Did You Ever Sit In The Barber Chair At Rockford’s Blue Suede Shoes?

I've become fascinated with the drinking history of Rockford and I just found out about the barber chair shots at Blue Suede Shoes. 

The fascination began just last week when I was researching if Rockford ever had a tiki bar. Haven't figured that one out yet.

Then Captain Jack down at the Eagle took a look at Rockford's favorite bars from 5 years ago (there are some changes).

Then this morning Riley and I were talking about the new VIP bottle service club being installed at the Las Vegas Raider's new football field.

That led to me asking Riley if he had ever done bottle service. Obviously no. I, unfortunately, have had a few nights out with bottle service. There was Bamboo in Schaumburg, John Barleycorn, Vision, Excaliber, and others in Chicago. All awful. Really awful. And all way too expensive. I never paid for anything, I was always brought along as kind of a cruel joke.

Riley then did share the story of the barber chair at Blue Suede Shoes back in the day. Now I had heard of the concept of barber shot chairs. You lean your head back in an old-timey barber chair, open your mouth, the bartender pours it in, you sit back up and try not to puke.

That made sense. I just thought it was kind of an urban legend. Kind of like when people tell me that you used to be able to smoke inside bars. No way that happened.

So here's where I was going to search for some barber chair shot videos on YouTube to put in here for an example, but quite honestly, I don't think they're very proper. Search for yourself. I'll wait.

Was this type of shenanigans going on in Rockford back in the 80s?

Even if they were, it's still more respectable than pretty much everything that happens inside the bottle service area of any club. Seriously, don't do bottle service. It's NEVER worth it.