Muleskinner

Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Drew Woolery: Muleskinner This tiny bar stays in the memory of locals, college students alike. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Emily Jarrett: Digitalburg.com Sigma Tau Gamma is represented at Old Barney's by this wooden eagle. The fraternity brothers return to the tavern every Homecoming. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Drew Woolery: Muleskinner Maurice Haney, manager [Click to enlarge]

In the 1980s, one of the most popular shows on TV was about a group of people who hung out at the local bar, joking with the bartender, complaining about work and telling stories to whomever would listen.

With its group of regular customers, "Cheers" could have easily been based at Old Barney's, a bar and grill located at 112 Hout St., in downtown Warrensburg.

According to manager Maurice Haney, Barney took over the bar in 1956 and soon rebuilt it, adding a kitchen and back patio. Though it has had multiple owners over the years, the bar itself has remained the same.

Framed pictures of local sports teams and newspaper clippings still decorate the wood paneled walls. The menu board boasts "the coldest beer in town," just like it always has. Regular customers come in for lunch every day to order the Barney Burger, like they have for the past 20 years.

"The college and the Air Force have really kept us going," Haney said. "We also get a lot of people who have moved away and when they come back for Homecoming or a graduation, they always stop in and tell a story about how much they liked Barney's."

According to Haney, there's a group of fraternity brothers who visit Barney's every Homecoming to reminisce about old times. Sigma Tau Gamma has made their mark on Barney's by installing a wooden eagle with their letters painted on its chest.

"We finally had to chain it to the wall to make sure they didn't take it. They're always trying to steal it," Haney said with a grin.

"We get a lot of different people in here, old and young, from all sorts of backgrounds," said Lora Campbell. "But we just like to joke around and have a good time. We don't take things too seriously around here."

Campbell has worked as an assistant manager at Barney's for the past two years. She said she was looking for a job and her mother saw an ad in the paper for a cooking position.

"I already had experience cooking so I interviewed right away," she said. "I won't ever leave now; I've got Barney's in my blood."

Campbell looks most at home behind the bar, getting drinks ready, serving meals and keeping up long, steady conversations with a group of regulars on their lunch break. She serves a Barney Burger and fries to one customer, and calls to another to say their meal will be out in a minute. She knows everyone's name and can usually guess what they're going to order before they even sit down.

"Oh yeah, we get a lot of regulars in here," she said. "Sometimes I'll recognize their cars and when they walk in the door, I've got their drink ready for them."

Brandon Gauchat is one of those regulars.

"I've been coming here for about three years," Gauchat said. "I come in for lunch a lot, or I'll meet friends here at night and play pool. I like it because I just know everybody."

"Everybody's got a Barney's story," Campbell said. "There was a regular who used to come in here all the time, Scott Gold. The day he died, I found out I was pregnant with my youngest son; I named him Tyler Scott. You just get attached to people here; we're very much a family."

"I think Barney's will always be open," Haney said. "Life just wouldn't be the same without it."

Old Barney's is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 1:15 a.m. Lunch is served until 1:30 p.m. and breakfast is served on Saturdays.

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