Cracking beers at the crack of dawn

The die-hards will be lined up outside The Buffet Bar and Crock Pot with beer in hand in the early morning light awaiting its daily 6 a.m. opening time.

"Homecoming is by far the busiest day of the year," said bartender Ned Hudac. In years past returning ex-students have arrived toting a six-pack to chug before the bar even opens.

This year's Homecoming game kick-off against the Beavers is scheduled for 7:07 p.m., giving The Buffet crowd a good 13 hours to get ready for the game.

Two bartenders and two doormen will be ready to tackle the "generations" of family and friends expected to arrive, said owner Ted Bair who bought the bar at in 1982.

Maybe Frampton, Mentor, Knudson and Lana will stop in to visit their local tavern, where they scratched their names into the 63-year-old wooden walls of Tucson's oldest bar, holding its 538 E. Ninth St. location since 1934. If not, their memory still lives on in with all the new barflies.

The bar remains much like it did when it first opened, but alumni who come back will notice the new Compact Disc Juke box and the bar's new ATM machine.

The first ATM was stolen this summer by a culprit who bashed in the bar's wooden doors, which have been replaced by new metal doors.

But other than that, it's the same small bar, tucked away from the busy streets, cozily seating about 70 people.

The bar's infamous drink is "The Buffalo Sweat," an unruly concoction that has claimed many birthday victims. The traditional double-shot sized drink is made with various hard liquors and crock pot juice, topped off with a firm squeeze of the bar rag.

Hudac said anything goes with The Buffalo Sweat, with ingredients including chew, cigarettes and even sometimes putting the rag through an ashtray.

"Every bartender makes them a little different, but they are all equally disgusting," said doorman Joe Camacho.

Attempts by party-revelers to drink the rank liquid is usually followed by a quick trip to the restroom, if they're lucky enough to make it.

The drink legend even helped prompt Playboy magazine in 1994 to rank The Buffet as one of the best college dive bars in the country.

But there is a good side to celebrating your special day at The Buffet. On birthdays, the bar offers a free half yard of beer and shot of your choice of liquor. The bartender even takes your picture. Often, the whole bar sings "Happy Birthday."

The Buffet only serves Coors on tap. At an all-day price of $1.25 for the 15-ounce jumbo, a Wildcat reporter on his 21st birthday this summer concluded "It's about the best damn deal on the planet."

And at the killer price, The Buffet recently became the first Coors Arizona account to ever sell more than 500,000 gallons of Coors beer, draining 80 to 90 kegs a month.

The bar attracts a mixed crowd, and on any given night, you'll find students elbow to elbow with old-time neighborhood fixtures. Area resident, Jerry has been coming to The Buffet for 14 years.

Tuesday night he was sporting a long-brimmed moose hat with yellow antlers, one of his 18 animal hats.

Jerry enjoys it when he spots someone who appears to be having a bad day until they see his hat.

"That's the best part, making them smile," he said, adding that he's been looking for the just the right fish hat for six years.

"Well hey, you always look for the best." he said.

No stop to The Buffet is complete without talking to Armando, one of the bar's most frequent and popular patrons.

You gotta be careful though. Armando is known to like "to-killa-ya" and loves to buy shots of 1800 Cuervo Gold.

"Life's too short to worry about nothing," he says, laughing.

It appears that the alumni often don't fall far from their favorite college dive bar.

Camacho has been working at The Buffet since his August graduation.

"I figured that I've hung out here enough, I might as well get paid for it," Camacho said, adding that he'll work at The Buffet until he goes to Atlanta this Spring.

Matthew Hickey graduated about a year ago but he still frequents the bar four to five times a week.

Maybe that's because he lives across the street.

"This place is the best," Hickey said. He swears by the bar's 25 cent games of pool, Coors jumbo drafts and $1 beer-boiled hot dogs.

"You can't beat it," he said, after stopping in Monday night between laundry loads.

And UA alum Scott Cummings is proof that you're never too old to hang out at your college hang out.

Cummings, 40, owner of O'Malleys On Fourth and Bob Dobbs' Bar and Grill, came in for a jumbo Tuesday night with some Irish friends, after the first meeting of the Ancient Order of Heberians at his Fourth Avenue pub.

"This is my favorite bar in the whole world and it always will be," said Cummings, who first started pounding down cheap beer at The Buffet 15 years ago.

He said Bair helped him get his first liquor license.

"Ted's a true gentlemen, and he's handsome too," he said.

During the past week Cummings has been caught up in Homecoming fever. Friends and former employees have flooded him with calls inquiring about tomorrow.

"What time are we getting to The Buffet?" they've all asked.

One guess at his answer.