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• Living Room Lounge

Trish Turner, bartender at the Living Room Lounge. (Neal Taflinger / INtake for The Star)

Patrons relax, drink and converse at the Living Room Lounge, 934 N. Pennsylvania St. (Neal Taflinger / INtake for The Star)

Destination: Living Room Lounge

10:34 p.m.

The third stop on my journey, the Living Room Lounge offers the first glowing open sign. Just a few blocks south of the flourishing Herron-Morton neighborhood, the Living Room feels like a working-class bar without mistrustful stares from the regulars. Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road" is playing over the buzz of televisions -- Sunday Night Football in front of me, game seven of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series across the room to my right, left and behind me.

10:45 p.m.

The bar is twice as big as it was the last time I visited. Workmen scrub the smooth concrete floor in the newly expanded game room and an unfinished horseshoe bar stands where patrons once queued up to cue up. According to bartender Trish Turner, work is stretching into the wee hours in order to finish the renovation in time for the Colts game on the following night. In my experience, cool bars lose a little magic after a major renovation. "Ain't nothin' gonna change this place," the 32-year-old Turner says. "No one cares who you are, where you come from, gay, straight, gay and straight -- it's just a melting pot."

11 p.m.

Amanda Yauney is proof positive of Turner's theory. The 21-year-old recently moved to Indianapolis from Atlanta, Ga., by way of New York City. She's not overly impressed by her new home, but Yauney finds the Living Room to be a comfortable retreat. Friendly people and cheap pitchers sealed the deal. The TVs are a bonus. "I don't have cable," she says.

11:20 p.m.

Dozens and dozens of small slips of paper are tacked up along the bar back. An illustrated jack-o'-lantern graces each slip along with a Sharpie-scribbled name. Each represents $1 donated to the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Turner takes one from Jessica Fitzpatrick, who turns to me and says, "I just gave a dollar to cure cancer." "Every dollar counts," I say.

"Not for cancer so much," Fitzpatrick says.

The 29-year-old immediately launches into a free-association monologue about curing cancer, Chris Rock, interracial dating, and what guys will do to have sex. I nod, amused. "I'm probably going to have sex with Derrick tonight," she said.

Her ex-boyfriend, Derrick Shinn, hears me laugh but doesn't join the conversation. "It's cool," Fitzpatrick says. "We know it's good." She continues sharing nuggets of wisdom regarding theology ("I love Jesus, and I love sex"), relationships ("My attraction to men with a fear of commitment is related to my own fear of commitment"), marriage ("Don't get married, 'cuz then you'll get divorced") and more.

11:40 p.m.

Shinn eventually joins in the conversation, and the three of us talk about books, politics and food. He contends that the Living Room's burger is better than the patties I champion served at the Front Page.

Also 29, Shinn is alternately amused by, confused by, and concerned for his ex, but he also seems to be wary of screwing up tonight's sure thing. Turner announces last call once, twice and a third time. "If you do not hear me it does not matter, it is still last call," the barkeep says. I push away from the bar and say my goodbyes so that Fitzpatrick and Shinn can do whatever it is they are going to do. Turner was right: The people make this place. Newcomers are welcomed and old flames are rekindled if even just for a night. Here's hoping that the Living Room doesn't lose anything during the renovation and that the added space just increases patrons' opportunities to make good friends and good times.