The World Famous Golden Nugget is proof that there's more to being a successful bar than just location, location, location.
You can find the cozy watering hole tucked between the vacant Home Den (which closed more than a year ago when the owner lost his liquor license) and Anderson's Office Liquidators on a dingy stretch of North First Avenue, just north of East Grant Road.
From the outside, it isn't much to look at, but inside the Nugget is a clean, happy place where crusty regulars and University of Arizona undergrads coexist.
Near the front door are four pool tables, a lottery-ticket vending machine and a game where you manipulate a claw to grab elusive stuffed animals.
At the rear is the wooden bar, surrounded by vinyl stools and bathed in the glow of red and blue string lights. A row of booths lines the south wall, and a shuffleboard table rests against the north wall.
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The Nugget has been at this location since 1965. Before that, it was next door, in the building that was most recently the Home Den and before that a bar called the Copper Queen.
Sandra and Steve Kientz bought the bar in April 1977.
Steve died a few years back, and Tim Donaldson became a part-owner in January after nearly 30 years as the bar's manager.
Since he's taken over, Donaldson has made a few minor changes, such as installing wireless Internet and replacing Coors Light on tap with Barrio Brewery's Copperhead Pale Ale.
He also is constructing a Web site for the bar.
Donaldson says the Nugget attracts several distinct crowds — retirees in the morning, the post-work crowd in the afternoon and the college kids late at night.
"I think that's part of the reason our jukebox has such different music on it," he says.
There's no kitchen at the Nugget, but the bar does serve sandwiches made by the Sausage Deli, which is just down the street. A pastrami on rye costs $4, while a hoagie is $5.
The Nugget is a beer and shot bar. Don't ask for a White Russian, because the bartenders don't often have cream (and if they do, they have to smell it first to make sure it hasn't gone sour). Nor do they have a blender, or serve labor-intensive cocktails.
"We do not serve mojitos," says Holly Nocera, the late-night bartender. "They are a pain in my ass."
Shuffleboard is a popular activity at the Nugget, and on a recent Thursday night, Bill Harman and his friends took turns gliding the puck up and down the wood table while the jukebox played Patsy Cline's "Walking After Midnight."
Harman, 24, who makes deliveries for Brushfire BBQ Co., says he started coming to the Nugget when he was a 21-year-old UA undergrad living in the neighborhood.
"They've got strong drinks and cheap beer," he says. "That's why I come here."
Dan Sweeney is a scuba instructor who has been coming to the Nugget since he was 5 years old. His parents would bring the whole family there on St. Patrick's Day for corned beef and cabbage.
Sweeney, 30, was at the Nugget playing pool. He walked over to a bulletin board hanging near the bar's side entrance and pointed to a photo of two boys in green T-shirts and baseball caps.
"The one on the left, that's me when I was 11 or 12 years old," he says.
Over the years, the Sweeneys have been such loyal customers that the bar has named a drink after them.
"The Sweeney Special is made with lots of Jameson and a little water," Sweeney says.
In a few weeks, Sweeney is heading to Honduras, where his scuba skills are more in demand. But he'll be back.
He says, "I always come home to the Nugget."
It doesn't take a lifetime to fall in love with the place.
Rafael Nunez, 21, was at the Nugget's bar, sharing a pitcher of Bud Light with his friend Pete Monsees, a fellow UA student. Nunez, a business economics major, says it's his second time at the Nugget, which is different from the University Boulevard bars he usually hangs out at.
"Seems like there's a lot more regulars here," he says. "The bartender knows their names by heart, and their drinks."
Nunez envies that familiarity.
"We need to keep coming back here until she knows us," he says.
World Famous Golden Nugget
• Where: 2617 N. First Ave.
• Hours: 9 a.m.-2 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 a.m. Sundays.
• Happy hour: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. daily, $3.75 small beer pitchers, $4.75 large beer pitchers.
