According to the online review sites, Whittle’s Pub & Grub is the best bar and restaurant in Eldon, Mo. If you sit down at the bar and ask the person next to you “why?” the answer is always “Mikeye.” Michael ‘Mikeye’ Scott—nicknamed for the glass eye he’s had since he was three years old—is a force of personality. Hustling between the kitchen, tables and slinging drinks, his perpetually positive attitude creates a welcoming atmosphere for friends, locals and visitors. White table cloths or tiny French appetizers are nowhere to be found in Eldon, but the best places have something else; something less tangible, yet more real: a comfort in the familiar, a reliance on the regular and a deep sense of belonging. Mikeye fosters all this, earning Whittle’s its title as the place to be.