The Dive Bar Debate

Where you like to get loaded, and why.

Moderators: Artful Drunktective, mistah willies, NYDingbat, Judge, oettinger, Oggar, Badfellow, Mr Boozificator

Post Reply
Palinka (RIP)
Moderator
Posts: 9790
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2003 7:29 pm
Location: In The Liquor Cabinet

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Palinka (RIP) »

The problem with most of the UK "dive bars" is that they are really skanky and often have drug-dealers.
"If I had all the money that I've spent on drink, I'd spend it on drink!"
"The trouble with internet quotes is that one can never be sure if they are genuine." - Abraham Lincoln
Kindly listen to this, please.
ドロンケン
ImageImage

User avatar
Patchez
Drinking Like W.C.
Drinking Like W.C.
Posts: 6537
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:41 pm
Location: South Central, PA

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Patchez »

Palinka wrote: they are really skanky and often have drug-dealers.
Try finding a real dive bar that doesn't fit that description.
Now you're ready for some anti-dry-otics!-BeerMakesMeSmarter

If worms had daggers, birds wouldn't fuck with them-Todd Snider

Blackout and be extraordinary-Absinthe of Malice

User avatar
Wolfcoat
Booze Head
Booze Head
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:13 am
Location: Flatlands of the Midwest, USA

Fave Dive Bar...

Post by Wolfcoat »

My fave dive bar:

The Alley Cat, Broadripple, (Indy) IN.

It is up the spray painted alley off the strip. quintessential dive bar with some beat pool tables, complete with curly cues. best played drunk.

Tend to start the night somewhere else, but when you slide down the drain, the Cat is there for you.
Here's to us, and those like us.
Damn few of us left.

User avatar
Patchez
Drinking Like W.C.
Drinking Like W.C.
Posts: 6537
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:41 pm
Location: South Central, PA

Re: Fave Dive Bar...

Post by Patchez »

Wolfcoat wrote:My fave dive bar:



Tend to start the night somewhere else, but when you slide down the drain, the (insert your local dive) is there for you.
Wolfcoat has hit ht nail on the head. This is the greatest part of any dive. You'll never be shitty drunk enough to get in the door and get served.
Now you're ready for some anti-dry-otics!-BeerMakesMeSmarter

If worms had daggers, birds wouldn't fuck with them-Todd Snider

Blackout and be extraordinary-Absinthe of Malice

User avatar
Resident Asshole
Drinking God's Good Scotch
Drinking God's Good Scotch
Posts: 2834
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:09 am
Location: Coming in your back door.

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Resident Asshole »

As a daytime dive bar regular of the same place for over a decade now, to me this is what makes up a dive bar in Michigan.

Shitty liquor (Kesslers, 5 o' clock, Conquistador, et cetera), limited selection of everything, nasty floors, old people who get drunk during the day, a jukebox which plays CDs, crappy TVs, being overserved, cold bathrooms, crotchety barmaids, buying drinks for regulars and vice-versa, being able to put several drinks "in the well" to get happy hour price after happy hour has ended, bad hair, lack of teeth, very little food (chips/pickled eggs), only taking cash and perhaps having a pool table, or dart board or shuffleboard table, but usually only 1 of those things.

To me, that's a dive bar. Now my local has made some changes over the years, and I really don't mind it because it still has the dive bar feel and mentality.

They have:

Put in credit cards machines and an ATM
Replaced some TVs so now they have 2 flat screens
Gotten a better selection of liquor (at the regulars' suggestions)
Replaced part of the flooring

All of the rest is still the same and I still love the atmosphere where everyone knows me and will often buy me a drink.
Bourbon is my blood.

"Gren Label will rock on the show for me." bot rehan507

"women want to better express themselves. Dress up as their own performance this will be a lack of confidence." bot clshoo348

select backwards to God, his safekeeping a weapon homeopathy bold deed, president each opposite's cervix. bot klmn619

General E. Fubar
Drinking God's Good Scotch
Drinking God's Good Scotch
Posts: 2765
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 2:55 am
Location: SI HOC LEGERE SCIS NIMIUM ERUDITIONIS HABES
Contact:

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by General E. Fubar »

Resident Asshole wrote:As a daytime dive bar regular of the same place for over a decade now, to me this is what makes up a dive bar in Michigan.

Shitty liquor (Kesslers, 5 o' clock, Conquistador, et cetera), limited selection of everything, nasty floors, old people who get drunk during the day, a jukebox which plays CDs, crappy TVs, being overserved, cold bathrooms, crotchety barmaids, buying drinks for regulars and vice-versa, being able to put several drinks "in the well" to get happy hour price after happy hour has ended, bad hair, lack of teeth, very little food (chips/pickled eggs), only taking cash and perhaps having a pool table, or dart board or shuffleboard table, but usually only 1 of those things.

To me, that's a dive bar. Now my local has made some changes over the years, and I really don't mind it because it still has the dive bar feel and mentality.

They have:

Put in credit cards machines and an ATM
Replaced some TVs so now they have 2 flat screens
Gotten a better selection of liquor (at the regulars' suggestions)
Replaced part of the flooring

All of the rest is still the same and I still love the atmosphere where everyone knows me and will often buy me a drink.

Sounds like a bit of Heaven, only thing missing is the piss drunk chick in the bathroom trying to do a hand stand over a hand dryer to dry her pants... An image that will never leave the mind!
Image
"I hope you like Guinness, I find it a refreshing substitute to... food."
- O'Neill

If I stop drinking all at once, I'm afraid the cumulative hangover will kill me.
- Archer

User avatar
Resident Asshole
Drinking God's Good Scotch
Drinking God's Good Scotch
Posts: 2834
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:09 am
Location: Coming in your back door.

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Resident Asshole »

General E. Fubar wrote: Sounds like a bit of Heaven, only thing missing is the piss drunk chick in the bathroom trying to do a hand stand over a hand dryer to dry her pants... An image that will never leave the mind!
Haha, frankly I'm sure that happens but I'm generally a day drinker and there are very few day drinkers at my bar who can't handle their booze (even though we definitely get drunk). At night there are a lot of younger kids and a bunch of shenanigans I don't really miss but would be fun to see.
Bourbon is my blood.

"Gren Label will rock on the show for me." bot rehan507

"women want to better express themselves. Dress up as their own performance this will be a lack of confidence." bot clshoo348

select backwards to God, his safekeeping a weapon homeopathy bold deed, president each opposite's cervix. bot klmn619

User avatar
oettinger
Juicing Like Jackie
Juicing Like Jackie
Posts: 14255
Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 10:23 am

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by oettinger »

My favorite dive bar closed a couple of months ago because some stupid no smoking law made it unprofitable.
I damnin`helped raise that fucker like it was my own child!
Back in the day when I was on a god ol`bar-crawl we entered one of the more uninvting parts of town and there it was, the Tropicana (there`s a longer story to that but this should do it for the evening). We immediatly entered and were greeted by a lone lovely african women standing behind the bar counting her bills in disgust. She called herself Barbara, or short Babsi and was the owner. Turns out she was from cameroon, a place I`ve been to as child myself and from then on it was pure love. Later she introduced me to her brother Pius, a super friendly little fella and we also became friends.
During that time no one frequented the bar and most of times me and some friends were the only guests. When Babsi was pregnant and needed a nap, she layed down on a bench and allowed us to serve us ourselfes. We wrote down every drink we had and paid handsomely, it was just pure trust.
It often turned out to be on of those 50 to 100 even 150 bucks nights for me, as we often stayed until 10 a.m. the next morning. That sadly is something the bar later on became infamous for, as every asshole inhabiting this town became aware of the fact that the Tropicana runs from dusk till dawn...
But I digress. After a year or so us being the only customers, the bar got more and more crowded and our daily help wasn`t needed that much anymore. In the end I didn`t hit it with that regularity anymore as the most fucked up scumbags got a hold of it because of it`s lackadaisical rules... meh it`s greatness was it`s downfall I guess.
And now they`re closed! It`s like you`ve lost an important person in your life and never got the chance to talk to him/her one last time. Is was really in shock to say the least!
Drink!
Image
Image

User avatar
oettinger
Juicing Like Jackie
Juicing Like Jackie
Posts: 14255
Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 10:23 am

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by oettinger »

The place I frequent now most times is not as "shabby" but bearable when not crowded whith assholes. It`s so small that when you sit at the bar and someone wants to go to the bathroom there`s barely place between you and the wall.
Drink!
Image
Image

Hooch Hammer
Tippler
Tippler
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:59 pm
Location: A Hole in NJ

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Hooch Hammer »

My favorite of all time as The Clubhouse in Somerdale NJ (at least I think that's the township).

It had: shuffleboard, pool (free pool, the side where you put the quarters was ripped off), bar/shuffle bowling, pinball, a small putting green, a miniscule dance floor, air hockey, and a bad-ass kitchen. Plus the drinks were reasonable, and it wasn't overcrowded. Good, good times. It's since been: closed, abandoned, and re-named, but I haven't been back since.

After that, I had to 'grow up' (not get plastered 7 days a week - I'm down to 6 now), and the closest thing has been Giuseppe's in (again I have no idea) Haddon Twp or something in NJ. You'd think I'd know my home state by now??

That place has:
A back room that is only inhabited by me and my friends. It has a pinball table and bar/shuffle bowling alley that operate once you plug them in, against management's wishes, a decent pool table, and some kind of shitty darts, I think (I don't know, I was drunk).

And it's got a bunch of miserable patrons sitting around the main bar doing nothing.

And it's got that STANK.

If you like dive bars you know what I mean. It's a flavor all it's own.

NO: high def tvs, bright lights, frat boys, shine, or $6.50 Budweisers. Just good old dark, sleazy comfort.
Who knows better? Me, or a know nothing like you, who knows nothing? - Captain Hank Murphy

User avatar
Frankennietzsche
Juicing Like Jackie
Juicing Like Jackie
Posts: 12348
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2003 9:13 pm
Location: Master of the Meatloaf Winds
Contact:

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Frankennietzsche »

Dear Booze wrote: 6. Don’t start with shots. Stick to beer and cocktails or you will find the night will not last long. Besides that, downing too many shots too soon will make you more likely to become an asshole. (See number 6)
That typo amuses me.
“Süßen witwe Mutter-Hosen — kommst du hier mit mein knackenpfeife schnell, oder Ich zeige Ihnen mein Zuhälter Hand!”

"I am going to pistol-whip the next person who says 'shenanigans' "

"Rectum? It nearly killed him!"

User avatar
Resident Asshole
Drinking God's Good Scotch
Drinking God's Good Scotch
Posts: 2834
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:09 am
Location: Coming in your back door.

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Resident Asshole »

frankennietzsche wrote:
Dear Booze wrote: 6. Don’t start with shots. Stick to beer and cocktails or you will find the night will not last long. Besides that, downing too many shots too soon will make you more likely to become an asshole. (See number 6)
That typo amuses me.
I'm already an asshole so they encourage me to do shots because it ups their tips. Just sayin', when they ask it I want my regular unless I say otherwise it's a drink and a shot.
Bourbon is my blood.

"Gren Label will rock on the show for me." bot rehan507

"women want to better express themselves. Dress up as their own performance this will be a lack of confidence." bot clshoo348

select backwards to God, his safekeeping a weapon homeopathy bold deed, president each opposite's cervix. bot klmn619

User avatar
Mr. Viking
Hooching Like Hemingway
Hooching Like Hemingway
Posts: 3947
Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:23 am
Location: Norris Green

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Mr. Viking »

I don't like it when a bartender tries to preempt my drinks choice. I will usually try to have one of everything they stock.

I think it is fine if one were to order the same drink regularly, and I do occasionally enjoy ordering Tennents by making a T sign across a crowded room though. Bartenders picking up on that deserve their job. Especially if they then quip "Time for T?"
"I spent all of my money on cars, women and booze, the rest of it I squandered" G. Best

maltlicker
Souse
Souse
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Aug 19, 2006 3:02 pm

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by maltlicker »

"32 Diviest Dive Bars in America"
https://impulcity.com/articles/the-32-d ... in-america

I have no idea how accurate/well done this list is. I've only been to #15 StageDoor, Las Vegas which is fairly divey but intentionally so.
(I might have been to the Green Parrot in Key West but that would have been decades ago)

User avatar
Patchez
Drinking Like W.C.
Drinking Like W.C.
Posts: 6537
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:41 pm
Location: South Central, PA

Re: The Dive Bar Debate

Post by Patchez »

Been to the Parrot and Mac's Club Duce. Both awesome dives and great late nite places after the punk show at the Cameo Theater in Miami and just a place to wind up in Key West.... away from the fucking tourists.
Now you're ready for some anti-dry-otics!-BeerMakesMeSmarter

If worms had daggers, birds wouldn't fuck with them-Todd Snider

Blackout and be extraordinary-Absinthe of Malice

Post Reply