St. James. Sweeney's. Harry Cipriani. The Oak Room. Sardi's. Nightengale's. The 9-0. Gallagher's. Chuck & Harold's. Bice.

Pick your poison.

-- Sara Astruc (saraastruc@aol.com), July 26, 2000

Answers

Although I hang my head in shame! I must admit - The Buckano Bean!!!!

-- Leslle (mylula@aol.com), July 26, 2000.

Chicago

The Max Tavern, back when it was open, especially in 1989; Delilah's--best when I dj'd there, sometimes with Blackie Onassis, sometimes without; Tuman's when we go with a Critical Mass crew, laughin after a good bike ride, drinking Weiss bier and shots of Jim Beam, and listening to Patti Smith sing "Gloria"; Sak's Ukrainian Village when the Ukrainian girls who live above the flowershop are there--blonde, icily pretty, aloof, silly--or when I just want to talk with Roman and drink among the quiet old Ukrainian men; The Double Door when there is a great band and Sean is there (so I drink for free, as he owns it.

more later

-- Nick Scratch (nick_scratch@hotmail.com), July 26, 2000.

My God, The Buckano Bean. How could I forget?

Oh, and Whiskey Reds. I had to the scrub the floor in there with a toothbrush when I was pledging.

-- SaraAstruc@aol.com), July 27, 2000.

Desperados, The Cellar Door, The Tombs, Mr. Smith's (way back when), The 21st Amendment (the bartender made a drink called the slyvester), M&S, Clydes, Pat & Mikes, Fedoras's......and the evening and the morning were the first day.

Sign of the Whale, Bachelors II, (burned to the ground in a spectacular fire), Union Street, The Foggy Dogg, Spanky's, The Fox Chase Tavern......and the evening and the morning were the second day.

That's it, I quit.....

-- Berwick Drews (berwickdrews@marriott.com), July 27, 2000.

Heh. This topic is right up my alley.

A now defunct biker bar called The Deer Park Inn.

The Fore 'n Aft, also out of business but an awesome rock and roll bar back in the day.

The Lakeside Lounge - great jukebox, good bands, photo booth, cheap drinks. One of my favorites, except on the weekends when it is much too crowded.

Manitoba's - right around the corner from my apartment and a gathering place for East Village musicians. I know the owners, so I usually get my drinks for free. They have a really ugly sign out front though.

Gramercy Hotel Bar - I love hotel bars, and this one is properly dark and seedy.

The bar at the Four Seasons Hotel - They make a fabulous martini, and you can always spot a celebrity or two, but the clientele can be rather tiresome.

Marie Chiaro (I have no idea if that is the correct spelling). A Goodfella's bar in Little Italy. They once kicked me out for playing cards on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

I have more, but I'll stop now.

-- Sarah (scampbell@frankfurtbalkind.com), July 27, 2000.

The Nags Head in Hoboken, NJ - a perfect pint Jimmy's Corner, NYC - off Times Square but so UnTimessquareish The Blue and Gold Tavern, NYC - the coolest bar - such a dive

-- Joanne (josierose@hotmail.com), July 27, 2000.

Sarah! re: Manitoba and its proximity to you. If you've lived there a while, we must've been neighbors. Now I live almost 3 whole blocks away, but I still go over to Avenue B often - to Lakeside Lounge, during the week, to get my Ms Pacman fix and to Ace Bar to luxuriate in its spaciousness. Also, a friend recently introduced me to The Edge to feed my new obsession with darts.

-- beth (beth@sassy.net), July 27, 2000.

Beth,

Yep, I've lived in my current place for almost 4 years, before that I lived on 10th Street.

-- Sarah (scampbell@frankfurtbalkind.com), July 27, 2000.

I'm not much of a barfly and less so as I get older, but I have fond memories of The 880 Club, a jazz/blues joint in a working class Italian neighborhood in Hartford, Conn. We used to go to hear Matt Emirzian and His Saturday Night Special, a bebop quintet. Matt E. was this very tall balding guy who played the vibes and drank shots of ouzo or something between sets until he was lit up like a downtown Christmas tree. His vivacious playing and good cheer were infectious. I used to call up my friends and say "Wanna go hear baldy play the vibes?"

-- Andrew (lifeofthemind31@aol.com), July 27, 2000.

In Hartford, CT, the only bar I remember fondly is the Russian Lady (renamed the Lithuanian Lady shortly after Lithuania seceded from the USSR, but re-renamed the Russian Lady sometime afterward). The Russian Lady's sole positive feature was that they made the best damn Long Island Iced Teas in the free world, in 22-oz hurricane glasses. You did not drive to this bar.

In Ithaca, NY, circa 1988, I encountered my first brewpub, the Chapterhouse. Beer-wise, it was revolutionary to me. Part of my decision to move to Seattle was based on the fact that in Seattle, they had lots of brewpubs.

In Seattle, crikey -- where to start? Hale's, Pyramid, Dad Watson's, the Six Arms, the Big Time, the list goes on and on: pubs that make their own delicious, wonderful beer. You can barely throw a rock in this town without hitting one, and I don't believe I've ever been to one that didn't have at least a fair approximation of nectar of the gods on tap.

The best weekend in Seattle is the first weekend of October, when the Festering Octoberskoot scooter rally happens. Some sixty people on maybe forty vintage scooters spend the weekend riding from brewpub to brewpub, sampling a pint or two at each destination and then moving on.

Yum.

-- William R. Dickson (wrd@awenet.com), July 28, 2000.

Chris's, on Samson in Philly. Best jazz I've ever, ever heard. Best atmosphere, even when I set my hair on fire trying to lean across the table to kiss my guy ... but I guess Chris's is more of a restaurant than a bar, really. The filet mignon was to die for ...

Here in the Tempe/Phoenix area, it's either Warsaw Wally's [25th and Indian School] the Dubliner [Thunderbird, I think], Bandersnatch [Mill and 5th, I think -- can you tell I don't do the driving?] or Murphy's. Keltic Cowboys played Murphy's and the Dubliner a lot ... god, I miss them.

In Scottsdale, where I am now, it's gotta be Brokers [surprise, surprise].


-- Maggi (suddendark@diarist.net), July 28, 2000.

We've got a Dubliner here, as well; I used to meet people there every Wednesday night. We'd drink Guinness and order nachos (extra cheese), cheese fries (extra cheese), and toasted cheese-and-spices sandwiches.

One day, the waitress (who I had a crush on for a year) delivered our food and started laughing. When we badgered her into telling us why, she said, "well, it's just that in the kitchen, this table is known as "The Cholesterol Family Robinson."

-- William R. Dickson (wrd@awenet.com), July 28, 2000.

Hey, William R., thanks for jogging my memory about the Russky Lady. For a year, in the late '80s, I worked at a small newspaper right next door to that place, and we used to go there sometimes after work. That is still one of the best jobs I ever had and the people were great. So I remember the Lady fondly, because of the good times I had there with people I liked, not cuz it was such a great place.

-- Andrew (lifeofthemind31@aol.com), July 28, 2000.

In San Francisco: the Travel Lounge in the 80's, a lowlife bar with a great bartender named Murph and a jukebox full of great 45s. Honorable mention to the dependably kitschy Tonga Room in the Fairmont Hotel. Many a night I've longed to soak my head under the faux waterfall after too many umbrella drinks.

In New York: the Algonquin, and the excellent microbrewery in Park Slope (I can't remember the name, which is pretty sad since I've been there several times).

In London: the Fox and Grapes in Southwark looking across at St. Paul's.

-- Lucy Huntzinger (huntzinger@mindspring.com), July 29, 2000.

The best dive bar on Earth is Dirty Frank's, in Philly. I have friends from Frank's who've been to Hogs and Heiffers and Coyote Ugly, and they say it's kinda like Franks, but not as authentic. It's as if they use imported dirt and pre-stressed building materials. You know, walls with machine-punched holes, and bar rails with router- drilled names etched in.

For decades, it's been home to downtown artists, writers, actors, bikers, musicians, and barflies. Where else can you sit in a booth with an art teacher, a lawyer, a motorcycle mechanic, and an underemployed couch-surfer, and discuss the relative merits of various rockabilly artists?

There's a pretty low celebrity coefficient at Frank's, but I've heard that Jack Nicholson has mentioned the place favorably, and I know for a fact that Bob Dylan was once flagged by our lovely bartenders. There have probably been plenty of celebrity visits over the years, but nobody notices or even gives a shit.

The place is as real as it gets. In a surreal kinda way.

-- tony zag (mraroma@aol.com), July 31, 2000.

The Ram's Head Tavern, Annapolis Maryland. I used to tend bar there while I was in college. Unfortunately, it succumbed to the tourist trade (like most of the town), and is now just another faux micro-brewery preppie fern bar. Even the middies aren't sissy enough to go near the place.

I miss my dive... :(

-- Alex (huemera@cgu.edu), July 31, 2000.

Oh! And the Draycott Wine Bar in London.

-- Alex (huemera@cgu.edu), July 31, 2000.

New Haven. The Anchor (especially with the lovely, husky-voiced Dolores as your waitress) and Kavanaugh's and it's dreary wood panelling and the Shining playing on the TV above the bar. Fond memories of bloody mary breakfasts (steak and eggs as a side).

Hanoi. Apocalypse Now. Yup, you heard right. Full of 14-year old prostitutes and icky old men. Kind of a wanna-be institution. The dj booth was the cockpit of an old helicopter.

-- alegria (alegria_dlc@hotmail.com), July 31, 2000.

Seattle's Sit and Spin. San Francisco's Brainwash. They're laundromats, too. The Sit and Spin has freaks sitting around playing board games and looking cool and bored. I guess doing laundry is boring.

Plus all the brewpubs William Dickson mentioned and The Comet, Ernie Steele's (now Irene's), The Deluxe, and The Blue Moon.

And if you're ever in San Carlos, CA, A'Tavola has great Peppar Martinis.

Wow, I sound like a lush.

-- Dennis Gentry (gentry@serv.net), August 04, 2000.

Count me as another sucker for hotel bars. I spent way too much of my youth at the Tonga Room, and have fond memories of the Venetian Room, also at the Fairmont in San Francisco. That was a nightclub like the kind in a Fred and Ginger movie. The view bar in the Marriott hotel near Fifth and Mission is also quite lovely in a Gotham City sort of way.
In New York, where I live now, I must admit that I am underwhelmed by the Algonquin; I love its history, but the bad service is not amusing, it's just bad. The Royalton across the street is beautiful, peaceful, and well lighted, and has a good menu as well. But my most beloved hotel bar is the Bemmelman's Bar at the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side. Murals by the creator of Madeline, homemade potato chips, and the most fabulous nut cups in the city. It is the kind of place a woman can go alone and feel just fine, and there are always some interesting eccentrics to watch.
I would be remiss to leave out the Saloon at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. Besides the reasonably good seafood, they serve excellent cheap martinis, and the smoky, wood-paneled atmosphere makes me feel as though I am in a John Cheever story.

-- Amelia (AmeliaEve@aol.com), August 06, 2000.

walnut hills in ohio on brown street. lived in a blue house on green street. the southern bell..most nights in the dark.

-- cat (catnun31@yahoo.com), August 11, 2000.

This forum is closed! Visit ThreeWay Action to post!

-- Sara Astruc (astruc@astruc.com), September 10, 2000.

Anyone have info on the Silver Dollar (Pub or Lounge), a dive in Frederick, Maryland. Now defunct. Need to know: approx. date closed. Didn't it have rooms to rent overnight?

-- L Behringer (leebee527@aol.com), September 28, 2004.