What is your favorite dive (bar)?

[DemoTex]

It is a tie, historically, for me. The long-defunct "Wonder-Bar" at Mexico Beach on the Red-Neck Riviera of the Bu$h's Florida Panhandle (east of PC) and the still-serving-since-1612 "The Grape," off Half Moon Street in Mayfair, London. Dives, both. Great, both.

I've gotten drunk with more smart/interesting/famous people, per unit visit, in those two dives, than anywhere else. Places we met ,later, old musician friend from my 60's bands like vocalist Jimmy Buffett, and old family friends Livingston & James and the other brothers, fighter pilots like Sammy-Small (fucks-them-all) just back from a rough tour in f-100s in 1967 (just before I went in) and airline moguls like Fred Smith. Even a swaying Bu$h-1 cabinet official, at the Grape, after the 1990 Farnborough Air Show.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. McGlinchey's

It's in Philadelphia.

There's a family reason, too -- one of my relatives opened it as a speakeasy during Prohibition.

Actually, it used to be my favorite. It got popular and went "upscale" so I stopped going there.

It also got very alcohol oriented, a place for Yuppies to get their dates liquored up. I don't drink, and the bars I prefer to frequent have something other than drinking going on. It kept live music for a few years, but that seemed to fall off, too.

The Khyber Pass in Philly is a good dive-cum-music room, but I haven't been there in many years. In the late 1990s, my allergies got so intense I had to stay away from smoke-filled rooms. This would be a good time to start hanging out in NYC, but it's pretty far away and I really have no friends there.

--bkl

[DieboldMustDie]

2. Have you been to the Blue Comet in Glenside?

It's a rockabilly bar that has a floor littered with peanut shells and where the women smoke cigars. I was in there just once and went home smelling like an ashtray. If you go, wear earplugs. :crazy:

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Nope, sorry

And I love rockabilly, too.

The last time I was in a smoke-filled room, I ended up in bed for a week with a severe sinus infection, conjunctivitis, and heart palpitations from the severity of the allergic reaction.

My days as a guitar god have come to an end, as well.

On the other hand, when my family situation eases up a little, I might just decide to move to NYC and have my tailor let the spandex suit out a few inches.

--bkl

[DemoTex]

4. Damn, Trof ... I didn't mean to exclude the Flora-Bama Lounge.

Another great place on Perdido Island.

[DemoTex]

5. Better yet, NYC's "Tap-A-Keg Lounge."

Upper east side near the 70s. The neon sign in the window says "A HELL OF A PLACE!."

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. The "Star Bar" in downtown San Diego, near Horton Plaza. A real den

of villainy a la Mos Eisley Spaceport.

As big a collection of desparate dead enders, cirrhotics with their pot bellies full of ascitic fluid, junkies, crack ho's and the like that one is likely to find in one place. Always with the heavy feeling in the air that unsavory deeds are going on or being arranged there.

Tom Waits could have generated at least 3 albums worth of songs about the denizens of this place. Come to think of it, he's from San Diego/Imperial Beach as I understand it. Maybe he's been there.

Apologies if any DUers frequent the place or own it! :o

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

7. Two gay bars ..one in Cincinnati, the other in Sacramento.

The Cincy bar...downtown....
,i dont remember the name, "The Side Door" maybe?...off an alley off of Walnut Street (Gano Street?), in downtown Cincy, back when that neighborhood was still semi-skid rowish.

Very much a street queen bar.

the same with "The Western" in Sacramento...it was an old corner bar, but it was alot of fun in its gay way. Everyone would sing along when Patsy Cline came on the jukebox.

[dolo amber]

8. There was this place in Cincinnati

little dirty grubby part of town, the outside to match...I just HAD to go into it at least once cos of the name...

World of the Satisfy'in Place :D

(On McMillan in Walnut Hills, any 'Nati DUers... :hi:)

[UTUSN]

9. Jacksonville Beach

Palm hut roofs. All us customers sitting at the bar (natch) in our "swimming" gear (like we're going to swim). A bar, a dive, on the beach, without any effort.

[EstimatedProphet]

10. The Crazy Loon Saloon in Fairbanks Alaska

Dogs and kids welcome, movies on Sunday night. Red Hook on tap.