The Spot: Les & Doreen's Happy Tap in Fishtown

We always hear about the shiny, new food companies. The Spot is a series about the Philadelphia area's more established establishments and the people behind them.

Doreen Thompson barely remembers a time when she didn't work at the bar on the corner of Susquehanna Avenue and Thompson Street in Fishtown. She was 13 when she started in the kitchen at what was then called Kelly's Happy Tap - it was an easy way for her mother, who was a bartender there, to keep her daughter close by. At 21, Doreen became a bartender herself, and also married one of the bar's regulars, a neighborhood fellow named Les Thompson.

A few years later, the Thompsons decided they wanted to owna business. After considering several delis and a few other taverns, they struck a deal to take over the bar where they'd met, since the owners were looking to retire.

Though they didn't change much of anything in the narrow room - which still has the same wooden leprechauns, shamrocks and shillelaghs handing on the walls- the Thompsons tweaked the business name slightly, and on March 4, 1986, officially opened Les and Doreen's Happy Tap.

Although that year saw dozens of the city's other shot-and-beer bars fold, Les and Doreen's did well in its early going. Subsequent decades were less and less busy, as the surrounding blocks emptied as people moved to the suburbs or retired to warmer climates, but the Thompsons put in long hours and kept prices low, and were able to stay afloat.

In 2006, just before the neighborhood began to take off again, tragedy struck. During a routine endoscopy, a doctor mistakenly sliced open Les' large intestine as he was removing the camera. Les died 30 days later. He was 60 years old.

Doreen was heartbroken, both for her husband of 25 years and for their now-fatherless five-year-old son, but she didn't close the bar - it was her home away from home.

On a recent spring-like afternoon, Doreen, 55, pulled a pair of stools into the the tiny back room where she hosts a weekly women's "shufflebowl" league, and talked about why the bar stays open most holidays, how the smoking ban affected her business, and why she thinks the recent demographic shift in the neighborhood is a positive thing.

How did you and Les end up owning this bar?

After we got married, we decided we wanted to buy something - I had worked here and he worked for Pantry Pride supermarket, so we had some money saved up. We looked around for a while and then the owners of Kelly's - Kelly and Mary Brandau - heard we were interested. We had one meeting up at Perri'son Aramingo Avenue, and it just all came together.

Did you make changes when you took over?

Not many, because the customers would've been upset. And the workers, too. A lot of the people who work for me or used to work for me had also worked for Kelly. It was one big happy family - why change things?

And have you changed anything since then?

Not much. We still open at 7 a.m. every morning - people who work night shifts like to come in early - and we still have the same bar food menu: cheesesteaks, burgers, pizza and wings, plus fish cakes and seafood during Lent. We changed the jukebox from one that plays 45s – now it's one of those electronic ones. And we did change the beer.

When did the beer switch happen?

Eight years ago, I put in a new walk-in box and draft system. We always had draft, but it used to be only four, and they were just the regular beers - I remember when I started, you could get three 12-ounce mugs for $1. Now we have six taps and there's an IPA and a cider and something from Philadelphia Brewing Company. The owners of Philadelphia Brewing are very nice; they come in all the time.

What's the best-selling beer?

MIller Lite. But we have Miller High Life on tap, too, and that sells really well. It's funny, back in the day my husband drank Miller and it was hard to find. But now, all the young people are drinking it again. Same with Schmidt's - you'd be surprised, a lot of the younger people drink that now.

You get a young crowd?

We do, especially on Saturdays, when we have karaoke. Some of them come in during the week, too. That started around seven or eight years ago, when the neighborhood started to change. In general I think the changes are a good thing - it could've gone the other direction, you know? Now property values around here have quadrupled. So before, we had all just regular people in here, but now we get a lot of the new people, which is very nice. They're all very nice.

How do they hear about you - do you advertise?

I've always advertised in the local papers. At first we had just the Star, back in the day, and now we have the Spirit. We also have a Facebook page, but I don't run it, one of the customers does. And Yelp has been calling me to advertise with them. They say we have a good rating. I talked to the guy but didn't make any commitment yet.

You still have a cigarette machine.

Yeah, lots of people use it. But there's no smoking in here anymore. At first when they banned smoking, we used to let people smoke, and I got caught a couple of times. First I got caught with the city, and got fined. Then the LCB came in - I don't know why a liquor agency cared about smoking, but they did, and they also caught me. So that was it, now there's no smoking whatsoever. My 80-year-old mother, she smokes, and we even make her go outside.

Is St. Patrick's your busiest day?

It's definitely one of them. That and the weekend before. I always make ham, cabbage and potatoes for the whole bar - you can get a plate to go for $4 or $5, but if you eat here, it's free. Another busy one is the night before Thanksgiving.

Do you close for holidays?

Only day I close is Christmas Day. Thanksgiving we're open. I did close the very first year and everybody was having a fit. So my sister, who always works Thursdays, said, "I'll open!" I only live around the corner, so we all eat dinner at my house and then she comes to work. It's busy - everybody gets done eating early and then they're all twiddling their thumbs, so they come out. Same on Easter.

What's the hardest part about running this place?

The paperwork, and figuring out the taxes. If I didn't have that - oh, life would be great. My family helps out, though. I also own Scoops ice cream shop across the street - it's actually up for sale right now - and my sister Jeannie runs that for me. Then my other sister Sharon works here. I used to have my husband to do the heavy lifting and that kind of thing, but then he passed away. Ten years ago this April.

How did that happen?

It was after my son's fifth birthday party at Dave & Buster's at Franklin Mills. My husband had a big milkshake, and the next day he said he'd had trouble sleeping and thought maybe he was having a heart attack. So we went to the hospital. There's three tests they do to determine if you're having a heart attack, and they did them and he wasn't having one. But he still didn't feel good so they went in to do a scope - an endoscopy. On the way out, the doctor cut him - his bowels and intestine. He was sick for 30 days in the hospital, and then he just...

It was hard. Very hard.

Was there anything you could do?

I did go to court, for my son. He got some money and we put it away for college. But it's still heartbreaking. He was only 5 years old.

Did you close the bar at all?

No. I never thought of closing. The thought never entered my mind. I mean, we closed the day of the funeral, but opened right back up. This is all I've been doing my whole life, practically. You meet all different kinds of people, and 99 percent of the time, everybody's nice. A few times I've been asked if I'd sell the place, but if I sold, I'd have to find work somewhere else. And I love this job!

Les and Doreen's Happy Tap

1301 E. Susquehanna Ave., 215-634-1123

Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday