The final pour: Scenes from the last night of Columbia’s legendary bar The Whig
The gate is closed.
For the better part of two decades, Columbians of all stripes — writers, musicians, lobbyists, college students, couples on dates, foodies and everyday people simply looking for a cold drink at a fair price — passed through the gate at the northeast corner of Main and Gervais streets, straight across from the S.C. State House, and descended the steps to the iconic bar The Whig.
But late Saturday night — early Sunday morning, if we’re being technical — The Whig served its final drink. The bar and restaurant has closed after 17 years, as its lease was not renewed amid plans to transform the historic 11-story building at 1200 Main into a Marriott Moxy brand hotel. Work for the hotel already is underway.
The State was on-hand Saturday, Nov. 19, for The Whig’s final day, from the moment it opened its gate at 4 p.m. until the staff finally shooed the last revelers out the door at about 2 a.m.
The iconic establishment thrummed with business and energy until the last moment on its final day, with waves of customers flowing and ebbing in the dark, underground space all night long as Whig co-owner Will Green and longtime bartenders Matty Brouwer and Lauren England expertly manned the bar. There was an almost bunker-like bravado among the coworkers in these final hours, and they served drinks with a laser efficiency that comes only with the bedrock of familiarity. A familiarity with the space, and with one another.
“We got better and better and better,” Green said of the way the bartenders were able to work together, both in the final months leading up to the closure and on the last night. “We can only do it because we have all worked together so much.”
It was a symbol of what The Whig was, right up until the finality of last call. It was at once intimate and innovative, comforting and brash. All things end, but not all things end at the peak of their powers. The Whig, as it was at 1200 Main St., will live forever, if only in the hearts of Columbia.
‘I found my home’
In conversations with customers throughout the evening, a recurring theme was that The Whig transcended the traditional paradigm of simply being a place of business. It was more than just a tavern where you could have a cocktail or a plate of the (amazing) smoked Gouda mac and cheese.
It was a place that bound Columbia together.
Bach Pham and fiancé Rebecca Shepherd were longtime regulars at The Whig, and they made sure to visit the bar several nights during its last week in business. On the final night, they settled into a booth near the corner of the room for several hours, enjoying drinks and the company of friends.
Pham, who, among other things, has long been a freelance food writer for the local paper Free Times, said The Whig has been fixture in their lives through the years.
“It is a place that has brought us together all these years,” Pham said on Saturday. “When we got engaged, we came here. We came after the movies and after events. It’s been everything to us, and we are just glad to be here on the last night.”
Columbia’s Peter and Mollie Schmolze were nestled into a side booth at The Whig on its final night, their conversation illuminated by the electric, flickering orange candle-style lights that were a hallmark of the booths. Peter and Mollie have been married for a number of years and have two kids.
But they met, 12 years ago, in The Whig, on one of the restaurant’s famed Taco Tuesday nights. Later, they had some of their engagement photos taken inside The Whig. The couple said people have been appreciative of the sort of long goodbye the bar had. It announced back in August that it would be closing in the late fall.
“Even though they are closing under these circumstances, the way they were able to go out with this prolonged goodbye really means a lot to everybody,” Peter Schmolze said. “Friends of ours have come in from California, Colorado, from Charleston, Seattle, and they had enough time to get here and see it one last time. And that means something.”
One of The Whig’s most frequent customers through the years has been Mark Altman, who could often be found on a stool near the northeast corner of the bar. Altman has been coming to The Whig since 2010 and said his love for the spot and its staff was cemented on the first night he was there.
Altman, a gay man, said that on that first night he visited The Whig, another customer at the bar made homophobic remarks to him. Altman said the bartender immediately told the other customer to cut it out. The customer then made more homophobic comments, at which point the bartender told him to leave the bar.
“I sat here and thought, ‘I found my home,’” Altman said.
In fact, after that first night when the bartender ejected the person who was harassing him, Altman returned to The Whig for 222 consecutive nights. While the consecutive night streak was eventually snapped, Altman remained a fixture at the bar for more than a decade.
Altman said he will miss the staff at The Whig dearly.
“My liver is grateful, and my wallet is grateful,” he said, with a chuckle. “But the staff? Yeah, they are the best. ... I have been here every day since they announced they were closing.”
‘It’s super heavy’
Of course Phill Blair would be there on the last night.
The longtime co-owner of The Whig, he’s been with the bar since it opened in 2005. While Blair wasn’t working on the final night, he spent several hours posted up at the bar greeting customers and well-wishers, who, one after another, approached him to share stories and memories of The Whig, to tap beer glasses with him in final toasts, and to simply say “thanks.”
Bearded and gravelly-voiced with an ever-present glint of mischief in his eyes, Blair has become a stalwart of the Columbia hospitality scene through the years. He and Green also are co-owners of WECO Bottle and Biergarten in West Columbia, and The Whig has been a key player in Main Street events in Columbia, including the Jam Room Music Festival, Arts and Draughts and First Thursday on Main.
Blair admitted the final night at The Whig was tinged with emotion.
“It’s super heavy,” he said. “It’s heavy for everybody. The last week, week and a half for everybody has been emotional. The customers have been emotional. I’ve gone literally nowhere in public where it hasn’t been the topic of conversation.”
Since The Whig announced in August that it was leaving its basement space at 1200 Main, a question has been on the tongues of many in the capital city: Will it relocate to another spot?
The answer remains open-ended, to say the least. But on the final night down in the basement, Blair seemed to leave the door open, just a crack.
“It’s hard to say,” Blair said. “At this point, it’s more a matter of time and the will to do it. ... The world looks very different at 41 than it did at 21. I started here in my early 20s, and now I’m in my early 40s. There are a lot of questions we have to ask ourselves.
“The last two or three months have proven Columbia wants a Whig. I think another one could be very successful. I don’t think this location has very much to do with it. Main Street, yes. But this basement, no. So, we’ll see.”
While it remains to be seen whether The Whig will find new life at another location, Green, who has tended bar there since 2006 and has been a co-owner since 2018, knows that it made a name for itself during the course of nearly two decades at Main and Gervais.
Green offered a reflective pause when asked what the legacy of The Whig will be.
“For a while, it was the best bar that Columbia had ever seen,” Green said. “There are other people who specialize in other things. You can get a better drink elsewhere. You can get friendlier service elsewhere. But if you put it all together, every single night, day in and day out, nobody can do it like we did.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
