Noah Oliver stands behind the bar at the Mountain City Club in downtown Chattanooga. Oliver was a bartender at the Mountain City Club for nearly 50 years before retiring, and the club recently named their new patio in his honor.When Noah Oliver came to work at the Mountain City Club there were no women, no Jews and no blacks among its members. It was 1963, and he was 26 years old.
The club was in the old, storied building on Chestnut Street in downtown, where there was a table for “The Guineas,” a group of wealthy men with special chairs.
There were famous football players, judges, bankers, Coca-Cola executives who came for drinks and dinner, all allowed in by votes and dues. Some men spent so much time there in their old age that they died in their favorite chairs.
And as the club changed, moved locations, went through membership ups and downs, admitted outsiders and opened up private dining areas, Oliver was always on the fringes, pouring whiskey and gin. Over time, he became a warming presence for the upper crust.
The CEOs and lawyers called his pour the “Noah Pour” and the bar upstairs the “Noah Bar.” This month they named a new brick patio on the side of the club “The Noah Oliver Patio.”