The photo above is the iconic “Piano Pat” at the Sip ‘N Dip Lounge in Great Falls – this photo is from May 2009. Pat passed away last year, but truly – an unforgettable person who left a legacy, being part of too-many-to-count celebrations and good times for people here in Great Falls and far, far beyond.
Here’s a pic of Pat signing the guest book at our wedding in 2013 (yes, we got married right next to the Sip, upstairs at the O’Haire Motor Inn!):
And in 2014, we celebrated my birthday “with” Pat 🙂
Pat was one of the reasons that the Sip ‘N Dip was named by GQ magazine in 2003 as the “#1 bar on earth worth flying for” (coupled with the near-equally iconic mermaids behind the bar).
She is on my mind today because the O’Haire Motor Inn announced on Friday that it is starting a “retrovation.” I am excited about this!
It would be really cool to see a statue of some sort of Piano Pat included in the renovation. And it would be really, REALLY cool if people could lobby to rename the section of 7th Street in front of the hotel “Piano Pat Way” – how can we make this happen?!
There are far better Youtube clips of Pat singing, but I like this one because she played “Mack The Knife” at my request 🙂 And yes, cell phone videos in 2011 were not quite as good as they are now.
