Excellent point!

One of my friends is attending graduate school in the Washington D.C. area and is having trouble finding a great bar. He is in search of an English Pub and all the qualities that go with it (read all about it here). After reading it you may think it is very particular, and it is, but what he is in search of is what makes a bar great. After careful consideration, I have come up with two bars in the Wichita area which I absolutely love.

One is the Chalet. It is cheap, dark, it has a few pool tables, has great deep fried bar food, and is smokey. The smokey aspect of the bar is what makes it a little less desirable. Another great thing to consider is distance. It is within three miles of the apartment. Quick to get to and it is back off the road, and is not close to the downtown bar scene. They have a dollar beer night on Thursdays. Great deal, but it attracts the college crowd and I have outgrown that crowd. These days, they just bug me. I don't ever feel old until I come across some frat boy douche convention.

The second bar is the Artichoke. It is first and foremost a sandwich bar. They have great food, is smoke free (mostly), decent prices, it's small (which can also be a draw back), and have live music from time to time. It isn't loud bass thumping music, but mostly acoustic. It ranges from country to folk to open mic. The one downside is the distance. It is way downtown and is away from the main scene. It is the best place to go and have a few pints and just sit and talk. An excellent 'catch up' bar. A place to hang out with people you haven't seen in some time.

If I were to pick one over the other, it would be the 'Choke. The tipping point is the smoke free aspect. Last year, bars and restaurants started to go smoke free in Wichita. It is fantastic. It is up to the owner whether or not they want to be smoke free, so those who want to voluntarily get cancer can just scope out those bars. The smoke does not irritate me as much as some others, but it is nice to wake up the next day and not smell like it.

There are some other bars that I enjoy going to down here, but they don't have the same 'charm' as the Chalet or the Choke.