It measured 28x16 metres and had a central courtyard surrounded by many rooms, all of which contained a clay beer vat placed centrally or in a corner of the room. The plasters walls of the rooms may all have been decorated with depictions in clay of naked women.

It was a rectangular building some twenty meters long and ten meters wide with two series of wooden columns inside, standing on stone bases. There was also a supporting wall with an inscription indicating the use of the building. Two painting compositions extended along the long sides of the building, the north and the south, with the entrance being located in one of the narrow sides, probably the west side. The building had many doors; two rooms, leading to the main room where the paintings were exhibited. The roof was gabled, covered with terracotta tiles.

It was a single room with stairs leading to a mezzanine floor. An L-shaped counter with four inbuilt terracotta jars or folia, three large and one slightly smaller, and a brazier at one end. A bronze vessel on this brazier still containing water. A stack of amphorae against the wall behind the counter and various utensils on a shelf. A number of other utensils, cups, jars, ladles, statuettes, and lamps, made of terracotta, glass, and bronze in the taberna, together with a number of bronze and silver coins. Suggestively there had originally been a wooden table on the east side of the bar, as many items were found towards the east wall of this taberna.

In another room just across a courtyard, earthen benches lined the walls and a charcoal-burning hearth occupied the middle of the floor. Those features suggested a sit-down joint rather than a takeout counter. Bones from sheep and cattle were found in the courtyard. The floors were scattered with shards of fancy drinking bowls imported from Italy, as well as debris from large platters and bowls.

Over the lintel of the door of the tavern the sculptured angel shone resplendent in his golden glory. A charming little balcony rested on his wings and his hands held out a crown of hospitable welcome to royal and common guests alike.

It had a fireplace, typically circular tables and chairs and then the bar, not a long table running down the length of the room, but rather a corner countertop wedged at a 90-degree angle in one corner of the room. Behind that countertop is where the booze was stored.

The front door faced the street and opened into a small room with an oak bar, table and chairs; from there a doorway led to into a second, larger room, where more tables, chairs and a sofa were arranged.

It had a lamp, a counter, maybe a bench. Chairs and tables would be discretionary. The floor would be wood, maybe, or maybe packed dirt. There might be chromes on the walls, but probably not . There would certainly be a peephole, a guard at the door. There would be nearly a zero level of amenity.

It was two rooms, in the front room was the bar and tables for tourists, the back room was where the illegal activity took place which was called dancing. A red light flashed to alert us when police were coming so we could sit down at our tables and not touch each other.

It was dark with two bars and a jukebox. There was no running water to wash the glasses of watered-down booze and beer that were rinsed in a murky tub behind the main bar. There were two large horizontal windows that were blacked out so no one could not see inside. The windows were reinforced from the inside with plywood which was further reinforced with two-by-fours. The thick oak doors had steel doors inside them and several of locks. Each of the front doors had two small vertical openings cut into it at eye level. One of four openings served as a peephole to screen potential customers, giving the establishment somehow the look of a speakeasy.

The lighting was very dim throughout. The first room had a low ceiling that combined with the darkness to create a cavern-like feel.

It was a small, cozy bar, with only a few barstools and tables, but its size gave it a distinctive charm and unpretentious character that was larger than life.

They served sweet beer, iron beer, sparkling beer, perfumed beer, spiced beer-cold or hot, beer of thick, sticky millet, and as many varieties of beer as of different qualities of wine.

There were wheat, barley, pulses, and barleywine in the mixing bowl and grainy things [floating] at the brim. Straight straws, some bigger and some smaller, were placed inside.  When thirsty, one put it [the straw] in the mouth and sucked. If someone did not pour water over it, it was thoroughly undiluted [very strong], but very pleasant to one who had acquired the taste.

I saw some young men getting drunk, becoming feverish with intoxication, off their heads to such an extent that they supposed they were in a trireme, sailing through a dangerous tempest; they became so befuddled as to throw all the furniture and fittings out of the house as though at sea, thinking that the pilot had told them to lighten the ship because of the storm. A great many people, meanwhile, were gathering at the scene and started to carry off the discarded property, but even then the youths did not pause from their lunacy. On the following day the generals turned up at the house, and charges were brought against them. Still sea-sick, they answered to the officials’ questioning that in their anxiety over the storm they had been compelled to jettison their superfluous cargo.

I saw your provincial governor, reclining next to some assassin. He was nestled in a crowd of sailors, thieves, and fugitive slaves. He was there amongst executioners, the builders of cheap coffins, and the eunuch priests of Cybele who have finally stopped beating their drums only because they have passed out. There are no class distinctions in a place like that. The drinks are shared; there are no private couches at the table; no one is closer to the table than anyone else.

I saw some play at dice so eagerly as to quarrel over them, snuffing up their nostrils, and making unseemly noises by drawing back their breath into their noses:—or (and this is their favorite amusement by far) from sunrise till evening, through sunshine or rain, they stayed gaping and examining the charioteers and their horses; and their good and bad qualities.

I saw three men, slouching, listless, weary specimens of their kind, who were playing “Comrades” with gusto curiously out of keeping with their looks of bored fatigue. One had a harp, another a violin,, and a third drummed ceaselessly upon a piano of harsh, metallic tone. There were a dozen round tables in the room, and at these were seated small groups of men and women drinking beer… They were simply commonplace… Suddenly I noted that the social atmosphere was one of the strangest, complete camaraderie. The conversation was the blasphemous, obscenest gossip of degraded men…unrelieved by anger or by mirth, and varying only with the indifferent interchange of men’s and women’s voices.

Es ist laut – akustisches Chaos und Reizüberflutung. Verschiedene Formen des Fremdartigen schichten sich an- und übereinander und ungehörige Entäußerungen von Wilden und Narren, anthropoiden Tieren und Automaten bilden einen dichten Äther. Ihre Töne und Geräusche gerinnen in einem Wechselspiel aus Klarheit und Dreck, in dem die Stimme als flüchtiges Phänomen erklingt und verschwindet. Murmeln an der Bar aus gesenkten Köpfen und als Summen aus schlenkernden Körpern vor der Jukebox. Klare Artikulationen verlieren sich zwischen Kehlkopf und Lippen. Surren, Klicken, Dröhnen, Scheppern setzen sich aufsässig der klaren Artikulation von Sinn entgegen.


Men danced with men, mournfully, with deadly seriousness.… The one playing the lady’s role might have the moustache of a cavalryman and pince-nez, he might be ugly, with coarse, masculine features, and not even a trace of femininity.… The Police Inspector and his guests had seated themselves at a table in the centre of one end of the room, close to which all the couples had to pass.… The Inspector called them by their Christian names and summoned some of the most interesting among them to his table, so that I could study them!… In the female section, where women danced with women, the most noteworthy person was a stately lady.… Her eyes followed a radiant young blonde. The Inspector informed them that the two were bound together by a passionate love for each other, and that, as the elder woman was poor, the younger one supported her by selling herself to men she abhorred.

The night I was there we met lesbians on acid talking to the goldfish in the fish tank along with the local black transvestite who was dancing in hot pants with his G string on show and various dodgy looking people sat around the place giving the new people in the bar the evil eye thing that we where the police or some thing.

That time I had to talk to the police who came because of the loud noise while I was very drunk wearing my fab peacock outfit showing them my legs and offer them in bad german to have a shot with me.

The line flowed past the far wall, past the bar, the front room tables, and reached into the back room. Guarding the entrance to the toilet was a short square, handsome butch woman, the same every night, whose job it was to twist around her hand our allotted amount of toilet paper. She was [to] us,a man’s obscenity, doing the man’s trick so we could breathe. The line awaited all of us every night, and we developed a line act. We joked, we cruised, we commented on the length one of us took, we made special pleas to allow hot and heavy lovers in together, knowing full well that our lady would not permit it. I stood, a femme, loving the women on either side of me, the hair hitting the collar, the thrown-out hip, the hand encircling the beer can. Our eyes played the line, subtle touches, gentle shyness weaved under the blaring jokes, the music, the surveillance. We lived on that line: restricted and judged, we took deep breaths and played…but buried deep in our endurance was our fury. That line was practice and theory seared into one.

Ordinance Code § 257: Rogues and vagabonds, or dissolute persons who go about begging; common gamblers, persons who use juggling or unlawful games or plays, common drunkards, common night walkers, thieves, pilferers or pickpockets, traders in stolen property, lewd, wanton and lascivious persons, keepers of gambling places, common railers and brawlers, persons wandering or strolling around from place to place without any lawful purpose or object, habitual loafers, disorderly persons, persons neglecting all lawful business and habitually spending their time by frequenting houses of ill fame, gaming houses, or places where alcoholic beverages are sold or served, persons able to work but habitually living upon the earnings of their wives or minor children shall be deemed vagrants and, upon conviction in the Municipal Court shall be punished as provided for Class D offenses.