Words & Deeds

What’s in a name? New Eagle bar to open and find out. ‘It’s not Hustler, people.’

Before revealing the name of her new bar during this phone conversation, Ruth Wade attempts to set the tone.

“You might as well put a positive spin on this,” she says.

Then Wade, who will be the manager, pulls the big reveal: It’s called Corner Hustle Neighborhood Bar.

Opening June 13, it is on a corner — sorta. It’s the end tenant in a strip of businesses at Eagle Clocktower, 1580 E. State St., in the former Eagle Triple Tap space.

More important? “The word ‘hustle,’ if you look up the definition, is a very positive thing,” Wade maintains. To make her point, she recites a line about having the “courage, confidence, self-belief and self-determination to go out there and work it out until you find the opportunities you want in life.”

Corner Hustle’s name has raised eyebrows among Eagle officials, she explains. For apparently sinister yet nebulous reasons.

“It’s not Hustler, people,” Wade says with a laugh. “There’s a big difference!”

Either way, Corner Hustle will be a welcoming hangout, she promises — part Cheers, part cocktail lounge, part sports bar, with a “higher, classy kind of feel.”

“We want the best of both worlds,” she says. “We’re going to make it reasonably priced. .... We want to be a catch-all. A nice, clean bar.”

Corner Hustle will serve quality mixed drinks, she says, without being a trendy craft cocktail lounge. In addition to liquor, there will be wine and lots of beer — but not the 40 taps offered by the now-defunct Triple Tap.

In normal times, the space has a capacity of about 60 people, Wade says, plus another 40 on the outdoor patio. But Corner Hustle will open with social distancing, she says. “We won’t be filled to max capacity.”

The bar will hold off a couple of weeks before having a grand opening celebration — set for June 28.

“I think people are going to be a little slow to the draw as far as wanting to venture out back into the community,” she says, before chuckling. “Of course Walmart says differently, it looks like.”

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