In Good Company? Again?

A blog I posted a few weeks ago, In Good Company?, generated a few comments and created quite a discussion on local musician Will Stenberg’s Facebook page.

I haven’t been back to the Company Bar since the grand opening, but I haven’t changed my opinion of the place. It is part of the new Fort Bragg. I have no problem with it. If you want to experience something a little closer to what Fort Bragg used to be, go somewhere else. The matter was covered quite extensively on Stenberg’s Facebook wall, and I only wish to address a few comments.

Meaghan Davis wrote, “Those ‘fake Roman pillars’ are from Indonesia, and they happen to be real.” She goes on to say, “My frustration lies in the fact that I think the writer may have prejudged us (and if I’m wrong, I apologize).”

I had no prejudgments, and was curious and excited to drop in on the Company Bar. I understand that the large crowd on opening night made it less laid-back and harder to provide service to everyone, which gave me ample time to survey the place and “judge” at that point. The pillars are made from Indonesian wood, but when I see pillars, I think of Rome for some reason. So they are, in my mind, fake Roman pillars. I did not intend to disrespect the efforts of the interior decorator, who obviously worked hard to try and put some class into the joint.

Sarah Hassell wrote that the blog was “factually inaccurate on more than one account,” and that a journalist needs no less than three confirmed sources.

I don’t know what I’ve got wrong. My fear is that perhaps I’ve described the colored beams of indoor light wrong. Feelings cannot be factual. I could have asked three confirmed guests about the pillars, for instance, and I’m sure none of them would have known they came from Indonesia. I wrote what I felt it was like in there.

I would enjoy going back to the Company Bar at some point. It is, as Davis wrote, a “different facet of Fort Bragg.” Of the two facets I touched upon in the blog—the old and the new Fort Bragg—the old trumps the new. However, I see positives to both sides, especially after a few drinks.