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You’ll always be fond of a bar you’ve skied to in a storm, where you’ve danced up a sweat in front of a good band in a room full of friends and where, if not everyone does, at least a few people will know your name. While the Press Room is known nationally for the live music it has given a home to for 30 years, it’s more than music for locals, its owner and employees. There’s something special about a neighborhood pub. It doesn’t have the martini du jour, leather banquettes or swanky restrooms — those are trends. The Press Room has permanence — and that has made it an integral part of this community, starting with original owner and late Portsmouth philanthropist Jay Smith and carried on from 1995 to the present with Jay Gardner.

MULTIMEDIA Video:  30 years of good memories at the Press Room

I sat down with Gardner at the upstairs bar one day last week, to discuss happy memories and his bread and butter — the bar patrons. While the faces change, the personalities remain. According to both Jay and manager/booker Bruce Pingree (a 26-year veteran), the bar still draws the same mix of blue and white collar working folk, artists and musicians. Although lately, more and more people come in asking about the neighborhood — they’re interested in the neighboring condos (Jay says he does his best to drive them off. I think he was kidding.). But really, he does wonder where his regulars are living nowadays, since downtown Portsmouth real estate has become so posh. But no matter — they still make the trip to 77 Daniel St., along with new customers, sometimes almost every day.

Fond memories of a founder

Last Thursday night, downstairs at the Press Room, Gregg Schweitzer was working the bar and a row of regulars was conversing near the dartboard, while Beat Night (worthy of an entirely different feature) was carried on upstairs. I spoke with Robin

Bettencourt, a regular and former employee (she worked as a bartender and waitress in the early ‘80s) about original owner Jay Smith.

“This was his living room,” she said. He used to be there, working, for such long days, she told me, that he’d fall asleep over his soup at the bar, and new customers often praised her for “feeding the homeless,” to which she’d just laugh. She also remembers him as being “King of the Duct Tape.” He used the sticky stuff to patch everything from pipes to pants and shoes.

Bruce Pingree reflected on Smith’s memorial service at The Music Hall, at which he’d been the master of ceremonies. The death was such a loss to Portsmouth that it took Pingree almost an hour and a half to make the five minute walk back to the Press Room because so many people stopped him to share stories about the man.

Fiery folk on Fridays

One Friday night stands out in Jay’s mind. The bar was packed, the Great Bay Company playing as usual — conversation, music and glassware clinking at a fever pitch. Former neighbor Caffe Kilim co-owner Yelcin Yazgan came in to alert the staff members they had a chimney fire. As Jay said, chimney fires usually make a noise like an 18-wheeler on the freeway. They never heard a thing. The firefighters showed up, of course, but it was almost an afterthought. The regulars had already put the fire out.

30 more years, please

The Press Room’s slogan says the establishment provides “nourishment for the body and spirit.” It’s true, though, isn’t it? The place has almost always got what you need, at just the right time. For many, it’s the first place they came when they moved to town. For others, it’s provided a quiet place for an afternoon in solitude, a busy evening to forget your worries and entertainment to last lifetimes. Marriages have been made (and maybe some broken), friendships forged. Sometimes, even the artwork gets rearranged by mischievous regulars. And, while with the Press Room’s nourishment, comes an occasional hangover, you can’t call yourself a local if you haven’t spent a few evenings at an open mic or Sunday Jazz at the bar.