Midnight Sun curse at work here?

Pretty much. Sam Sessa sat at his big oak desk, drawing on an even bigger cigar, and decreed: "The Atlas Bar is closed, see? And Angela will neva work in this town again, see? NEVA!"

As a semi-regular at Atlas, I'm not gonna lie: the Charles Carryout owner was a Presence with a capital P. He *loomed*. I have no idea if Angela is in the right or the wrong regarding whatever disputes she has with him. But I felt trapped under that guy's thumb almost every visit, and I was a paying customer...

NOOOOOOOOO!

damnit sessa. you're goin down.

What do you mean by trapped under his thumb? What was he doing? (Do you mean sitting at hte bar and being "that guy" that gets in everyone's business, or something else?)

hi guys.hopefully i can clarify a few things here.

a note to all of you: a business owner who takes an entirely hands-off approach to running a business he or she doesn't understand...won't succeed.

for those of you who decide to take ownership of a business in an industry in which you have little or no experience: do your homework, and play by the rules.

there are some owner- personalities that don't belong in or near a bar in any way. bars should be places to relax and/or be entertained. if a bar manager can't provide that for her patrons , she should move on, so i have.

I for one will follow so long as they are in walking distance. Love this place, so sad to see it go.

Do not give up the dream, make it your own Angela!

I'm still heartbroken that Friends closed.

@Another Aaron

Easy to experience, hard to explain. He didn't sit at the bar—he was too busy running the carryout—but he certainly gave you the eyeball almost every time you in, and it was often apparent that he didn't like what he saw.

There was always the sense that he wanted the bar to be like his carryout: get in, get your drink, get out. But bars don't work that way. (And the bar was the only reason I tried his carryout, not the other way around.)

Add that to basic amateur inconveniences—just getting ice was meant the bartender had to go to the kitchen and ask for some—and it made for an odd patron experience that soon went from quirky to creepy.

at the 'ice' comment: what, you mean it's not normal for a bar owner to fix an ice machine 19 months after the bar opens?

during the time in which we had no ice machine,
i tried to compensate for our lack of storage space ice by bringing in a large picnic-style cooler but it was re-appropriated (given to the boss's son) for his snowball stand without my permission.

this effectively left us ice-less, and 9 out of 10 friday nights right when things would get busy, we'd have to send out for it.
a trip next door, but surely one we could have avoided.
a box fan i paid for and brought in to cool the place down when the a/c didn't work (it still doesn't) was also 're-appropriated' for some failing refrigerator equipment in the kitchen.

ah well...

(by the way, thanks, stefan! hope to see you soon!)

Angela took a chance on a space that no one even knew could exist and made it into the cosiest little bar north of North ave.

I would say you should move Atlas up to Remington, which has several perfect places (empty ex-bars) for it... Alas, our neighborhood association doesn't want bars around the area.

I hope you are able to open back up. I really dug the place!

Feh... You should try to relocate to the abandoned Kitty Kat bar on the corner of 23 and Hampden Ave.

Come to Hampden!!

That's a shame, I liked the Atlas Bar and I like the Charles Carryout. It's like mom and dad fighting.