“the cooperative worked a lot longer than I’d have expected”

“As the sun lighted the stained-glass “Del Rio” sign above the door to the bar at Ashley and Washington Wednesday afternoon, people began drinking their last respects.

“Is this the end of the Del Rio?” asked a longtime patron as he walked into the downtown Ann Arbor tavern and restaurant that existed as an informal cooperative for most of its years since its founding in 1970. “Can I still get a drink?”

The answer was yes, in both instances.

Some of those eating on the bar’s final day had worked there. They had pizza or nachos, two dishes the Del Rio was known for, as well as the Detburger, of course. Some had been married there, and some had just hung out for years, often at the coveted round table next to the front door of the casual, brick and pine-paneled room with red and gold glass chandeliers over the tables, a pressed-tin ceiling, a long bar, and rows and rows of cassette tapes. …”

> From AANews: “Sun sets over Del Rio bar”