Whatever Happened To Dive Bars?

[michael88n]

I miss my old dive bar from slower-lower Illinois.

While driving though our old home town last week , SWMBO and I stopped by our dive for dinner (yummy bar food) with the kiddos. We called some old friends of ours (and their daughter) and invited them to join us.

The kids had a great time, danced to the jukebox, and had their first "dive bar" experience.

Another 11 years and I'll have my very own designated driver...

Don't ask about the drink specials... I had a couple of Stags for old time's sake...

 

[GregR]

I love the Dive scene. the best dive I've been to has to be Double Downs in vegas. I went there on halloween and I was the only one out of my friends really loved the place. it's the kind of place with so much graffiti in the bathrooms that there isn't even room for new graffiti. the smoke is so think that you'd rather have a cig than breath the second hand smoke.

some good ones in San Diego are The Hong Kong on the outskirts of downtown and the Zombie Lounge. sadly the Zombie lounge is under new ownership and I haven't been back since so I'm not sure how it is now.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I thought ALL bars were dive bars until I got out of Ohio for a few days

 

[david_42]

My only local bar would qualify. Smells so bad, I wasn't able to get in the door, Bud Light sign flickering in the window, and "We only serve real American beers" on the door. I didn't ask.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

My only local bar would qualify. Smells so bad, I wasn't able to get in the door, Bud Light sign flickering in the window, and "We only serve real American beers" on the door. I didn't ask.

If the locals ever get to know about Inbev, that bar is f#cked!

 

[TerapinChef]

Yeah I can think of a few bars in your area that would qualify as well. Check out Wiseguys at 18 or so and Garfield. Sounds like it's right up your alley.

 

[Rezilynt]

I use to frequent a dive bar about 20 years ago in Central Illinois. we called it the knife and gun club. Jukebox was always loud, pool tables had stains all over them (some not from spilled drinks).

You could almost always find someone cutting lines on the bar. The bartender always had a full pipe he passed around. The best part was - the bar was directly across the street from the Police station. I stopped going when some more unsavory characters started frequenting the place.

 

[MrNate]

The place I used to go to in Baltimore wasn't nearly that rough, but one night the Crazy Old Guy (every dive bar has at least one) showed me the screwdriver he kept in his boot and said he had to stab someone with it the night before. I believed him, and if youd've been there I bet you would've too.

 

[olllllo]

My local dive opens at 7am and features $1.99 Bloody Mary's with biscuits and gravy.
Think about the unit cost of those quality ingredients.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Unfortunately my town is almost all dive bars. Not a single place for an EAC to get some good beer.

 

[Ceedubya]

luvs me some dive bars. Montana is obviously full of them. The western part of the state is changing (for the worse) and getting trendy. There was a great old bar "The Rockin R" in Bozeman. Last time I went it was completely redone into a martini bar with the hanging table lamps and fancy tables. couldn't even tell it was the same place, except the kep the name and original sign.

Helena has some of the more "upscale" joints, but there a lot of bluecollar dives that I still frequent. Fortunately many of them have at least one decent beer. Moose Drool out of Missoula is popular here, so a lot of them have that. If not I drink bourban cuz the other choices are pretty much all BME.

My favorite stop is just down the street from home, out in the county. Pool hall, poker in the back room, dark, dingy, smoky, jukebox blaring..... my kind of place

 

[schmidtosu]

Best Dive bar I have ever been to....The Runway in Tucson AZ.

None of the bar stools matched. It was owned/operated by a retired AF guy, and his Korean wife was the cook...This was REAL HOMEADE Korean Food (Bulgogi was a specialty) served nightly, along with standard American fare.

The beer selection was small, but the liquor selection was always stocked full. I did the Cabo Wabble out of there more than once. Oh, there was an occasional live band, with a man that DESTROYED a slide guitar...he was phenomenal...the stage was a raised platform in the back of the room, and when I say raised, I am talking like 4 inches. 1 pool table, a OLD SCHOOL Pac-Man machine, two old pinball machines and about 5 cork dartboards. He did however, SPLURGE on a PHENOMINAL Juke Box and always had it cranked to max DB's.

Of all the "modern" clubs in Tucson, this was the place we went to have the most fun.

Speaking of Tucson, there are two pretty outstanding breweries there...Nimbus and Thunder Canyon (thier Porter was outstanding!!)....But I havent been back in about two years....*sigh* I miss Tucson...

 

[flowerysong]

Finally I asked them what they expected, this is a shot and a beer bar.

I'm guessing they expected you to take them somewhere that they would enjoy, rather than making everything about you and your preferences. Or possibly they expected that if you chose a place where the bartender was so crap that simple mixed drinks were out of the question, you would warn them ahead of time.

 

[Decojuicer]

I'm guessing they expected you to take them somewhere that they would enjoy, rather than making everything about you and your preferences. Or possibly they expected that if you chose a place where the bartender was so crap that simple mixed drinks were out of the question, you would warn them ahead of time.

Wow, you know something? You're right. I was insensitive. Maybe it hurt their feelings. Maybe I should have taken them to their kind of bar. Maybe I should have canceled MY plans for the evening and just done what they wanted. I should call them tonight and apologize, and send them flowers and write them a poem and hope that we can all get together for a fondu party really soon.

Yeah, F*** that. They knew when my wife(not me by the way, I kind of wanted to spend a little time out with my old lady that night) invited them they we were going to a dive bar. If they wanted to go to a cigar bar or some fufu bar where drinks are served with umbrellas, then they had their own car. They could have taken a powder at any point. I didn't point a gun at their head. I don't get to go out as often as they do. I don't even get to go out as often as my wife does. When I do get to go out, sometimes...not all the time, but sometimes...I like to go somewhere to please ME. They fact that my my likes those places too is a bonus.

 

[Computertekguy]

*thread bump

There isn't a lot of dive bars around your area though. There is one bar on the corner of Vandyke and Hall road that I been too a few times and that place was alright. Can't remember the name though.

Head north, go Almont. Check out Mikey's or Paradise. 15-20 minute drive will suck but Van Dyke is pretty tame on traffic after 8pm.

Or you could come to Flint. TONS of great bars around here. I regular 3 of them that are within 5 miles of me. All serve 3$ 32oz domestics and their bottled beers are a great price as well. Get a Jack and coke for 5$ and it's 4oz jack and 4oz coke. No watered down whiskey for me.

I guess it depends on where you live. And I agree with you Deco, do whatever the F you wanna do, have fun.