Ye Rustic probably isn’t on the list of the 50 best bars in Los Angeles. The beer selection is fine, and the chicken wings are better than expected, but the atmosphere is dingy and the service is just okay. Odd, then, that my Journalism Residency took me inside twice: Ye Rustic was Grantland’s bar.

Grantland was an ESPN-affiliated website created in 2011 by Bill Simmons, a former ESPN writer. The site specialized in long-form commentary about sports and popular culture. After a four-year run of sharp writing and boundary-pushing ideas, the site was shuttered by ESPN on Friday, October 30, 2015. It was my favorite thing to read for four years. It was my favorite place to work for six weeks.

Grantland proudly distinguished itself from other web publications. In its prime, the site was unrivaled in talent – incredible people, top to bottom – and it honored its prestigious contributors with relentless loyalty and a massive platform. Articles ran into the thousands of words, and Grantland’s celebratory presentation made it a new-school mecca for an old-school style. Nowhere else on the Internet was the written form treated with so much reverence and indulgence. The site was exceptional. It was excessive. Readers wolfed it down.

Some might call Grantland’s fate inevitable amid the Internet’s culture of compression, but that doesn’t make the site’s closure any less meaningful. Grantland dared to go longer instead of shorter and deeper instead of punchier. Modern journalism has every publication trying to spoon-feed us baby food, but Grantland actually produced a satisfying plate. Our web space is dimmer, duller and dumber without it.

When the site folded, the staff headed to Ye Rustic for a night of toasts and laughter and too many hot wings. I held my desk in a box on my lap, and amid the reminiscing, one of the editors turned in my direction:

“You know something, Tyler? You can say now that you were one of the few people who worked at Grantland. That’s going to fucking blow people’s minds.” He adjusted his glasses. “That’s a story in every single job interview for the rest of your life.”

That was Grantland – always about the story. For just six weeks, right up until the blaze-of-glory ending, it was the best job I ever had. You might visit the old site once in a while – it brought a lot of talented people together to tell some amazing stories. There weren’t many places like it. I hope to God that changes.