Mugs are mark of membership, friendship and good beer

Snaps' walls are covered with steins specially purchased by patrons who are members of the mug club. — Snaps’ walls are covered with mugs specially purchased by patrons who are members of the mug club.

Hundreds of glass mugs line the walls of Snaps, a bar and restaurant that’s stood on the corner of Jasper’s 12th and Main streets since 1872.

Known by a variety of identities throughout the years, it has always been a gathering place of good company. Since 2010, besides the friendship and memories easily found in the old establishment, a new club has emerged around those mugs.

They wallpaper three walls from tabletop to ceiling in the bar section of the restaurant. Each is etched with the mug owner’s personal message; most feature a name but some have funny messages. “There’s the one engraved with ‘Your mom,'” bartender Zach Mitchell said. “They like to tell me to ‘get your mom off the wall.'”

Snarky humor aside, the Snaps Mug Club is popular.

“I know we’re close to 600,” owner Kim Mitchell (who is not Zach’s mom) said of the mugs on the walls.

Each 25-ounce mug is numbered, labeled and engraved for a member.

Mug owners get a volume-based discount: nine extra ounces of beer for just a dollar more than the pint price.

And, joining is pretty simple; if you buy a mug, you’re in the club.

Members are also entered into a weekly drawing for a free beer or a monthly drawing for other prizes.

“It was kind of all just in fun,” Kim said, laughing.

Members come in every day of the week, but Thursday is the most popular because it’s when they can fill their mugs for the pint price.

Mug Club member Ben Potter enjoys the deals and the beer, but there’s more to the club than just that. He waited four months for the wall space and a hook to put his mug up.

Ben Potter's mug is number 36 on the wall. He wasn't the 36th person to join the mug club but when a cleaning out of unused mugs occurred, he was able to move up the ladder of spaces. — Ben Potter’s mug is number 36 on the wall. He wasn’t the 36th person to join the mug club but when many unused mugs were cleaned out, he was able to move up the number ladder.

“You’re part of the bar,” he said about being a mug club member. A software developer at Kimball Electronics, Potter moved away from Jasper as a child, but later moved back. His mug simply says “Ben” with a smiley face emoji. “I like to be a little bit more a part of the community I’m in, and this is a small way to do that.”

But what’s become a quintessential part of the Jasper community wasn’t always a sure thing. The Mitchell family had a lot to consider when they took over the business in 2010. Part of that was working around the old building, incorporating the alligator cuisine and mascot into the restaurant’s aesthetic, as well as starting up the Mug Club.

“Before we opened, we ordered 80 [mugs]. And, honestly, we were a little worried, thinking, ‘hmm, how’s this going to go over?'” Mitchell said. “But, actually, I think the day we opened we had 76 of the 80 already sold. And that just actually happened by accident.”

The taps. Zach Mitchell and Jacob Songer tend bar on a Tuesday night.

While developing the order forms, Mitchell had emailed them out to a few people asking for suggestions. Those people then emailed them out to others who started printing them off, filling them out, writing checks and mailing them in.

“We had almost all of our mugs sold before we even opened the door. So that was a good sign for us. You know, it’s been here forever,” she said of the establishment, “so I think everyone was just glad to see it back open.”

What makes Snaps special is hearing people of all sorts and ages come in and tell their stories. Couples coming back to celebrate their anniversaries where they first met, tourists visiting Holiday World and French Lick, and regulars both young and old all stop by Snaps.

“We hear often, no matter who it’s from, that everyone enjoys coming here because everyone feels comfortable,” Mitchell said.