- " There was one more building on the street, the grandest of them all, a full two storys high. It looked brand new, with a brightly painted sign: / PALACE SALOON & HOTEL / The place looked like the real center of town. Marty guessed that, if he was looking for information, this Palace was as good a place as any to start. "
- —From Back to the Future Part III by Craig Shaw Gardner (quote, page 64)
- " Water? You want water, you better go dunk your head in the horse trough out there. In here, we pour whiskey. "
- —Chester
- Marty: "Hey, listen. You got a back door to this place?"
- Chester: "Yeah, it's in the back."
- — The exchange between Marty and Chester, as Marty and Doc escape the saloon
The Palace Saloon was a Western saloon at the corner of Hill Street and Main Street in 1885.
History[]
Built in 1876 by Beauregard Tannen, the saloon sat on the future site of Sisters of Mercy Soup Kitchen in 1931, Lou's Café in 1955, Lou's Aerobic Fitness Center in 1985, and the Café 80's in 2015. Its only known workers are Chester the bartender, and his assistant Joey.
On July 14, 1876, Edna Strickland sought to burn the saloon in an attempt to prevent what she believed would lead to Hill Valley's corruption (and succeeded in the 1931B timeline) only to be foiled by Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown.
Around that time, the saloon had a picture of a woman named Delores Mishkin (a possible relative to Sylvia McFly).
On July 4, 1885, Doc would pass out after having whiskey and be administered wake-up juice.
Later that year, on September 3, Marty had his first encounter with Buford Tannen at the saloon.
The next Monday on September 7, Doc would spend most of the morning at the saloon after having a heartbreaking departure with Clara. He would leave with Marty to flee from Buford and attempt to go home.
Between 1885 and 1931 the saloon had been gutted, probably because of Prohibition. However, the original bricks on the second floor were kept through all future iterations of the building,
Regular customers[]
People came in daily at the Palace Saloon for drinks or to play some poker, as noted by the three townsfolk that were there almost every day. The bartender, Chester, knew most of the customers from Seamus McFly, to Buford Tannen, and even Emmett Brown. Buford and his gang were regular customers as Chester attempted to pour them drinks almost immediately after they entered the Palace Saloon. However, on September 3, 1885, Buford stated that he had only come to ask if Chester knew where "that no good cheating' blacksmith" was. Other regular customers included Zeke, Levi and Jeb.
Marty visited the Palace Saloon only twice. At first, after ignoring the whiskey, he said "Excuse me", but Chester just answered "For what?", thinking that Marty was giving an apology, when Marty was actually finding the blacksmith. Secondly, he rushed to convince disheartened Doc (after Doc's break-up with Clara) to go back to the future, but not long before Doc took one shot of whiskey and passed out. When Buford arrives, demanding Marty for a showdown, the customers convinced Marty to deal with Buford or he'd be called "coward" and "biggest yellow of the West."
Specialties[]
The Palace Saloon had a variety of drinks. They varied from sarsaparilla, whiskey and coffee. But their 'specialty' was a concoction containing an assortment of drinks and spices mixed together and stirred up with a knife that created a drink that allowed someone to become "as sober as a priest on Sunday" in around ten minutes. This is what Chester and Joey liked to call "wake-up juice". After being administered the aforementioned concoction on September 7, the effects caused Doc to not only immediately wake up, but also run outside and dunk his head in the horse trough.
As Marty entered the saloon, he asked for ice water, which made other customers laugh. Chester mentioned that if Marty wanted water he would've drunk on what horses drink, which he meant drinking from the horse trough. It is figured that neither water nor ice were available for customers in saloons, until Doc made iced tea from the refrigerator he had built and installed in his livery stable. Chester poured Marty a whiskey, but Marty didn't drink due to its strong content and odor. Bearing in mind that a spot on top of the bar started to smoke after a bit of whiskey splashed onto it, this was probably just as well.
Trivia[]
- The saloon is one of the few areas in Back to the Future: The Game that is not culled. As such, manipulating the camera will allow you to view the entire scene being rendered at once, rather than in pieces like larger areas. Additionally, Edna is standing inside the saloon before you enter, even though the player cannot see her.
Appearances[]
- Back to the Future Part III
- Back to the Future Part III novelization
- Back to the Future Part III (video game) (referred to only as 'Saloon')
- Back to the Future: The Game
- LEGO Dimensions