Hank's bar, a Camden landmark, to close after 50 years

When their spoons scraped the bottom of their soup cups and their beers were nothing but suds, the regulars who called Hank's Bar and Grille home could always order another round.

Cops, attorneys, tech guys from nearby L-3 Communications and a priest or two filled Hank's dining room during lunch hours for decades, while city residents, construction workers, college students from nearby Rutgers, and a tattooed biker or two filled their front bar.

But it's last call at the unassuming, white-stucco bar in downtown Camden, and owner Judy Szatkowski, Hank's wife, is spending a lot of time kissing and hugging people who've become far more than customers.

"How's your wife?" Szatkowski said yesterday afternoon after hugging an L-3 employee she's known for decades.

The Szatkowskis have been in the bar business in Camden for nearly 50 years, and Hank's has been at 2nd and Market since 1979. Szatkowski, 70, said that she's been looking to sell for years and finally took an offer for "half of what I was asking for."

"I'm old," she said with a laugh. "I'm hoping I have a few more years left to do some things."

Hank's won't officially close until June 30, and Szatkowski doesn't believe the new owner, who bought several buildings on the block, has found anyone willing to keep the place open.

Meanwhile, regulars have been pouring in as word spread and Szatkowski, her daughter and granddaughter have been fighting back tears.

Cheryl Pierce,Judy's daughter, started working at the bar as a teenager one day when her mother got injured.

"I've been here ever since - I met my husband here," said Pierce, whose daughter is a Hank's bartender. "It still hasn't set in yet for me."

Regulars said that Hank's was the safest place in the city during lunch because of all the cops, state troopers and investigators from the Camden County Prosecutor's Office who filled the dining room.

"It will be missed," said James Plousis, the U.S. Marshal for New Jersey. "It was the place to go in Camden for a hot meal on a cold day."

Bart Leff, the communications director for the Camden School District, said that he's been ramping up his visits as he prepares to retire at the end of the month.

"They're closing and I'm closing, so I don't have to worry about where I'm going to eat lunch," he said.

For many years, Hank's was one of the few places where Rutgers-Camden students could socialize with cheap food and beer. Szatkowski often hired students to tend bar and spread the word. It worked.

"I fondly recall the Thursday nights there, when there was music and it was standing-room only," said Stephen Chodrow, who spent the early '90s at Rutgers. "It was the greatest college bar."

A large portrait of Hank Szatkowski hangs behind the "front" bar, which was his favorite of the two and home to the jukebox, the pool table and the rougher conversations.

"I laid my head on the bar once and fell asleep for four hours and no one bothered me," said Erik "Geronimo" Reading, a tall, barrel-chested 36-year-old chef/guitarist with a hearty laugh. "That's what kind of bar this is. Johnny Cash woke me up on the jukebox. You can be black, white, a college student or a biker like me here."

Next week, Hank's is hosting "goodbye" happy hours on Thursday and Friday. Judy Szatkowski said that she's going to be there, and she might need a ride home.

"You're in the bar business all your life, you don't get much time to have a little fun," she said. "I'll be here and I'll be drinking."