09/20/2026
Story time Sunday -
About five years or so ago Jan and I visited a new brewery in Southeast Michigan as part of a fundraiser we were doing. The brewery was Loaded Dice Brewery and we were selling tee shirts where all the profit went back to local breweries. Our way of helping the industry during COVID.
We set up shop in the cozy & boisterous taproom and quickly were drawing a crowd and having some fun. The owner (Jef Smith) is a friend of ours and it was great to be visiting his brewery. There was a good size crowd and it was a Saturday evening so the place was jumping.
I naturally opened up a tab for Jan and I and then proceeded to spend the bulk of my time walking through the bar and meeting people and swiping stories and drinking some amazing beers with the new friends I was making.
Jan at some point without my knowledge walked up to the register and asked the young bartender if he could change the name on our tab to Jackass. The bartender was confused but Jennifer Smith (owner) laughed and told him to just go with it. This is going to be good at some point.
I kept working the crowd and having fun as my mug was going through multiple refills. Little did I know that Jan was following up behind me with each group I stopped in and visited. She would tell them if they wanted a free beer, just go up to the counter and put it on Jackass’ tab.
I never caught on. Even after a couple of hours. As closing time approached we started taking down our tee shirt display table and getting ready to leave. The crowd was cheering for us and wishing us well and laughing about something. I just thought I had made a bunch of new friends and it was a great night out at Loaded Dice.
I went up to the counter to close out my tab. As I looked at our bill, I was shocked. I turned around to ask what was up and the whole place shouted back at me, Thank you Jackass.
Wow, Jan really got me with that one. Always a fun story to retell.
The gang inside the taproom wished us well and asked if we would be back next Saturday. I said most definitely, but that night the tab would be under Du***ss.
