(Downtown, Hiawatha, KS)
Scooter’s 997th bar, first visited in 2013.
Kansas’s “Beer Bars” (also known as “3.2 Bars” or “CMB Bars”) are almost always unexpected treats. Since they are licensed at the local level instead of by the state (they can only serve low-alcohol beer, nothing else) they can be hard to find out about if you aren’t a local — and often these end up being the places with the richest histories and the most character. Dew Drop Inn is no exception, this was by far the best find on this particular pub crawl.
In the front, a tiny bar with size tools and a few small booths. In the back, a small room just large enough for the pool table it contains. Behind the bar, a delightful 80-year-old woman named Alberta who has worked here for coming up on six decades and owned the place for nearly five of them.
Alberta shared with is the history of the place. It opened in 1869 (Edit, may have been 1879, trying to confirm) as a lunch counter — later becoming a hamburger/steak joint. The back room was added on sometime later, and it was early in the second half of the 20th century that it converted from restaurant to a CMB bar. She didn’t say exactly when she stopped serving food, but it sounds like that was more recent (maybe 10-20 years ago).
Menu from the 1940s. I could sure go for some 25¢ steaks! 
508 Oregon
Hiawatha, KS 66434
US
[launch map]
(785) 742-2423
