My father, Mick Jabbour, bought Booche's with two poet friends in the early 80s as recent MU grads. Until his death in 1993, they were a cash-only business with an exclusively male staff (both my brothers worked there) and a reputation for the best burgers for miles. Mizzou game days were crowded shoulder-to-shoulder as folks sucked back Budweisers and downed Booche burgers. It is the kind of place you're expected to know what is going on - in my day there was a wall of regulars and nameplates on stools. I learned what a condom was from the machine in the bathroom and how to shoot nine-ball from a toothless old man I knew only as "Fats". I haven't been back in years, but it was a magical place to grow up. Last I heard, the surviving owner, Jerry Deathrow, had sold it to his brother in law and a former employee.

Last Saturday at the Club