The Michigan Daily-Friday, February 1, 1980-Page 7
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The gilded
IURANTREVIEW
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palace of pizza
BY STEVE HOOK
There is something oddly therapeutic
about watching the intersection of
outh University and Church Street
luring a normal day or night. Between
he cars, trucks, buses, bicycles and
pedestrians, you can be guaranteed of a
miraculously close call at least every
thirty seconds - a near collision of
some kind occurring right before your
eyes. The headrush that results from
witnessing this chaos is a perfect sup-
plement to the pent-up anxiety and
better view of the Twilight Zone out-
doors. A spacious,, split level cafe
swarming with wicker chairs and
Saguaro plants, The Count is well lit,
well heated, and pretty darn cozy on a
cold winter day. You'll hear some light
jazz over the loudspeakers, and have
access to a variety of Italian food at
moderate prices and equally moderate
quality. It won't knock you dead, but it
is ar unlikely location for a two-dollar
lunch (one slice of mushroom and
cheese pizza and draft, or two slices of
ture windows, tower over the bar, and
jam just about every corner (the owner
of the Saguaro Plant Shop, Richard
Tuttle, stood outside Charlie's last mon-
th just before it opened, staring inside
at the sea of recently,sold merchandise.
After discussing the sale for several
minutes, he looked back inside, mut-
tered, "Yep, a pretty hefty chunk of
change," and lumbered on towards
campus).
THE SEATING in Charlie's is broken
up by a network of glass partitions.
These windows are etched with a
bizarre design that looks like a
mushroom-tree protruding from an
umbrella stand. This grotesque image
is illuminated by eerie, aqua-colored
light rays that beam through the glass
windows from their frames.
The nucleus of Good Time Charlie's is
a circular bar that is strewn with
hanging beer glasses and pitchers. In
its center, green-vested attendants
scramble, in all directions to accom-
modate their customers. This entire
area rests on a white tile floor, and un-
der a huge mirror. Charlie's also
houses a fleet of computerized pinball
machines, all of which fare virtualy
impossible to beat (I recommend
"Genie," the only Goutliet game, which
at least lets you play along most of the
time). In addition, there is a computer
football table that becomes a hub of ex-
citement when a foursome of bad asses
have their pride on the line. There are
several other video games, with names
like "Space Invaders" and
"Asteroids."
ON THE WHOLE, this is one in-
triguing complex that John Carver and
company have put together. Both Good
Time Charlie's Bar and Grill and The
Count of Antipasto are so submerged in
detail that they nearly drown. But when
push comes to shove, the manage to
survive their aesthetic shortcomings,
and present Ann Arborites with a
welcome diversion for their duly ap-
pointed rounds. Like one customer
noted at Good Time Charlie's, "This is
a nice place to kill an hour, but I
wouldn't want to spend all night here."
Gay Student's Association
with Gay Advocates
Are pleased to announce a
Lesbian and Gay men's
Charity Dance
to benefit the Girl's Club of Ypsilanti
February 2, 1980-9 pm until 2 am
Anderson Room of the Michigan Union
'.4
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AN EVENING With PETE SEEGER
The computer football table is often a center of activity at Goodtime
Charlie's.
churning frustration that prevails
uring the school year in Ann Arbor.
And what better way to watch tardy
students dart in front of milk trucks,
speeding bicyclists run red lights, and
Greyhound buses brake for dalmations,
than while sipping on a cold Molson and
listening to George Benson.
AND THUS we have the most ap-
pealing feature of two recent additions
to Ann Arbor's already-abundant
nightlife, Good Time Charlie's Bar and
Grill and The Count of Antipasto (1140
S University). These elaborate
atering holes, operated together by
"principal owner" John Carver (who
also runs Second Chance) and fellow
investors, have inevitably become
regular stops in the rounds of many.
area barflies - if only because of sheer
geography. But they're more than half-
baked dives destined to pick up the sur-
plus of drunk students with money to
burn. One look tells you that they
weren't conceived overnight. In fact,
'they feature such a mind-boggling
array of decor that you can picture a
team of financial consultants, interior
decorators and psychologists
collaborating on the finished product.
You can also picture agng of accoun-
tants assuring the investors that this
exorbitantly expensive operation would
not be without its capital gains once the
mortgage is paid off.
The Count of Antipasto, upstairs, is
the more tame of the pair, and offers a
cheese pizza and ice water). You
retrieve the food yourself, which may
involve an aggravating McDonalds-
style line, but the waitresses that bring
the drinks are friendly enough to com-
pensate - at least most of the time.
FOR THE first few trips, you might
spend most of your time at The Count,
when you're not surveying the traffic
below or grabbing your food, scanning
its unique interior ("Check it out, green
shag carpet on that wall over there;
look at those pipes and ventilation ducts
running every which way by the ceiling,
and those strings of tiny white light
bulbs running along the windows ...").
Compared to Goodtime Charlie's,
however, The Count's decor is child's
play.
Walking into Good Tim Charlie's
Bar and Grill for the first time, you can
immediately understand why it took so
long to open up. If you make your
maiden voyage into Charlie's after im-
bibing elsewhere for several hours, the
sight of its interior could very well
make you throw up, so you might want
to head upstairs to The Count for a few
minutes to prepare yourself.
Good Time Charlie's is a gaudy, un-
settling combination of black and green
- black walls and ceiling, black and
green patterned carpeting, rows of
green overhead lamps hanging over the
long tables throughout the place. Like
The Count, Charlie's is crawling with
Saguaro house plants. They line the pic-
Fridoy
Feb. 8
8:00 p.m.
Ford
Auditorium
Jefferson
at
Woodward,
Detroit
rickets:
18.00 & 05.00
Available at:
-Schoolkids'
Records
-Hudson's
Briarwood
BENEFIT:-
The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 224-1070
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