“You come here to drink, forget, or start something. Usually, it’s all three.”

 

Description - Exterior

The Cracked Mug sits low and brick-worn on a corner just off 45th Street, wedged between a defunct bakery and a barbed-wire lot full of rusted bicycles. Its faded hand-painted sign shows a smiling coffee cup with a visible crack down the middle, now yellowed by decades of smoke and exhaust. Two benches out front serve as both neutral ground and unspoken judgment. A rusted bell above the door never rings at the right time—and sometimes rings when no one comes in.  

Description - Interior

The inside is all wood, tile, and scarred linoleum, lit by hanging bulbs that buzz in three different tones. Mismatched mugs hang behind the bar, each with a name sharpied on it—some regulars, some gone. There’s always a radio playing somewhere in the background, tuned to static-filled folk or baseball commentary from stations that shouldn’t reach this far. A narrow stairwell leads down to a basement that smells of salt, whiskey, and regret. The back wall features a mural of Canaryville’s old union hall—but the faces in the crowd change sometimes.  

History

The Mug’s been around since the 1910s, started as a workingman’s café and evolved into a full bar after Prohibition. It’s always been Canaryville’s second home—less flashy than O’Malley’s, but meaner, quieter, and less forgiving. The Fear Crew uses it as a second outpost, especially for low-heat sit-downs or when O’Malley’s is too public. Some say The Cracked Mug is where grudges are aired and minor scores settled—off the books.  

Owned By

Eamon "Bricks" Maguire, former bricklayer turned quiet barman. Lost a finger to the Fear Crew, but earned the bar and his place with what he didn’t say after.  

Run By

Bricks, and occasionally his nephew Liam when Bricks is “sleeping off the noise.”  

Employees

• Nora Hanley – Barmaid and backroom fixer. Keeps a book of debts no one’s allowed to see. Knows what you drank on your worst day.
• “Keys” Malone – Ancient piano player, plays for tips and talks to shadows between sets.
• Danny Kells – Teen runner. Might be spying for someone—or something. Never says who.

 

Regulars

• Off-duty union men with old bruises and newer stories.
• Fear Crew toughs running low-profile jobs or waiting on word.
• An ex-cop who drinks free and never smiles.
• A mute woman in a long coat who always sits at the end and leaves a shot untouched.

 

Notes

• The basement has carvings in the brick from 1921 that no one can translate. Bricks won’t let anyone scrape them.
• A cracked mug behind the bar weeps water every St. Brigid’s Day—though it’s bone dry otherwise.
• The lights flicker when liars talk too long. Locals take that very seriously.
• Rumors say a CPD informant died here in ’44, and now anyone who sells out their crew inside gets found “by morning.”
• The bar’s namesake mug has never been moved since 1936. No one touches it. Not even Bricks.