Vienna Inn prepares to turn 50 – The Fairfax Times
The beloved Vienna Inn is approaching 50 years in business. This is just a fairly standard article about the history of my hometown bar, but I quibble with this statement:
The walls, saturated with the smell and color of smoke…
Hardly — at least compared to what it used to be. When Mike and Mollie Abraham still owned it, the ceiling was really dirty from all of the smoke. Now, it is nothing like that — I suspect when it changed hands the health inspector said something along the lines of “we were letting Mike slide a little, but you are bringing this joint up to code!”
Also, some specifics to something I’ve been saying for years — they used to sell more Budweiser than anybody:
“In 1979, when the drinking age in Virginia was still 18, the Vienna Inn sold more Budweiser beer that year than any other bar or sports stadium in the United States, except Yankee Stadium — over 10,000 kegs…”
This is why the Clydesdales used to show up in the Vienna Halloween Parade every year. Apparently, they don’t just show up for everyone.
