Victory

[July 16th, 2008]

PANES FOR GLORY: More bars should have windows. The daylight streaming through the storefront panes isn’t the first thing you notice at Victory (3652 SE Division St., 236-8755)—that’s probably the wraparound black-leather booths, the vaguely Parisian tin ceiling tiles or the curtains printed with a patchwork of propaganda posters and political cartoons—but you’ll catch it eventually. “Hot damn!” you’ll think as you sip a glass of potent nutmeg-scented sangria ($6) and peruse the house copy of Francis Ellington Leupp’s 1899 masterpiece, How to Prepare for a Civil Service Examination, with Recent Questions and Answers. “You can read in here!” You’ll have to: Victory’s list of imported beers offers 38 bottles, and the wine selection is only slightly smaller. The crowd is bookish, too; every one of the solo drinkers at a recent visit had a novel in hand. There’s more to life than words, though. When the studies of 19th-century bureaucrats grow old, order up a plate of smoked-trout hushpuppies ($6) and a Corpse Reviver No. 4 cocktail (“Too complicated to describe, something to do with Gin & Fernet, revive tonight,” $6) and invite fellow patrons over for a quick game of What Will I Become? The Career Game for Boys. A hint: Go for astronaut.