Looking back, I realize that I have spent a reasonable amount of time in dive bars. The measure of dive-ness varied. The drinking was always secondary to hanging out with friends and others. Got me thinking: we post up favorite routes to ride here, so why not post your favorite (dive) bars?
Here are my choices and why.
1. The Grotto - Univ. of Missouri at Rolla. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A437591 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A437591)
An awesomely dive-y bar at an remote engineering university. A joyous dump to escape the drudgery of school. My affection of dive bars is born here. Rated #1 college bar by Playboy in 1999?? :o Also, what the hell the BBC was doing there in 2000 I will never know, but it's a funny read.
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm173/JohnnyDucati66/grotto.jpg)
2. Dominic's Cafe - Wickliffe, OH. Sorry - too dive to have a link. ;D
First job out of school is in Cleveland (woo-hoo!). The plant is 2 blocks north of Dominic's. At lunch and after work, we all hit Dominics: managers, engineers, shop folks. Amazing discussions with Ph.d.'d engineers about single-crystal metallurgy, high temperature metals & ceramics and how to keep airplanes from crashing are taking place over shots, beers and hot wings. A beautiful blend of academia, techno-geek and true-blue American working joe's.
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm173/JohnnyDucati66/dominics.jpg)
3. Harry's Bar and Grill - Paris, France. http://www.harrysbar.fr/ (http://www.harrysbar.fr/)
Work takes me over the pond and Paris was an occasional destination. You'll always find US expats hanging at Harry's. What an awesome bar with an awesome history. The walls are panelled in mahogany and the patrons you encounter are from all over the world. A great place to drink and hang out.
4. The Double Locks - Exeter, UK. http://www.doublelocks.com/ (http://www.doublelocks.com/)
Ok, not really a dive bar, but I lived just down the road for year and half. A pub next to a canal. The Brits know how to do pubs. This one actually had decent food. Great to hang out and sit outside in the summer. It's also pretty hilarious to ride your bicycle home from there totally blitzed while trying to avoid falling into the canal. I'm amazed I succeeded that feat without drowning. Local lore has it that hundreds of bikes have been lost in the canal. ;D
5. The Lucky Labrador - Portland, Oregon. http://www.luckylab.com/html/story.html (http://www.luckylab.com/html/story.html)
I'm home and done wandering. My taste in bars has matured. What better place than somewhere that you can take your trusty Fido? Drinking buddies come and go, but no one's more faithful than your pooch. This pub has great micros and is dog friendly - how cool is that? So goes the arc of my dive bar life.
Looking forward to seeing the DMF's favorite's posted!
I only have two.
Annabell's in Akron. http://www.myspace.com/annabellsbarlounge (http://www.myspace.com/annabellsbarlounge)
It's a total dive. Stale, salty popcorn. A killer jukebox. Bands play downstairs, no cover and no stage. I've played there many times and seen many bands there. Dollar drafts every night and a punk rock/metal clientele. As I've gotten older, I get drawn back there for nostalgia. Every Thursday, the grad students from the Univ. History dept meet there to drink and commiserate about life. I love the place.
The Grog Shop. Cleveland Heights http://www.grogshop.gs/ (http://www.grogshop.gs/)
It was an old Indian food restaurant that closed to make way for an oddly shaped club (actually, the place was shaped kind of like a 9 iron). The layout made no sense, but they booked the best bands in the early 90s. I saw some of the best shows there. The jukebox is second only to Annabell's. They've since moved down the street to a nicer (less dive-like) space with really clean bathrooms (unlike the last place). I no longer go there too often, because it's in the same town where I teach high school. It looks bad when kids see their teacher stumbling to be a designated passenger after a Lucero show.
Mars bar on houston.
i leaned on the window and it fell through and hit the bartender inside. People were snorting coke in the bathroom, and the bartender said, "if its too much to gulp let me know", when i ordered a single shot of wild turkey. she gave me a double that and was topped off to the meniscus
(http://www.urban75.org/photos/newyork/images/ny552.jpg)
if anyone is going to go. please bring a knife and a friend.
I can only think of one right now:
Duff's - Brooklyn, NY
Exiled from his former bar Bellevue in Hell's Kitchen (for NY'ers, you'd know what Bellevue means) ;D Jimmy Duff moved his pleasant flock and musty ambiance in his "Reserved for Has Bin Laden" graffitied hearse across the river into this industrial area of Brooklyn. At one time you'd be advised avoiding Miriam and her trigger-happy bartender hands pouring endless Jaeger shots. Oh, and a jukebox full of family friendly fare every day and night with mom's favorites of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Ministry, Black Flag, Marilyn Manson and other head-snapping inducers. [bang] [bang] [bang] [bang] Metalheads unite!
Hogs & Heifers in the Meatpacking District used to be worth a mention, but now it's overrun with stiff-shirted preppy wanna-be's.
Sadly, several have met the dustbin of gentrification: Village Idiot, Yogi's, & CBGBs in NYC. RKCNDY & Off Ramp in Seattle.
The Heorot in Muncie, IN. Hundreds of beers available and none of them from a major domestic brewery. The original owner was a English Professor at Ball State and would usually just open when he wanted a drink. Fortunately, that was quite often. The inside is like a medieval hall, complete with swords and armaments behind the bar, banners and flags on the wall and long wood tables.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=muncie+IN&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.658568,92.724609&ie=UTF8&ll=40.191865,-85.386493&spn=0.002643,0.007703&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=40.192235,-85.386517&panoid=pZgXtrpAs3HML2rRoqPLcg&cbp=12,261.79,,0,4.19 (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=muncie+IN&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.658568,92.724609&ie=UTF8&ll=40.191865,-85.386493&spn=0.002643,0.007703&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=40.192235,-85.386517&panoid=pZgXtrpAs3HML2rRoqPLcg&cbp=12,261.79,,0,4.19)
No doubt about it, the ESSO CLUB in Clemson, SC. It can be found on Wikipedia. I'm there every day after work. There's right wingers and left wingers and beautiful bar maids, students, rednecks, and plenty PhDs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ESSO_Club_-_Clemson_South_Carolina.JPG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ESSO_Club_-_Clemson_South_Carolina.JPG)
LA
Guthrie's Alley Cat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKwlc8_mR6k#lq-hq-vhq)
Quote from: He Man on June 25, 2009, 10:50:53 PM
Mars bar on houston.
i leaned on the window and it fell through and hit the bartender inside. People were snorting coke in the bathroom, and the bartender said, "if its too much to gulp let me know", when i ordered a single shot of wild turkey. she gave me a double that and was topped off to the meniscus
(http://www.urban75.org/photos/newyork/images/ny552.jpg)
if anyone is going to go. please bring a knife and a friend.
I spent my 18th birthday there in highschool. Then went to this place
http://www.newyorkontap.com/reviews2show.asp?show=5 (http://www.newyorkontap.com/reviews2show.asp?show=5)
where the bartender gave us a bottle of Cuervo for us to celebrate. I'm 25 so the legal age was 21 then, I love NY.
Hands down Carl's Place on Woodland Ave. in Des Moines, IA
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=carl%27s+place+des+moines&aq=0&oq=Carl%27s+Place&aqi=g4 (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=carl%27s+place+des+moines&aq=0&oq=Carl%27s+Place&aqi=g4)
The place is impossible to describe...you have to experience the coolness.
GT in Des Moines is another great one...just don't try to steal the 6-71 blower from above the pool table...
The Silver Saddle Saloon in Potlatch Idaho.
Boy I get dirty looks everytime I go there until they realize I'm a local
I gotta get some pictures of the dank.
There is a Olive Oyl doll that's nailed up to the ceiling above a pool table
for some reason.
Hell last summer we had two horses in the bar drinking beer on the "dance floor".
It's the only place though that I can drink all night and end up with a $20 bar tab
NYC = http://www.fubar-nyc.com/ (http://www.fubar-nyc.com/) -- unfortunately, got "fubar'd" by a crane last year... :'(
Fireside Inn Boise.
No rooms, no fire ;D
2 pool tables, foos, shuffleboard, darts, pinball.
cheap, strong drinks.
far enough from downtown to avoid being overrun with college-douchebags and slumming hipsters.
close enough to my house to bicycle or walk
Last time fillmore came to visit we went to a bunch of bars one day
walk into the full bar sunday 2pmish....the first thing we see when our eyes adjusted to the blackness was a old guy on a rascal scooter.
his comment- now this is a good bar [thumbsup] [beer]
(http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=fireside+bar+boise&sll=37.509726,-95.712891&sspn=34.133414,79.013672&ie=UTF8&ll=43.635151,-116.227064&spn=0,359.997589&z=19&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=43.635066,-116.227064&panoid=4Ypn1BjTI6Eki4tYl-zsTw&cbp=12,71.81,,0,0.32)
The Buffalo Bar in Delta Junction Alaska.
I Spent a summer working construction at Ft. Greeley ( 3 miles south of DJ ) on Fridays they had a bus that ran from the man-camp into town. 90% headed straight for the Buffalo. It was always SRO. One day the job site was shut-down due to high winds. By 11 in the morning the place was full, by noon the first fight broke out ( Ironworker vs Electrician IIRC )
I love dive bars!
Here's a short list:
Chillicothe OH; Where I grew up and hang out a lot.
The Cross Keys Tavern and Cozy Inn
Westerville OH; Where I live
Brewsters Fun Pub- awesome juke box and very cheap drinks.
Also, when I lived in Phoenix I loved The Rework Room. A very divey dive bar [thumbsup]
The Ha Ra on Geary in San Francisco. Last time I was there, I bought a shot for the bartender Carl (salty old drunk), he fell down and threw up behind the bar. When he stood back up he told everyone to get the make the beast with two backs out. This was at about 11:30 at night. If you go in there with a lady, he will ask her to play "leap frog", and try to dance with her all night.
The Half Moon in New Orleans. I frequented this bar way too much in college. 3 pool tables, darts and video poker machines. There was never more than 10 people in there and the usuals regularly bought rounds for everyone in the joint. It was dark and smoke filled with an awesome jukebox. I once bought a circular saw for $8 in that bar. It still had a 30' cord attached to it.
I would regularly play cards with the bartender until the sun came up. At about 4am she would lock the doors and it turned into a self service open bar. On graduation night she let me invite my friends to the bar and kicked everyone else out. She locked the doors and let us have free run of the bar.
Sadly, last time I went there it had become a popular spot and there must have been 40 people in there. Some of them were even wearing pastel colored collared shirts... [puke]
Austin, Texas - The Poodle Dog Lounge on Burnet Rd.
This place was within stumbling distance of my house, so naturally, it was the "safest" place to go hang out. My next door neighbor just so happened to be the bartender. Even after the smoking ban went into effect, they didn't care. You could bring in bottles of your own booze, all you had to do was pay 2.50 for a cup with ice in it. 2.50 beer. god i miss that place.
I forgot about the ALIBI Bar in Buckeye Az., a few miles out in the desert west of Phoenix. It took a couple of weeks for my guys to get into the Palo Verde Nuc. Power Plant so every day after about 10:00 we'd go to the Alibi. When we asked where the closest bar to the Power Plant most people told us "Oh, no, you can go there. They thought we'd get killed. Hell we owned the place for months after that.
It was like going back at least 50 years in time to walk into the place. I was glad they made the patrons surrender there fire arms upon entry.
And it freaked me out when I noticed all the peeps up in Prescott in the Whiskey Roe bars walking around with empty holsters - every damn body had a gun, just like back in the 1800's -scary at first. The only difference was it was all Harleys backed in outside instead of horses.
Well there was one loud ass black Bev. drv. 900SS among all the Harleys. [thumbsup]
LA
my fave dive/college bar closed... magoo's... greasy pizza and lots of cheap beers
the new owners fixed it up and opened a new bar, with a pizza hut station in it... WTF? lights? a men's room that works? [roll]
I suppose the other place I hang out in is pretty divey. another pizza/beer joint...
Quote from: Vindingo on June 26, 2009, 10:25:24 PM
The Half Moon in New Orleans. I frequented this bar way too much in college. 3 pool tables, darts and video poker machines. There was never more than 10 people in there and the usuals regularly bought rounds for everyone in the joint. It was dark and smoke filled with an awesome jukebox. I once bought a circular saw for $8 in that bar. It still had a 30' cord attached to it.
I would regularly play cards with the bartender until the sun came up. At about 4am she would lock the doors and it turned into a self service open bar. On graduation night she let me invite my friends to the bar and kicked everyone else out. She locked the doors and let us have free run of the bar.
Sadly, last time I went there it had become a popular spot and there must have been 40 people in there. Some of them were even wearing pastel colored collared shirts... [puke]
Don't worry, last time I was there (couple months ago), it was back to normal. [thumbsup]
Of course, this was on a Sunday night ;D