"Man, the stories you'll hear if you hang around this place..." says Mike, a regular patron of the Sauer Apple Saloon. He's just finished telling us about his days in Detroit, working as a line cook -- with Eminem ("Marshall was a real good kid. Real down-to-earth. Just the way he is when you see him in interviews"). Then Eugenio, the bartender, interrupts to tell us about floating over from Cuba on a raft. When he dips out to go make another of the bar's signature Sauer Apple martinis (with green-colored sugar on the rim), the other bartender, Alex, takes over storytelling duties, explaining what it was like to fire guns from a helicopter in Sierra Leone and Kosovo. That was right before some chick named Jill sits down and introduces herself. There's something about the Sauer Apple -- the open, airy space? the bar that opens onto the sidewalk? the menu full of comfort food? the live bands? the barrel of free peanuts, still in shells? -- that makes you feel welcome. This is the bar that, during last year's hurricanes, fired up its generator and kept the whole neighborhood fed. Oh, sure, Eugenio and Alex and whoever's sitting on the next stool over may not be your best friends for life -- but until last call, they will be.