If you were on the Cleveland scene in the late 80s or well into the 21st century, you know Pat’s In The Flats.  Punk or hardcore, this was the place you wanted to play.  Grab a double shot of Old Grandad and wash it down with a PBR.  No muss, no fuss in this blue-collar, workingman’s bar by day and rock club by night, Pat’s has been in existence since the 1940s.  I can’t remember the first show I saw there (Old Grandad and PBR induced memory loss, I’m sure) but the last time I was in Pat’s was in 2002 or 2003 when my youngest brother’s band, Viva Caramel, played their farewell show to a packed house.  For the 30 something me, it was a trip back in time.  When I was doing some geneological research a few years ago,  I found out that my great grandparents on my father’s side lived on W. 7th just south of University Rd.  I’m pretty sure my great-grandfather and his brothers probably frequented Pat’s on their way down the hill to the steel mills and the oil refineries where they toiled away and then a second stop for a shot and a beer on the way back home up the University Rd. hill.

Malcolm Ryder of Sosumi posted this video on YouTube that covers the heyday of Pat’s In The Flats (from around 1985 to the early 90s).  It includes some cool interviews with Tom Dark from Knifedance, John Walsh from Sosumi, Nick Summa from Floydband, Andy Harhay from Bluto’s Revenge and, of course, an interview with Pat (Hanych) herself. Watch the video and then come back here and post your memories of Pat’s In The Flats in the comments section.