Going to the bar

That's awesome. Do they serve garmanboza?

Bourbon Blue in Manayunk. New Orleans inspired decor and food. Drink and food specials nightly. 3 floors.

Tonight is Wild Wednesday with $20 all you can eat crab legs and ribs, and $3 Absolut drinks all night.

Ha! That's our bar of choice in Manayunk, as well. Very cool.

Too bad it's in Manayunk!

I kid. I just hating driving over there.

Good bars in Philly: North 3rd, Royal Tavern, New Wave Cafe, Good Dog. They're all pretty chill and not snobby, and have great food.

On the upscale side, I like Table 31 and the Continental. Three words: CHEESE STEAK EGGROLL

Live in Austin.

I tend to avoid Sixth St., which is just too full of tourists and college age kids for my liking. Crappy bars for the most part too.

My favorites?

Barflys: A bar in North Austin on the second floor of a building that also houses a burger place. Staff here are awesome and the make good, strong, cheap drinks. Pretty much anything can be had for around 3 dollars or less. Lone Stars are 1.50 all the time. Always an interesting but laid back crowd make it a good place to people watch as well. Oh yeah, and a great jukebox. Edited to add that the stairs going up into this place and down into the patio in the back are the best worst thing about this place. Watching drunk people trying to make their way up into the bar or down to leave is a site to see.

Lala's: This is the kind of place your grandpa would drink at. Wood paneling throughout and the place is decorated like it's Christmas year round. Drinks here are a bit pricey, but when I go, I go for the setting. Also, another amazing jukebox filled with 30-50's crooners and R&B through the 70's. Love, love, love this place.

If I'm writing stupid drunk shit on Twitter, 50% chance it's from this bar. Julia, the chef, is a friend (no garmanbozia...yet) and the staff are awesome as well. Great new(ish) place.

Bunny's in St. Louis Park, MN - It's pretty much THE after-work bar for the SW suburban area. The place has great food in general, but they are especially known for their walleye (their Friday special for walleye always ensures a packed house).

Stand Up Franks in North Minneapolis, MN - A dive with really strong, cheap drinks; If you order a scotch and water, you'll get straight scotch and ice cubes.

Maynards/Bayside - Right on Lake Minnetonka, MN - In the Summer, you drive up in your boat and park at the piers. In the Winter, you drive up on your snowmobile. Good chow and a great view of the lake and the bikinis.

For Buenos Aires

My favorite spot is The Alamo. Obviously an american bar. The booze is extremely cheap and with great quality. The staff is very nice and the barwomen are gorgeous. Great Tex-Mex food and the best of all is that women drink for free. So it's always packed with groups of girls getting drunk after classes or work. And the men go to hunt them.

It's a 2 story building, one smoking and one not smoking. It's always packed with great people and vibe. Music is mostly 80-90's rock (DMB, GnR, STP, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins and so on)

I go there every week.

It's been so long since I went bar-hopping, most of the places I went to are flat out GONE.

My wife and I hit Scooters on Rt. 9 in Lakewood fairly often- great food, nice atmosphere, but that's more of a family kind of place now. In it's heyday, man that place was a meat market. We occasionally hit the Sawmill in Seaside, but that place strikes me as a "locals only" pub.

Most of the time I'd go out, it'd be to see a show and grab some brews - Birch Hill in Old Bridge, Club Bene, The Saint and The Fastlane in Asbury Park, Murphy's Law and Cheers in Long Branch, etc. Sadly, all are gone.

For coffeehouses, and it's been a LONG time, but I recommend the Inkwell in West Long Branch. Great place, lots of atmosphere, and when I was going to college, all us art majors would flock there.

Manuel's and Brickstore. I don't drink but I love their food.

To the Atlanta folk...

The last time I lived there was 92-94 when I was stationed at Ft. McPherson, but I grew up in Athens.

Does Taco Mac still exist? I remember when I was younger, my friends and I were on a mission to drink every kind of bottled beer they sold... which at the time, numbered in the hundreds.

The food blew dog, but they had some of the hottest chicken wings it was ever my misfortune to consume.

1. Bub O'Malley's in Chapel Hill. Nice bottled beer selection. It was a dump when I was in college in the early '90s and hasn't much improved in that regard. The floor is more carpet burn than carpet. Locals (housepainters and their dogs) and slumming college kids. Lots of tvs for basketball. "The Bub's Patio" i.e. the fire escape is a fantastic place to sit with a pitcher while skipping class on a lovely spring afternoon. Golden Tee.

2. Ryan's Pub, French Quarter, New Orleans. Big butt stools, Irish Car Bombs on special. Golden Tee. It's on the corner with big sets of doors open on two sides for the breeze. Far enough off of Bourbon Street. Grab a po-boy from Johnny's (better yet, make your friend go after you beat him in a game of pool), grab the front corner of the bar and watch the world go by. Decent jukebox.

3. Hawk n Dove, Capitol Hill, Washington DC. Older than my parents. Looks it. Great side bar for conversation with the grizzled vets on football Saturdays. Olde English Burger (blue cheese, bacon, grease).

4. Dan's Cafe, Adams Morgan, Washington DC. A pint of jack, a can of coke, a bucket of ice and a glass. Go nuts.

5. Ocean Annie's, Myrtle Beach. For nostalgia reasons only. Open air on the beach at The Sands ocean club. The Redneck Riviera. Overpriced pitchers of watered-down frozen drinks, crowded, blazingly hot in the summertime. Eastern N.C. rednecks on vacation, biker moms (antiMILFs I've heard them called) stretching and spilling out of outrageously inappropriate bikinis. Don't ever go there. I loathe it almost as much as I miss it.

6. Pete's, Jax Beach, Jacksonville, FL. Damn I miss that shithole.

Tati: Here's a view from the patio at Maynard's on Lake Minnetonka. If you ever make it up here, I'm going to take you out waterskiing here.

Taco Mac sucks rottencock. The food is AIDS and the Brickstore makes their beer selection look like an average 7-11 cooler.

What. I need this.

Place here in East Atlanta recently had Rueben egg rolls as a special app. Discovered them before seeing Patton Oswalt, which was appropriate. And fucking delicious.

Since we are doing that,
Here is The Alamo





It's also the unofficial US embassy in Buenos Aires. Lot's of gringos go there to watch sport events. They hold all the American party's (Halloween, Mardi Gra, Beer pong Tuesdays and so forth) and even political events! The Inaugural party had free tequila!

Speedwell Bar here in Dundee. Mennies to the locals. Serves nearly every single malt you can think of. real old fashioned bar. bout 150 years old i think. such a braw placefor a good post work friday night drink.

I don't go nearly as much as I used to, precisely for that reason. Once upon a time I was there six nights a week. (When breaking up with a girl I was living with.)

Now I go late once it's thinned out. And a lot of friends work there, which makes it easier to deal with.

D'accord. The name alone makes me shudder like a pre-pubescent girl for the Jonas Brothers.

I love going there but it's usually pretty rare simply because parking is a bitch and it is crowded. That being said, I love taking folks that are visiting Atlanta.

Cecil's - Right off West Gray and Studemont, so it's easy access to just about every restaurant, and part of town in Houston. It's an old house that's been remodeled into a bar, and the interior is fairly cramped, but it's relaxed, a few love seats and booths, with a corner behind the bar with three couches and a TV that a big group of people can hang out on. Almost everyone sits outside on the huge front deck though, and they start grilling burgers, fajitas, hot dogs around 10PM every night for a couple bucks a pop. Next door is one of my favorite restaurants in Houston, Barnaby's so that earns it bonus points. Best jukebox I've heard in the city. This was also Bill Hick's favorite bar.

Poison Girl - Heart of Montrose on Westheimer. Horrible parking, and no indication that the bar actually exists unless you know what's behind that door. It's one long hallway basically, with a few tables scattered around, and opens to an open back patio. Killer collection of pinball tables in the back. Random water balloon fights with people from the neighborhood that the patio backs up to also occur.

Hans' Bierhaus - West University. Another renovated house, with a huge outside back patio with bocce ball. Serves only wine and beer, which I'm not a huge fan of either, but the beer selection is huge and I usually find something I like. Awesome crowd, and the owner is incredibly cool. Also serves from the boot, so you can live out your Beerfest fantasies.

Of the many, many bars in State College, Pennsylvania, this remains my favorite:

Dubbed Cafe 210 West (or just "The Cafe") by the locals, it's got fairly mediocre food and only a decent beer selection. There are two things that make it rock, however: being able to sit on a patio fronting College Avenue (State College's main drag) and being able to purchase pitchers of Long Island Iced Teas with a straw set in them.

Murphy's Law, that's a blast from the past.

The Inkwell turned to shit around when I started 10th grade. I heard in its heyday, it was pretty awesome.

I live in the middle of nowhere, so I frequent the downstairs of my house, however when I lived in DC, I used to frequent the Crystal City Sports Pub. Was there recently and it's still the shit.

winnipeg:

Royal Albert Arms - Bar and music venue. When a new and interesting rock band is going to play in this town (which is only occasionally), it'll likely be here. Nearly empty when shows aren't on. Cheap alcohol. Still sort of a dive bar, though being renovated with a dungeon (appropriate considering how many have died here, though it's Canada - they were suicides, apart from one serial killer incident in its hotel) and pointless upgrading (flat screen TVs in bars, fuck them). You've probably seen this place before, many others are like it elsewhere in North American city centres - but here it's a rare spot for performers who aren't rich, in spite of Art Brut's appearance. Amusing how the old barflies bump into hipster kids my age and they realize they look like reflections of one another.

The Toad in the Hole - Decent place to chill for a bit. Not offensive. A little boring. A little too bright.

The rest of the bars here, that I can think of at the moment, are visited by myself, but feature your usual assortment of generic nationalist-themed pubs that play awful music, and terribly obvious yuppie joints blaring James Blunt, still. Billabong is an Austalian place that fills these quotas, and is the best of them.

Ha, we used to go there as high school theater fags.

Any time I have visitors to Philly, they get all "omg pat's or geno's w cheez whiz" and I have to smack them. Then I take them on a cheesesteak egg roll crawl. There are 3 or 4 great variations of it within walking distance.

The Short Stop - No food, just drinks. They have a Sopranos pinball game, and a sitdown arcade game, where you can chose the game, and one pool table, usually busy. There's usually three bartenders, and pictures above the bar of the most recent famous dead. It used to be an old cop bar, it's in Echo Park, and it's near the Dodgers stadium, so you get the rabids, but that area's a bit gentrified, so mostly it's college kids, and the locals (though there's a nearby bar that's worse for hipsters, though they don't bother me), but there's pictures up of teams and cops (there's a huge Choirboys poster), and pictures of soul artists. I believe it's still co-owned by Greg Dulli. Over the girl's bathroom there's a framed picture of Sharon Tate. The dance floor is the main attraction for me. It's not that big and the acostics tend to be bad. Mondays they don't have a DJ, excepting holidays, Tuesdays one of the owners spins, mostly whatever he wants. Wednesdays alternate between awesometown (of which pics are posted here: http://www.shadowscene.com/fiesta.html) and Al, who is not that good, but it tends to be a mellow night, though it can pick up around 12:30-ish when Margarita night nearby slows down.

Thursdays tend to be Salsa-centric. The DJ will mix it up, so they'll be some funk, but it tends to go latiny, which can clear the dance floor. Friday's are my friend Scott. He plays whatever the fuck he wants, so it can go from Teh Cure to Jay-Z to Michael Jackson to MGMT to whatever gets people to dance. I fhe hates the crowd, it's The Power of Love. Saturdays It's DJ Lance (Rock, of Yo Gabba Gabba fame) and Craig, and the two spend the night trying to outdo each other. All Vinyl, they also have a soft spot for playing Eddie Murphy's Boogie in your Butt, though they'll also throw down for Paper Planes and Rhiana if they have to. Sundays have become my favorite. Dee and her friend just play CDs of Funk hits from the 60's. Sometimes they'll dip into the 70's a little, but not too much. So it's Aretha, Otis, Sam, Stevie, Smokie, Marvin, Edwin Starr, Shirley Ellis, etc. The main Bouncer is Justice. He's been there years, and he's the gatekeeper. It took a bit for us to become friendly, but I never wait anymore. He always tells me the floor conditions, and is now offering to buy me drinks because I'm "the party starter." To say I go there often is an understatement.

It was pretty slick back in the day - lots of late-night conversations about life, the universe, and everything, while a girl with an acoustic guitar played in the background. Inkwell was often a place where you wound up. As it's been so long since I've been there, I wouldn't be surprised it's not as great as it was. Might have to check it out soon.

Murphy's Law - ahhh, that was a dive and a half, but damn it, it was awesome. Your feet would stick to the floor based on all the spilled booze, blood, etc. Great views if you were watching a show - lot of start-up bands from Monmouth College used to play there.

Shit! Almost forgot the Tradewinds! Long gone, but again, good place to see a show, plus have some beers and food. They had this huge outdoor deck and lounge area for summer parties. Saw Juliana Hatfield play there, with Jeff Buckley as the opening act (he lost his wallet there crowd surfing).

Was that the place by Red Bank or Asbury Park? I saw Pat Benatar there once.

Errra, I love O-Baaaar.



ETA: That one's way inside. Apologies.

My favourite pub is Auntie Annie's of the Dublin Road, Belfast. First and foremost, it's beautiful and boasts a pretty interesting clientele (everyone from impressively bearded metalheads to hipster students.) Upstairs is also a great shoe-box style place to catch live music.

Katy Daly's (which Devin mentioned in a classic Advocate) narrowly misses out on the top spot. Watching Northern Ireland beat Spain 3-2 here just isn't enough.

Sea Bright, actually. Red Banks's Kevin Smith territory, and damn have they built that place up nicely. Packed as hell, too. Asbury Park's claim to fame is The Stone Pony (BRUUUUUUCE!) and the Paramount (saw Garbage there for a Halloween show with my wife). The Pony was one of my usual hangouts before I got married - lots of booze, lots of bands, lots of stories. Still doesn't change the fact that Asbury Park resembled a DMZ every time I made the trip (from what I hear, it still does).

Asbury Lanes does a brisk business in the middle of Armageddon.

As for Red Bank, Dublin House was my hangout.

Sea Bright!!! Yeah, that's the same place, I swear it. My knowledge of middle to northern Jersey beach towns gets a little fuzzy. And, yeah, Red Bank is pretty nice. I have some friends that live out that way and it's pretty damn swanky.


ETA: Yep, just confirmed that was the bar via a fan website: October 30, 1997 at Trade Winds in Sea Bright, NJ. Wow, memories.

Is it still there? If so, I'll have to check it out - that is if I can find a place to park.

I used to hit a couple of Irish bars with my Irish buddies, especially for our annual St Patrick's Day get togethers. We'd usually hit Duffy's Tavern up in Sayreville (across and down the street from the Coliseum, a popular alternative lifestyles nightclub - featuring Drag Attack on the weekends!), before hitting up Club Bene, or more likely hitting the many nearby stripclubs.

It's been awhile (and hope that these are still open) but the following bars were my hangouts in Houston.

Cafe Adobe - Westheimer/Montrose area. Hands down best cheap Margarita's in Houston. I spent many Sunday's there getting loaded up after brunch.

Gingerbread House - West U/Rice University area bar. 1000s of beers. Local hangout for Rice college. Laid-back and fun!

Kay's Lounge - Kirby/Bissonet area. Small dive bar but (to me) the quintessential Texas dive bar. Buckets of beer? Check. Great juke box? Check. Dim Lighting? Check. Original beer signs? Check. Older crowd. Back in the day, used to have lots of KTRK (channel 13) people hit there after work. Also, John Wayne used to drink there.

There are a few other bars I used to frequent but I'm omitting those (as they are more geared toward the gay district).

Side note, ever eat at the original Barnaby's or Breakfast Barnaby's? Yum.

Edited to add: Almost forgot my favorite Irish pub! Kenneally's on S. Shepherd. If you're Irish and haven't been there. SHAME.

The back of The Dublin House lets out into that big municipal lot on White. The one with the movie theater and the hobby store. Dublin House is still there.

We have a really good Irish bar in downtown Minneapolis called The Local. Apparently, this bar goes through more Jameson whiskey than any other bar in the World. It's a great bar, but it's usually packed to capacity every night.

HBarr, I have no idea how you went into Adobe. I know tons of people that love it, but unless it's done a 180 since you last lived here it is some of the worst Mexican food in town. The place is a suburb chain now, akin to Chili's at best. Literally, they're out in Woodlands now.

Crackshack Barnaby's on, I think, Longview? Or is it Fairview? I've been to it a couple times, but prefer the West Gray location. And Breakfast Barnaby's, oh hell yes. Not as good as Empire Cafe, but hey, Empire Cafe isn't exactly worth the pain in the ass parking and wait either.

I've never been to Kenneally's on Shepherd, and I'm Irish, so consider me shamed! I had a few Irish places in Toronto, no idea what the names are, that I liked, but never looked for any in Houston.

They had started the suburb chain thing right before I left; however, please note I did not mention their food. I'm talking about cheap margarita's and atmosphere. I'd suspect that the Westheimer location (in Montrose) still has the right kind of atmosphere. Especially on Sunday's. Standing room only. 2-3 hour waits for tables.

Immediately rectify not visiting Kenneally's. Yes, there are a few more better known Irish pubs in Houston, but Kenneally's is the best. Hands down.

Well, you're definitely right about the wait. I've never seen it 2-3 hours, but definitely lines outside the door. I think Chuy's down the street takes a lot of Adobe's customers away, and the wait at Chuy's is always long too. Margaritas are good as well.

I don't like to drink much these days (my drinking years were ages 16 through 24), but I was lucky enough to have access to one of the coolest locations on God's green earth: the Hansom House in Southampton, New York.

The main attraction was the damn building itself - over the years the owners had taken in toys, knickknacks, oddments, all sorts of things and adorned the walls and ceilings with them. One lounge had ten different couches and what i believe was an antique dentist's chair; one room was wallpapered in 60s and 70s era nudes and all the tables and lamps were different.

The bar was named for the actual hansom cab, grotesque mannequin at the reins, in the lounge. The women's bathroom had a mural of Adam and Eve, with a bronze fig leaf on a hinge covering Adam's twig and berries; if a person lifted the fig leaf to look underneath a siren sounded in the bar.

The grounds behind the bar had ornate benches and tables, and bushes were planted to create secluded nooks for groups. There were live music on certain nights, and you could sometimes find a "gypsy" ready to tell your fortune.

My first psychedelic experience (psilocybin mushrooms) occurred here. Magnificent.

Sadly the joint has been turned into a cajun restaurant. Doesn't affect me because I live on the opposite coast these days, but I was a bit bummed when I heard the news.

In Cambridge:

The Cellar. Quaint little pub in the basement of a restaraunt. Great service (the Friday night bartender is one of the friendliest guys I've ever met) and terrific food. Kobe beef sliders and roasted potatoes in truffle oil. God, now I want to go there. Plus they have cheap PBR on tap, which I hardly see anywhere.

Charlie's Kitchen. One and a half notches above a dive, which is perfect for me (just try to stay out of the bathrooms). Two floors, good, cheap greasy food for late night snacking. And the BEST jukebox ever. Plus, I met my girlfriend there, so there are sentimental reasons. They also have a beer garden in the summer that's pretty nice. Doesn't really match the inside of the place, but if it's busy in the summer at least it clears out room inside.

People's Republic. Big, square bar. Plenty of seating. Darts. Fairly cheap. Low light. Perfect for people watching. Sometimes too crowded on the weekends, but I like it. It's a good place to watch a Red Sox or Celtics game. It was great choice for election night too. I hugged so many random strangers at the bar...

Boston:

TC's Lounge. It's like god said, "Let there be dive bars." Not for everyone, but if you revel in a good dive, this place is for you. It's close to Mass Ave but tucked away in an alley so it's almost always empty. Cheap, fun and a good place to meet up and check out the local weirdos.

Bukowski's. Cramped, and no alcohol (the fuck? Bukowski's???) but HUGE beer selection and good tunes. Sunday night is Tom Waits night and if you don't have to work on Monday it's a good place to grab a seat by the window, look out over Boston and drink your troubles away. Good food too.

The Parish Cafe. Probably considered a restaurant before a bar, but I end up doing a lot of drinking there, so fuck it. Nice big bar, great service, and THE BEST SANDWICHES EVER. No joke. They have local chefs design their sandwiches and they're all worth checking out. Music is a roll of the dice, but with a group of people I usually don't care.

I've only been in Orlando for 3 and 1/2 years, but FIDDLER'S GREEN (Irish pub) fits me just fine. Irish food, hot waitresses, live music on the weekends, dirty wood tables, and Guinness that flows freely. I've had much of their menu (recommend the Irish Stew) and don't get there nearly enough (I've got a small daughter at home).

Any Chewer's welcome to buy me a beer there.



It's a madhouse around St. Paddy's though...

Awesome - I know exactly where that is (I know where the theatre's at). I owes ya a brew, Phil!

I either tend to hit Fanny's Ale House which tends to be the best place to go for exotic drinks (they have specialities ales and spirits each week so there's always something new to try)



Or if I'm wanting some classic British Ambience I go to the Boathouse which is a really nice pub on the side of a canal.

http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/5600327.jpg

Big love for The Cellar. That was my regular for years. I remember when Metal Greg (probably more Rockabilly Greg now, and married to the lovely Yanira) first got hired there as bartender, because he was always there. Say hello to him from me next time he's working. And look for Ernesto sitting at the bar -- he's one of my best friends in the world.

And Charlie's was host to more weird late-night 'theory of comics' conversations and hangouts with visiting creators and the staff of the Million Year Picnic than I can count, but that was over a dozen years ago...