Here’s to Schlitz beer and the bar that helped make Manhattan’s Aggieville famous

Our columnist remembers an Aggieville bar that sold Schlitz beer on tap, likely exclusively. (Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images)

With the recent announcement that Schlitz beer would no longer be produced, I immediately recalled the Manhattan tavern named Kite’s. While I was a student at Kansas State University between 1969 and 1973, I frequented Kites as my second home in Manhattan.

The Aggieville bar sold Schlitz beer on tap. I have no memory of it selling anything else, either on tap or in a can. Having tried “The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous” in a can once, I vowed to never drink it that way again. However, on tap, it was great.

Kite’s was purchased by Terry Ray in 1969 from its namesake, Keith “Kite” Thomas, a former K-State and professional baseball player. While some packaged snacks might have been available, it was simply a tavern that sold 3.2% alcohol beer to people 18 years and older. It smelled like 10% of its sales had been spilled on the floor. The walls were covered with old photographs of successful K-State athletes, and the jukebox played loudly.

Kite’s was then the most popular college bar in Aggieville. On Fridays, students got there as soon as their last class was over and tried to find a booth to save for friends or new acquaintances. Later in the day, there was a solid stream of students slowly moving through the bar, looking for a seat or just table-hopping to see or be seen.

I lived in the Sigma Chi fraternity house for four years. How could you improve on a residence two blocks from campus and two blocks from Kite’s? We often called the tavern our “annex.”

Years after graduating, I went through a box of canceled checks from my college years and was amazed to find the number of checks written to Kites for $3 or $5. Kite’s was my Manhattan bank.

While my memories of this institution are mostly fond, I still recall returning from spring break in 1970, sitting in Kite’s with the jukebox blasting Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World” and feeling the effects of inflation from the Vietnam War. I learned that the price of a pitcher of Schlitz had increased from a dollar to $1.25 and a stein had gone up from 25 to 30 cents!

During that period, Schlitz was the No. 2 selling beer in America. After graduating, I got married and started law school at the University of Kansas. Thus ended my love affair with taverns and Schlitz beer.

Kite’s eventually closed and was later resurrected as Kite’s Bar and Grill, a more respectable place with menu options.

To my college friends and acquaintances, I say, let’s “go for the gusto” and say a toast the next time we have a beer on tap, because, “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.”

Grant Glenn practiced law for nearly 50 years in Topeka and now resides in Mission. He is past president of Topeka Rotary, Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area and current president of Friends of the Free State Capitol Inc., which owns and operates Topeka’s oldest and newest attraction, Constitution Hall. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.