Hotel Congress talent booker David Slutes stood in the bar's doorway and called for everyone's attention.
"In 1959 a little, skinny, good-looking guy decided to get employment at the Tap Room," he said at the top of his speaking voice. "We got a present for you, Tiger. Go ahead. Open it."
Tom "Tiger" Ziegler, who turned 76 on Thursday, slowly removed the tissue paper from the gift bag. Inside was a black felt jewelry box with white ribbon tied around it.
He untied the ribbon and then struggled to find which way the box opened.
"Haven't you ever seen 'Pretty Woman?' " one of the assembled shouted out.
"He is pretty woman," another customer remarked.
Ziegler shot the joker a look.
Finally, the longtime Tap Room barkeep opened the box to reveal a handcrafted bola tie inscribed with the words, "50 years of service at Hotel Congress."
On Thursday, Hotel Congress threw its longtime bartender a surprise party to celebrate his longevity. For half a century Ziegler has poured drinks in the Tap Room, Mondays through Thursdays, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Roughly 100 people filled the Tap Room and its adjoining outdoor patio. After Ziegler replaced his regular bola with his new one, everyone sang, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." When they were done, someone stuck a quarter in the jukebox and typed in K-9. "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" by Buck Owens blared from the speakers.
There was cake, along with presents and even a salute from Ward 6 Councilwoman Nina Trasoff.
It was a rare bit of revelry for a bartender who usually prefers a quiet evening at home to a night of dancing at Club Congress.
When asked the day before his birthday what he would do to celebrate, he replied, "That's kid stuff."
Not that he begrudges the kids their fun.
"I've seen a lot of the bands, they park their vans out in front and I say, 'I'm rootin' for you,' " he said. "'I'm talking up your bands to all my customers.' "
Downtown was a very different place when Ziegler started working at Hotel Congress. He wishes it would go back to the way it used to be.
"All the stores were Downtown," he says. "There was a Ryan-Evans drugstore right on the corner there open 24 hours a day. After the bars closed at 1, my customers would go over and have breakfast over there."
"He always tells me how beautiful I look," said Shana Oseran, who owns Hotel Congress with her husband, Richard Oseran.
The previous afternoon, Ziegler downplayed his birthday, saying, "It's just another day for me."
But after the singing and the cake, he changed his tune.
"I'm shaking," he said. "It's the biggest day of my life. I'll never forget it. The Oserans and the staff and the customers and the help and the friends and everything is unbelievable."
Thunder Canyon bartender Diego James, 31, lives Downtown and said he comes by the Tap Room whenever possible because Ziegler is his favorite bartender.
"We asked him one time what his favorite decade was and he said the 1950s, because everyone was so polite," James recalled.
Bar regular Randy Mendoza, 59, said he likes Ziegler because "he tells it like it is."
"You have to be nice to him or you go to the bottom of the list," Mendoza said. "Your drink order takes longer and he'll ignore you when you try to talk to him. I've been at the bottom of the list."
Ziegler may be turning 76, but he doesn't feel old.
"I'm 76 going on 39, just like Jack Benny," he said. "I don't feel no 76. Nah. I can carry on with all these people. They'll tell you. You have to joke with people."
His favorite joke?
"When (customers) try and be funny, I say, 'Oh, go suck a dill pickle.' That's my favorite line. They laugh and somebody will say, 'Want me to go get a pickle?' And I say, 'You behave.'
"I'm going to be here when I'm 95," Ziegler said. "And I'll still serve you. Unless you're under 21."
