About Alley Bar
The Alley Bar calls itself Bloomington's Biggest Little Bar because of its small size, and it sits at 210 W. Kirkwood Avenue, half a block west of the Courthouse Square. The bar says it is known for ice cold beer. The Indiana Daily Student's January 2025 bar guide also calls it a good place to watch sports and notes it opens early on Hoosier game days that start earlier in the day.
The bar says it has been around since 1977, in a building that was a bar long before that. A Sanborn map shows a saloon there as far back as 1877, then the building became a barber shop in 1906 run by Pleasant Evans and his son Maurice until 1960. It later reopened as the Sportsman's Lodge. Eulia "Boodles" Chitwood ran the Alley Bar until 2004 and started selling the pull-tab game 13's, which the bar still sells. The current owners took over in 2004, and the bar served only beer and wine until it began serving liquor in 2017.
The bar posts a different drink special for each day of the week, and it sells shirts, koozies and stickers online. Posted hours are 4 pm to 3 am Monday to Saturday and 1 pm to 1 am Sunday, which may change.
