Don't let anyone tell you different. Mike's Speedway Lounge is a decent place to celebrate a 16th…read moreanniversary, no matter what that 16th anniversary is. (OK, maybe not the anniversary of your sobriety.) It's located on 16th Street in Speedway, so you have numerology in your favor. It's mellow and laid-back, like the number 16. (No one thinks about the number 16, so it has no responsibilities. The number 16 doesn't have to do any heavy lifting like 15 or 20.) It has decent food. You can really just relax at Mike's and settle into the hazy fog of canned beer and fried foods.
This bar opens at noon, and like a degenerate fiend, I was there right when it opened. A guy who seemed like a regular sat down at the bar not too long after I grabbed a table, and a beer was placed in front of him before he even had time to arrange himself on his barstool. Then, wordlessly, a basket of food soon followed. Mike's Speedway Lounge is that kind of place: It's where everyone knows your name, and if you're lucky, your beer and food will materialize in front of you with little to no effort.
This was my first time visiting, though, so nothing materialized in front of me. That said, the service was excellent. There was one woman working when I visited, and she was opening beers, taking orders, cooking, settling tabs, dealing with deliveries and wiping tables all by herself. She also had time to tell me about the length of her father's grass, and that was a pleasant conversation. By the time I left, there were several people at the bar chatting with the server and each other. It was a nice and friendly atmosphere.
Speaking of opening beers: There are no beers on tap here. Zero. All of the beer is in cans or bottles. They do have a lot of liquor, though, so they can make you a little something, if you want.
The food is OK and what you'd expect for a bar. Burgers and sandwiches come with fries, which were excellent. Mike's serves crinkle-cut fries, and they are perfectly fried, so they are crispy on the outside but soft and mealy on the inside.
I'm a patty melt person through and through, so that's what I got. The patty melts at Mike's are served between slices of marble rye bread, which was a nice surprise, but the cheese is American, which isn't my favorite.
We also got the Mike's Famous Spanish Burger, which is a super thick burger patty with tomato sauce and bell peppers. Apparently, it tastes like a stuffed pepper made into a burger. So depending on where you stand with stuffed peppers, you will either love this burger, or feel like you need to urgently use the restroom after you eat it. Your mileage may vary.
There's a pool table here, as well as a digital juke box, a claw machine with twisted things in it (I can't even say what those things are, because Yelp would probably flag my review), a racing video game (because Indy 500), and a few machines that dispense pull tab tickets. This is an old-school bar for sure. The only thing missing is the clouds of cigarette smoke. This is a no-smoking bar!
