By William S. McIntosh

My connection as a customer of the River Terrace began about 1950.

Several of my friends invited me to go with them to have a beer. They mentioned there would be some people there that I would know. They were right. I was very impressed with the warm friendly atmosphere created by the owners, Myer Jacobson and Joe Candalese.
I discovered it was a favorite hang out for many of my classmates from my days at Maury High. Many of them were veterans during and after World War II and were now attending the Norfolk Division of William & Mary College on the GI Bill.

It was easy to fit right in with a very diverse group of patrons. Men and women, young and middle aged, a lot of musicians, lawyers, and salesmen were frequent customers. You could always get into a conversation at the bar with people you would never meet under any other circumstances. When the discussion became real interesting, we would move to a booth. Most of the young men were in their twenties. They loved to drink beer and talk about politics, how to save the world, literature, sports, philosophy, women and the other meaningful things in life. Bottled beer was $.25 cents to $.35; Budweiser on draft was $.15 cents. The bar closed at 11:00 p.m. We then took a short walk to The Venice for pizza and on Saturday nights we listened to the owner and his friends play the guitar and sing Italian songs.

The River Terrace was a unique place in it’s time. It brought a lot of people together to enjoy each other’s good humor and friendship.