been worry the restaurant would sell. Yet because the Hrisomalos family still has a long-term lease, Rago said he doesn't anticipate it ever selling.

"It'd rip my heart out if it happened," Rago said. "I really hope it doesn't because this is my life."

Though Barnes admitted it's tempting to try to open another Nick's in a bigger market like Indianapolis, he said he couldn't imagine leaving a place he's poured years of energy into.

"Nick's is as much an institution as IU is," said Barnes, who has worked at Nick's for 50 years and on Kirkwood even longer. "I kind of grew up on Kirkwood … but as an adult. So, I don't wanna leave. That's home to me."