Big John’s Corner Bar is the quintessential neighborhood watering hole. Many of the patrons know each other, and when one heads home for the evening, the others all wish him a safe trip. But the staff is welcoming to people who obviously ain’t from around these parts, and the barflies are perhaps a little curious, striking up chats with newcomers. Small and dark with cheap, stiff drinks, this downtown Independence mainstay is ideal not just for drowning your sorrows, but for weighing them down with an anchor and throwing them overboard to be forgotten entirely.
