Eccentricity rules at the Root Beer Saloon

ALTO PASS, Ill.

When his fellow bikers belly up to the bar at Michael Blank's saloon, there are four beers on tap to choose from -- root beers, that is.

Blank and his partner, Cynthia Lucas, claim The Root Beer Saloon is the world's first root beer saloon. True or not, customers are likely to think they've never seen its likes before.

The decor is a taxidermist's dream, an animal-lover's nightmare. Horns and antlers -- more than 200 sets of them -- sprout from every wall. A stuffed mountain goat greets you at the door. A stuffed rattlesnake sits on the counter. The shell of an 18-pound lobster from New Brunswick hangs on the wall behind the bar.

Blank, who models a cap made from a wolverine hide, hunted down or caught almost every one of them. Taxidermy is just one of his former trades.

But there's much more to entertain the eyes at the saloon, almost too much to take in, including a big statue of King Tut and a cigar store Indian, a lamp that once illuminated Al Capone, and a huge and odd diorama replica of a 1930s New York tenement.

The Root Beer Saloon is Blank's creation.

"I'm eccentric," he says.

Besides taxidermy, he has been a musician and a guitar maker -- he just started his own brand, Zuni Guitars. He has made leather jackets for professional sports teams, and he has run a palm tree store in Phoenix. Restaurateur has been his profession a few other times prior to opening the saloon in 2000. He has changed careers like a virtuoso.

"You can't stop the mind," he says.

He supplied the maple from British Columbia used to make Gibson ES 335 guitars, the kind B.B. King plays. One of his treasures is a 335 King autographed for him.

Not all of his jobs have been unusual. A graduate of Southern Illinois University, he was working as the director of marketing and special programs at the university when he quit on his 39th birthday. "It was time to move on," he says simply.

He also operates the West Indies Trading Company, importing spices and other goods.

The complete name of this establishment is Northwest Passage and The Root Beer Saloon. Northwest Passage is the gift shop on one side of the room offering infused vinegars from Italy, spice baskets, more than 130 kinds of coffee beans in bulk, 35 varieties of teas, 200 herbs and spices, and 100 varieties of hot sauce.

The 50-year-old Blank is the gourmet cook responsible for the prime rib and the duck l'orange on the lunch menu. For private parties, he cooks a feast called "The Taste of Tuscany and the Mediterranean." Scallops in proscuitto, scallion soup with squid, orange watercress salad with mustard dressing, vanilla herb braised lamb chops and Spanish paella are only a few of the 80 offerings.

This from a renaissance man who proudly says, "I've been going to Sturgis since I was 16."

Sturgis, S.D., is the home of the largest motorcycle rally in the world.

The Harley he rides sits at the curb alongside his orange 1933 Dodge hot rod. There's also a '37 Flathead Harley in the back of the saloon and a rare XR1000 Harley in the building next door. That is the birthday gift from Lucas that stole his heart. She is the only woman he has ever taken to Sturgis.

"She can roll," he says.

Lucas, who moved here three years ago from Michigan, is a former accountant and secretary. She is the waitress to his chef, the bookkeeper to his dreamer, the listener to his raconteur.

Lately Blank has been working on a book about women. "It ain't Oprah and it's ain't Dr. Phil," he says. "... It's the guy's side of the story."

Blank has been engaged four times but never married. "If I had gotten married I'd be a wino drinking Ripple on the street," he says.

A limousine carrying guests to a birthday party pulled up in front of the saloon Wednesday afternoon. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" over mugs of root beer.

"One day some women came in a limo for a divorce party," Lucas recalled when the birthday party left. "They came for lunch and were hitting the wine trail."

Some kind of food festival is scheduled at the Root Beer Saloon almost every weekend. This weekend's is a Salmonfest Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., featuring smoked salmon, Cajun smoked salmon, and salmon sautéed in Italian herbs. Smoked trout is available for anyone who doesn't like salmon.

The root beers are microbrewed by Fitz's in St. Louis, Sprecher from Milwaukee, Goose Island from Chicago and 1919 from Minnesota. Each one has a distinctive taste, they say.

More than 1,800 motorcycles were there at the Blessing of the Bikes a month ago at the cross at nearby Bald Knob. Afterward, many of the bikers came to The Root Beer Saloon. Blank and Lucas served root beer by the keg outside.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182