Alexei's Bar
Purpose / Function
It was founded to function as a bar and was generally inhabited by motorcycle gangs and the like. This didn't last as it slowly became a known hangout for local meta-humans from Metropolis. Now it is considered an unofficial 'safe haven' for meta-humans who need a break from the eyes of the world at large. Humans are welcome but not if they are uncomfortable by meta-humans.
Local heroes have been known to show up here from time to time. After a few brief scuffles between local heroes and criminals, Alexei - through his own brand of tough negotiation - marked the place as a no-combat zone. Heroes and criminals are welcome but they leave their disagreements outside.
Architecture
Alexei's Bar is the kind of place, just outside Metropolis's northern city limits and off a two-lane country highway, that seems perpetually in danger of falling apart. Any stranger viewing the joint -- barely three steps above "weathered shack", with a chaotic parking lot of dirt and weeds before the sagging front porch and a mostly coniferous forest looming over the property edges behind and to the side -- would expect the local health department to shut this place down without bothering to get out of the car for a full inspection. Indeed, one direct bump by any vehicle navigating the parking lot, even one of those oil-seeping motorcycles scattered like walnuts throughout the mix, might collapse a significant fraction of outer wall and roof.
Inside and on the porch, the furniture is uneven, mismatched, frequently third-hand or worse; the drinks range from basic carbonated beverages through "draft beer" and all the way up to "you're sure this isn't moonshine?"; the food comes in a few egg-free greasy spoon varieties (no salmonella risks served here! the television has never worked, nor has the credit card machine.
It is a place of simile.
History
Alexei himself, rather deliberately like his bar, gives a first impression of being well down the path of unremarkable decline. He'd been a large man, once, and possibly even handsome. His voice still booms even when he means to whisper, but his whiskers are perpetually frizzed in strange directions and he's got liver spots marring the faded old tattoo on his shoulder.
You'd never know, looking at him, that he was a fairly successful spy during the Cold War. It takes a careful, practiced eye to realize that the liver spots cover scars from adventures he'll never relate. He looks soft, plump and gone to seed, but Alexei can still dead-lift well over three hundred pounds, as those foolish enough to start trouble in his bar will quickly learn. He keeps a bloodstained baseball bat next to his cash register, but he's never actually bothered to use it.
Not that Alexei would ever have to. His clientele may look like farmers, factory workers, cabbies, and the temporarily down on their luck. Sometimes, that's exactly what they are. It's a rare evening, however, when no patrons here are possessed of a secret life: off-duty heroes stopping off after a rough shift, or mutants trying to pass for "normals", or maybe, every third Wednesday night of the month, a mix of those "children", as Alexei calls them (utterly disregarding their actual ages), from "Doctor Yonny's security company".
Type
Pub / Tavern / Restaurant
Parent Location
What relation (if any) does this place have to the old "Alexei's Bar" in rural areas northeast of Metropolis?
It's a misspelling on my part.