GON
$100 Site Donor 2023
This was in the South Dakota Magazine. This bar burned in 2013.
Hillsview SD. Bar.
It was a most unusual bar. Cletus stocked it with beer, wine, whiskey and non-alchoholic drinks like any other tavern, but there was no bartender. There were no employees of any kind, in fact, the door was never locked. If you wanted a drink you walked in, helped yourself and left the money in the bucket. Lawrence Wolf ran Hillsview Bar in rural McPherson County until it closed in 1959. The building sat empty for 42 years, then Lawrence's nephew, Cletus Imberi, bought it. He intended to use the space to expand his shop but friends (doesn't every man have friends like these?) suggested he forget that idea and reopen the bar. So that's what Cletus did. Honor in a Country Bar.
Of all the businesses you could imagine, bars would seem to be one of the least likely to operate successfully on the honor system. Yet it worked for a dozen years. Cletus' bar hosted birthday parties, bachelor parties, Imberi family gatherings, even a wake. Visiting hunters enjoyed the pub, and they spread word of South Dakota's honorable bar to every state and across the Pacific to Australia.
The demise of many pubs can be traced to unpaid drinks, however it was an early-morning fire last January that ended the Hillsview Bar ----despite a valiant effort in frigid weather by volunteer firefighters from Eureka and Hosmer. Cletus' shop and the family dog were also lost. Not even the cash bucket was left.
But fire isn't likely to stop the spreading of stories about the little bar with the most honest drinkers in America.
Hillsview SD. Bar.
It was a most unusual bar. Cletus stocked it with beer, wine, whiskey and non-alchoholic drinks like any other tavern, but there was no bartender. There were no employees of any kind, in fact, the door was never locked. If you wanted a drink you walked in, helped yourself and left the money in the bucket. Lawrence Wolf ran Hillsview Bar in rural McPherson County until it closed in 1959. The building sat empty for 42 years, then Lawrence's nephew, Cletus Imberi, bought it. He intended to use the space to expand his shop but friends (doesn't every man have friends like these?) suggested he forget that idea and reopen the bar. So that's what Cletus did. Honor in a Country Bar.
Of all the businesses you could imagine, bars would seem to be one of the least likely to operate successfully on the honor system. Yet it worked for a dozen years. Cletus' bar hosted birthday parties, bachelor parties, Imberi family gatherings, even a wake. Visiting hunters enjoyed the pub, and they spread word of South Dakota's honorable bar to every state and across the Pacific to Australia.
The demise of many pubs can be traced to unpaid drinks, however it was an early-morning fire last January that ended the Hillsview Bar ----despite a valiant effort in frigid weather by volunteer firefighters from Eureka and Hosmer. Cletus' shop and the family dog were also lost. Not even the cash bucket was left.
But fire isn't likely to stop the spreading of stories about the little bar with the most honest drinkers in America.
