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He’s the owner of one of the longest-running taverns in its area and, in 1997, he made a run for a Cincinnati City Council seat. But he’s not who you’re probably thinking of.
This bar owner/council hopeful is William J. Gaz (better know as Buzzy) who owns and operates Uncle Woody’s tavern right off the University of Cincinnati (UC) campus. The bar celebrated its 25th anniversary over the May 7-9 weekend.
While Uncle Woody’s 25 years might pale compared to some Mount Adams and downtown watering holes, the fact that it has survived on the strip comprised of parallel streets McMillan and Calhoun is an astonishing feat. Most UC alumni of the past quarter century would come back to find their old hangout a bagel place, coffeeshop or, at the very least, an entirely different bar. But those who spent their non-study time at Woody’s know that the pub will be intact and as they remember.
“I think (the success is because) you could walk back in here, it’s been 25 years and there hasn’t been a whole lot of changes,” Gaz says. “It’s a status quo thing. Everything resembles and goes by the same and people like to come back to an old familiar, comfortable kind of place.”
On the Saturday night of the anniversary weekend, Buzzy is living up to the nickname he’s held most of his life. Amidst the endless tales of the establishment from previous employees and regulars, he is buzzing from the booths in the eatery and up to the bar and patio, warmly greeting FOW (Friends of Woody’s) from past to present.
Gaz has owned the bar since May 1989 when he bought Woody’s from his lawyers. The original owner was Michael Gerson, who was indeed the Uncle Woody that gave the pub his name (Gerson’s caricatured likeness, circa ’74, is what you see on the wood-carved sign hanging outside).
The brick enclosed eating area was amended in ’78 from an outdoor beer garden and the famed front porch, where revelers can drink and be merry with a view of the relatively new Corbett auditorium and UC’s law library, was installed in 1980. Other than that, and perhaps the proliferation of microbrew and specialty beers, the bar is much how it was back in its early days.
“People come into Uncle Woody’s and expect it to still be here, and they see how it hasn’t changed,” Gaz says.
When asked about his favorite memories of the bar, Gaz is hard-pressed to pick one, let alone a couple dozen.
“There’s been a lot of things that have happened over the years,” he says. “We’ve had just about everything else: We had a Miss America going-away party, we’ve had bachelor and bachelorette parties, we’ve had a post-mortem, a wake, we’ve had other pre-nuptials, we’ve had nuptials. … The only thing we haven’t had a party here for is a baptism.”
As for what makes a great night, Gaz says it can be the little things that make it all worthwhile.
“Good times are when you pull a bunch of fake IDs in one night and you feel like you’re king of the hill. Or when you’ve made it through a busy night and everyone still has all their fingers and toes and what little sense they have left in them.”
Gaz’s name might be familiar to you if you keep up on local government or if you happened to see one of his ubiquitous campaign signs from when he ran for city council in 1997. While previously-alluded-to Jim Tarbel successfully made the jump from owner of Arnold’s downtown to a seat on council, Gaz — who also attempted to run in 1993 but didn’t have the amount of signatures needed to get his name on the ballot — was less successful finishing 17 out of 18 candidates.
Gaz, a Republican who ran a grass-roots campaign supporting the Broadway Commons stadium site and education issues, says that he learned a lot about politics and the public with his bid for a seat in council chambers.
“Oh, ho, what did I learn?” Gaz laughs resignedly. “I learned that if you speak the truth, people don’t want to hear it. People do not want to hear facts. They want things glazed over enough so they feel good about their vote whether it be good or bad. There have been far too many people, doesn’t matter their party, that told me, ‘Buzzy, you can’t tell the people the truth. That’s not what they want to hear.’ They want to be insulated, away from facts and figures, they just want ‘Yeah, yeah, blow smoke up my butt and tell me this.’ It was very, very disheartening.”
While Gaz is fairly certain that he’ll be running again in an upcoming election, he is absolutely sure about the future of Uncle Woody’s. Gerson, the original Uncle Woody, owns the building the bar is housed in (apartments are above the bar), so, unless he sells the entire structure to Gaz, the expansions are done and Uncle Woody’s will remain as it is.
“We’re gonna be here,” Gaz says, and that’s a truth that Uncle Woody’s fans know they can believe. ©
This article appears in May 12-18, 1999.