N-Owl Nightlife Guide – A Tribute to The Owl Tree

Note:Please pardon the gap in entries…my other job is having busy season right now and I can’t post as often as I’d like! But fear not! Plenty of MUNI goodness is on its way!
This morning I read some sad news in our local paper – it seems Robert “Bobby” Cook, owner of the Owl Tree has died. And once again, we’ve lost not just a great bartender or a cool little locally-owned bar, but also a little bit of what makes our city ours, and not someone else’s.
I’d actually prepared a backup column for the N-Owl nightlife guide of what I called “theme park bars” in and around The City, and the Owl Tree was one of our stops, for many reasons. One was of course the fact the place was covered in owls. Really. I mean, like, tons of owl pictures, owl statues, owl anything. Perfect for the N-Owl guide.
More importantly, the proprietor, Mr. Cook, was easily one of the coolest, old-fashioned, righteous bartenders in town. “Mason Powell” and I did a tour of three places, and the Owl Tree was one our favorites, because he was a nice guy to talk to, and ran a bar the old-fashioned way. If you were a guy and you ordered a Cosmo, you more or less got shown the door!
I’d gone to the Owl Tree on and off over the years, and inevitably what brought me back was the personality of its owner, and his excellent cocktails. Thus, when I read he’d died, I was really surprised, since the last time I’d been there he seemed to be his usual hard working, personable self. All of us here send our condolences to the family, and to the Owl Tree’s many patrons who will no longer be able to rely on Bobby’s cocktails and personality to liven up a Saturday night.