There’s something special about climbing a graffiti-covered staircase in search of beer that adds to the experience. Such is the journey required to visit Attic on Adams, a second floor Toledo dive bar owned, operated and one floor above Manos Greek Restaurant and owner Manos Paschalis. After a handful of names and approaches to developing the second-story space, The Attic has stuck, part of a revitalization focused on Adams Street near downtown Toledo.
Dubbed the city’s UpTown district, the area along Adams Street has not always been the safest part of town, though more recent efforts have built the neighborhood into a true destination. The Attic on Adams plays a part in that renaissance, the building once famously marked as an ex-brothel on the forms filled out by owner Paschalis in 1988 to take over what was once called the Top Hat. What followed was a string of attempts at utilizing the space to its full potential, including stints as Manos’ Upstairs Restaurant, Manos’ Back Porch, Pub St. George and ultimately The Attic in 2007.
Through each iteration of the space, the structure has remained the true draw, something The Attic has done well to accentuate. Outside, a sprawling back patio stretches into the ample parking lot that serves Manos Greek Restaurant and The Attic patrons alike. In black letters, “The Attic” is spelled out along the second floor of the attached building, the view from the rear of the space looking much more like Toledo dive bar heaven than anything else. From the basic windows to the wooden boards that separate patio from parking lot to the Budweiser sign glowing in the window, everything feels just rustic enough to be interesting.