Going to Minder Binders in 1984, Tempe, Arizona


I have very warm memories of my days at ASU (Arizona State University), especially going to a place called Minder Binders, which was a restaurant and bar. But that description doesn't even come close to describing it, and I recently got permission to share some memories of Minder Binders from a good friend of mine. Here ya go:

"As a student in Tempe AZ in 1984, I lived at the intersection of McClintock and Don Carlos. Walking distance to the legendary Minder Binders! This was a pivotal moment in my life. Prior to this I had just begun going to bars and restaurants and was starting to feel like a grown up. But living in Tempe as a student at ASU, I was 100% on my own. The decisions I made, the sights I saw, the actions I took, were all mine (good and bad).

Enter Minder Binders. It was different from everything I had ever known. It felt uniquely grown up and seemed as if it was one of the rewards that had been held at distance from me as a child because it contained too many good things. A child couldn't handle all the fun that awaited inside. The restaurant had purchased, from what we were told, the special effects lot from a minor Hollywood studio. They then painstakingly hung that all from the rafters simply for your viewing pleasure. Everywhere you looked there was something different. A stuffed bear, a battleship, a bicycle, a gasoline pump. The list was endless and was absolute fuel for the imagination.


When sitting in a booth at Minder Binders you were encouraged to take a scoop of peanuts from a giant barrel and snack on them while waiting for your food or beer. Furthermore, you were encouraged to throw your peanut shells on the floor. Anarchy! If this was possible, what else could happen here?

A wide variety of beers that I was far too young to understand or appreciate was available, and their food was tremendous. A particular favorite was the peanut butter burger, the mind-blowingly simple concept of throwing a scoop of peanut butter on top of a delicious hamburger making it somehow twice as good.

On Thursday nights, upstairs, you could watch hermit crab races. Seemingly the whole point of this affair was to distribute posters that indicated that you could catch crabs at Minder Binders, something that really appealed to the 20-year-old mind. Lots of beer, food, peanuts, and an incredible and constantly changing cast of characters cheered, whooped and hollered for hermit crabs as if they were attending the Super bowl. Little crabs with numbers on their shells would crawl toward the finish line on a plywood track and the audience would collectively lose their minds. Around this time Minder Binders introduced sand volleyball on an outdoor court behind the building. This was apparently an idea never before conceived and just added to the magic appeal of Minder Binders.

The author in 1984

I enjoyed many wonderful visits to Minder Binders and enjoyed good times that remain unsurpassed. In retrospect, I believe it's because I have grown and my expectations of the world and the realities of things around me have changed, but to the wide-eyed first-time mind of a 20-year-old college student, Minder Binders was heaven on earth, a portal to the adult world."

Image at the top of this post: the author (not me) in 2009, in front of the original building.
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