When you're in Canfield, Ohio, and Plaza Book and Smoke Shop closes for the night, what do you do? Certainly not return to your hotel room at 9:00 pm on a Monday. Oh, no. My colleagues and I found ourselves driving along 224, looking for an appropriate late-night spot in which to continue an evening-long conversation.

We'd gotten a few recommendations throughout the day, and since we'd already hit two of them: Rockne's for dinner and Plaza Smokes for cigars, we decided we were in luck when we spotted the Blue Wolf Tavern. I'd heard that name mentioned at some point that afternoon. There's an attached bakery, and at first we only saw those hours! No late-night bar for us?

But a door down, the bar hours were listed: no need to worry. Were we eating? the hostess asked. Negative. So we went into the bar room, saw no trio of seats at said bar, and grabbed a booth up a few stairs along the wall. The hostess came over, apologetic: "If you're not eating and you sit here, you'll have to go order your own drinks." Ha -- fine by us!

The men ordered beers, expertly poured into tall, frosted glasses. I spotted Macallan scotch and went with that. "Neat or on the rocks?" he asked. I took it neat but with a glass of ice on the side. I got carded (yes!) and then we carried our glasses to our table. There were TVs surrounding the bar and the booths even had their own private sets mounted on the walls of each.

The Blue Wolf was a funny mix of local dive bar and upscale eatery. Combined with great drinks and intense conversation, it was a fitting spot at which to close our night out in Canfield.

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