Where everybody knows your name

The thing I love about The Abbey is that it's a place I can go to enjoy a drink, hang with friends and enjoy the benefits of adulthood rights (aka drink until I forget it's the middle of the work week).

I have had the fortunate privilege of being able to enjoy this establishment for the past two years. This place, this bar, wedged between a jewelry store and a Subway, has become a staple in my life more than I thought possible. When I enter the doors of the small pub, I know I'll be greeted by Lauren, Kyle or Josh (the bartenders that know me by name or friendship outside of the bar) or that I'll run into a familiar face of a friend. Take this particular evening, for example. I came in and was greeted by both Lauren and Josh and joined my friend Buddy at his table, where we engaged in an intense conversation of literary works we're both respectively working on and the true nature of blogging, along with the nagging problem of narcissism that one could easily fall into when becoming consumed with the fame from niche blogging. We proceeded to step outside to enjoy the warm evening weather and discuss how seeing the moon so near full makes us marvel in the knowledge that we are in space, traveling about the galaxy at a rate we can only see happening.

As a huge fan of classic sitcoms, I often looked at my favorite characters with jealous eyes as they met up with friends at their local spots. I realized today, as I had a back-and-forth conversation with Buddy about the progression of our stories, that I never had to look for those spots because they always seemed to find me.

What's the place you go to where everyone knows your name? That one special place where it's started to become your second home?