When Jen Witt bartended in the fall of ‘98 at Ray’s Corner as a college student, the floors were carpeted, the shots came in glass instead of plastic and the bar had not yet taken over the old Subway next door, or added a beer garden.
Twenty five years later, “The looks have changed, the vibe has not,” Witt said.
While in college, Witt applied at Ray’s Corner because she needed money. Now when she steps behind the bar, she said she forgets her age.
“Suddenly I’m back in college again,” Witt said.
In the decades since she first worked at the bar she graduated from SDSU, moved towns and built a career teaching early childhood education. She occasionally drives two hours from her Webster area farm to work at Ray’s.
She got the chance to relive her bartending days when Witt and Ray’s manager, Lisa Steenson, ran into each other while picking up kids and grandkids. Witt asked if Steenson needed help over Hobo Day in 2022 and without hesitation, Steenson was more than happy to have Witt come back.
Now, Witt’s has been returning to Ray’s for about three years.
Through working at Ray’s, Witt has reconnected with the Brookings locals, and they’ve become her favorite part of returning. Even after 20-plus years, regulars still recognize and greet her with things like, “I remember your smile.”
Both Steenson and Witt admire the community that Ray’s Corner has and agree that the welcoming environment is what keeps people coming back.
“Here you’re never just a bartender,” Steenson said. “You’re here to make the day better for everybody, with or without booze.”
The community spirit at Ray’s shows up in more than the regulars. Traditions have kept Ray’s personality intact. Fundraising for various organizations has been a huge part of the bar’s identity.
This year, Ray’s Corner raised over $150,000 for the Disabled American Veterans. Through employees donating their tips, hosting a cover charge on Hobo Day and the dollar bills that collect on the wall behind the bar are pulled down and donated.
Taking these down makes room for Ray’s most beloved tradition: hanging Christmas lights. Bartenders and locals come in together to decorate and transform the bar.
“It’s all decked out like a landing strip,” Steenson says. “Like the elves puked lights.”
Other traditions that Witt looks back on include the T-shirts that Ray’s makes and sells every year, the shot the employees take together before a long shift on a big day, the debriefs between the employees at the end of the night and employee brunch the day after Hobo Day.
“Jen brings so much positivity; she always comes in with a smile on her face,” Steenson said. “Her joy just spreads, it always has. The younger employees got along with her right away. She may be older, but she’s got a younger personality. We’re all kind of equal here when we are working together, even me.”
Witt notices that some things at SDSU, and the college culture has changed too.
When she was in school, the bars in downtown Brookings were mostly for people who were over 21 and treated their 21st birthday as a rite of passage.
She says that in her day house parties were constant and keg parties, called keggers, were huge, and that’s where underage students often did the drinking.
Witt also had never heard of a darty, the drinking game of people sitting outside throwing darts at each other’s beer cans. But now you can find them on nearly every block in warmer months of the school year, especially on Hobo Day and football game days.
Her favorite parts of SDSU were meeting people and making friends, especially the friends that would encourage her to do things she hadn’t considered before.
For Witt, Ray’s is more than a bar, it’s a place that has stayed the same in all the ways that matter.
“I don’t regret anything that I did there,” she said. “It just made me who I am now.”
