SHIPS LOUNGE

DOWN THE STREET from paleo and fancy toast eateries on Greenville Avenue, crock pots are humming along with something closer to comfort food at Ships Lounge on Wednesday nights.

Humpday is free chili dog night at Ships, which tells you everything you need to know about the local dive. Guests may grab a beer at the bar and head over to the slow cookers, which keep hot dogs, chili and melted cheese warm and ready for the hungry, at no charge.

With deals like that, no one asks questions about how a bar with a nautical theme hundreds of miles from the ocean has lasted for decades.

One Wednesday, as the night wore on, a man entered and began making several chili dogs all at once. They weren’t for him, though. He was heading out to distribute the hot dogs to his homeless friends, he said.

Pam Shaddox has tended bar at Ships for the last 17 years, and she says the bar is like going back in time. “Look at the jukebox, it’s all oldies,” she adds.

Ships’ shotgun design has been in place since the 1950s, with the bar taking up more than half the width of the tight space, though there is a pool table and more seating at the back, as well as a newer lofted library area full of old Encyclopedia Britannica volumes.

The padded blue front door has an anchor pattern riveted into the upholstery, which may be a metaphor for the bar and the people there. In stormy seas, neighbors can count on Ships Lounge.

Ships almost didn’t make it when the shopping center at Ross and Greenville was redeveloped in 2015 and 2016. When a longtime Mexican restaurant, a used tire place and a paint store became hip restaurants, an upscale barbershop and a boutique gym, Ships closed for almost a year.

For a quiet conversation away from the jukebox that only plays the classics, head upstairs to the lofted library.

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“People were calling and texting me, asking, ‘What is going on with Ships?’ ” Shaddox says. New owners Nasser Nayeb and Matt Pikar, who also own Nora on Greenville, made sure the bar survived, changing the space slightly without running off the regulars. The bar reopened in 2016.

A mural of the ocean adorns the wall opposite of the bar, which keeps its beer selection simple yet plentiful. The vinyl pad that lines the edge of the bar has its outer layer peeled away, and a now defunct space heater hangs above an inverted occupancy sign that originally said “49,” but now reads something closer to “6h.”

The campy décor and homey feel bring many to the bar, but for Shaddox, the regulars are what keep her coming to work every day.

“The people make it interesting and joyful to be here,” she says. “I enjoy the compadre-ship of the people I’ve been with all these years.”

She adds, “No matter what time you come in, you can forget your problems at the door. There will be a cheerful bartender behind the bar, and you can tell a difference between when you walk in and when you walk out.”

Ships Lounge

1613 Greenville Ave.

10–12 a.m. Monday-Friday, 10–1 a.m. Saturday, noon–12 midnight Sunday