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America's Best Dive Bars
An open love letter to the dive bar, with a list of some of the country's best and truest examples.
Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart once opined that pornography is tough to define, but "I know it when I see it." I feel the same way about dive bars. Over the last decade, I've covered the bars, beer, and booze beat with a liver-pummeling, coast-to-coast focus. I've imbibed high and low, sipping exquisitely calibrated cocktails in suit-and-tie joints and glugging Styrofoam buckets of Bud in graffiti-covered cockroach lairs. Thus, I have a clear concept about what constitutes a dive bar.
For starters, it's cost. "What makes a dive bar is prices," Jimmy Duff, whose eponymous Brooklyn joint serves up ear-splitting heavy metal and PBR for a buck, once told me. "Even if you're serving beer out of a port-a-john, it's dirt-cheap drinks that attract a cast of characters." That's why I love New Orleans' Ms. Mae's, where cocktails start at a dollar and the conversations with the ne'er-do-wells are priceless.
Secondly, I like a dive to have an off-kilter shtick. That doesn't mean setting up a beer-pong table. I'm talk about the kind of offbeat, um, entertainment, found at Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon in Austin, Texas. On Sundays, patrons place bets on a chicken defecating on a number-covered board. If the No. 2 hit your number, you win!
Next, dive bars are idiosyncratic and unable to be replicated. Take Bubba's Sulky Lounge in Portland, Maine. It's crammed with taxidermied critters, lunch boxes, ice cream parlor equipment, and a light-up disco dance floor. The collection has to be accreted over time, which is the most crucial element for defining a dive bar: It's the layers of stickers at San Francisco's Toronado, and the currency tacked to the ceiling at Alaska's Salty Dawg.
Dive bars aren't born; they're created as the years dissolve into decades, and the customers grow ever more curmudgeonly — in the best way possible. Here are some of my favorite dive bars in America. What are yours?
Click here for the America's Best Bars Slideshow.
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by stlblues, Apr 13, 2012 @ 3:08 PM
Star bar in Gaslamp San diego--open 365 6am till... better booze selection that pricey bars down the street and cheaper
by Anonymous, Jun 18, 2011 @ 9:30 AM
Thank you for the list, looks like some great places were included. A few that I would recognize, all from towns with underrated music scenes:
Baltimore, MD: Bad Decisions, Ottobar, Sidebar
Worcester, MA: Lucky Dog, Ralph's Chadwick Square Diner, Vincent's
DC: some people consider Madam's Organ a dive bar?
by Anonymous, Jun 17, 2011 @ 12:26 PM
The Silver Peso, Larkspur CA. Small, musty, great bloody mary's and Janis Joplin's piano in the corner.
by cholahan725, Jun 10, 2011 @ 11:17 PM
Mother's Pub in Gainesville,FL. You might see a coed doing a shot with a rugby player while Tim Tebow nurses a water.
by Anonymous, Apr 04, 2011 @ 9:08 PM
The Hooch in Dearborn Michigan... cheap cheap prices and scantily clad woman makes this dive my #1 !
by Anonymous, Jun 13, 2011 @ 9:08 PM
Maxine's in an Institution all in itself. Many degrees earned there! What about George's, the oldest bar in Arkansas?
by Anonymous, Mar 28, 2011 @ 5:55 PM
Maxine's Tap Room--Fayetteville, Arkansas
Got my law degree there.
by Anonymous, Mar 26, 2011 @ 4:24 PM
The Hearth in San Francisco. "No whiners, no website, just booze"
by Anonymous, Mar 23, 2011 @ 12:12 PM
Group Therapy in Longmont Colorado!!! That place scared me more then the city itsellf
by Anonymous, Mar 22, 2011 @ 9:17 PM
The Popcorn Tavern in La Crosse, WI. Live music every night, cheap drinks, and 40+ years of graffiti cover the walls.
by Anonymous, Mar 22, 2011 @ 8:25 PM
Homepagedaily would like to conduct a dive bar tour of the United States. two committed Australians who would love nothing more than an excuse to film themselves drinking for two months, please email your suggestions of the best dive bars to us
or visit the site and let us know there
homepagedaily.com
Would love people prepared to give us a tour and update of the history of the dive bar in whichever city, not necessarily a student but that would be preferred!
by Anonymous, Mar 22, 2011 @ 5:02 PM
The Barracuda bar in Coconut Grove (Miami), FL
by Anonymous, Mar 16, 2011 @ 2:49 PM
How could any list of dive bars miss the Saloon in San Francisco's North Beach?
by Anonymous, Mar 16, 2011 @ 2:24 PM
Actually, Ms. Mae's in New Orleans recently raised its drink prices.
"Gerry Archer, who owns the building, took over the bar in December. He doesn’t plan to change much, although the ridiculously cheap drinks ($1 for singles and $2 for doubles) are now merely incredibly cheap ($2 for singles and $3 for doubles)."
Read more: http://www.nola.com/drink/index.ssf/2011/01/new_management_takes_over_ms...
by Anonymous, Mar 16, 2011 @ 11:33 AM
Palmers bar in Minneapolis,with their wall of shame,and of course the sign SORRY, WERE OPEN
by Anonymous, Mar 16, 2011 @ 9:57 AM
Sail Inn in Tempe across from the beautifully landscaped Green Belt.
by Anonymous, Mar 16, 2011 @ 6:21 AM
Without a doubt, Shorty's in Winona MN-known for its beer and tomato juice drinks and great fried chicken..
by Anonymous, Mar 16, 2011 @ 12:46 AM
How could you miss the Augustine Inn - Port Penn DE - tough biker bar with big porch overlooking the water with view of nuclear power plant cooling tower
by Anonymous, Mar 15, 2011 @ 3:35 PM
Springwater Supper Club in Nashville, TN
Holy crap I miss that place....
by Anonymous, Mar 15, 2011 @ 1:27 PM
http://www.groveproject.org/2009/07/01/bar-scenes-the-fat-pelican/
Fat Pelican Carolina Beach, NC
by Anonymous, Mar 16, 2011 @ 10:12 AM
been there many times. along with "The Joint", Pearsons, and Whiskey Junction. Good memories!!!
by Anonymous, Mar 15, 2011 @ 12:07 PM
Ha! Oh my god, absolutely. John's Place is now (and has been for decades) a true end-of-the-road dive. The atomic hot Johndog is worth a road trip.
by Anonymous, Mar 15, 2011 @ 8:41 AM
John's Place in Cookeville, TN has to be one of the best dive bars. Check it out.
