The 3rd Shift Bar

I've only opened one 3rd shift bar. A 3rd shift bar is a spot that opens at 6 or 7 in the morning so that all the guys working the 3rd shift at the mill or plant can go in and get a drink at the end of their work day. I guess this kind of early-morning bar opening is fairly common in Chicago where bars operate on 23-hour liquor licenses, so people will go eat breakfast when the bar closes at 4am, then they'll go back for a post-breakfast bloody mary at 5am. In Minneapolis, the only bar I knew that opened early near my house was the C.C. Club. My roommate was working the 3rd shift and I'd stayed up all night playing video games, so my roommate and I gave our friend a ride to the airport at about 5:00am. After fighting traffic to get back home, we decided to visit the C.C. Club for some breakfast and bloody marys, but we arrived about 10 minutes before they opened. I'm not sure what was worse: the bitter cold, or standing in front of a bar at 6am waiting for it to open. There was a bus stop right across the street that pointed towards downtown, so it was loaded with people on their way to work. If there'd been one on our side, we at least could have pretended to be waiting for the bus.