What Makes a Great Bar?

I think that depends on who is playing. I've enjoyed some good bands at a bar, but a bad band can ruin the night.

 

People.

Yes, this sounds like a snippy answer, but people have a lot to do with the atmosphere of a place. The people who work at a bar and the people who are regulars at the bar play a lot into how great a bar is, even more than what the specials are or what kind of food they serve, if any.

 

Where everybody knows your name and the place is free of douchebags with popped collars

 

With you on that, but draft beer retains original flavor from when it was brewed. Better going down the hatch.

 

Lot of places here are featuring cask conditioned beer.

I don't know all the details, but it's not pressurized with carbon dioxide and is supposed to taste better.

 

Give me a bottle when I'm after cheap, domestic beer or at least widely available cheap import. When I'm after a better quality beer, one that is going to cost me more than a couple of bucks, I want it out of the tap, especially when I'm going to be there for a while. And if I'm going to a bar, I usually want something a little better quality than what I can get at the Kwik-E-Mart anyway.

 

There needs to be a wide range of customers. You should be able to see everybody from respected businessmen to college kids to factory workers. But no hipster douchebags.

Some of the best bars I've found are third-shifters, open at 7 a.m. and closing at 6 p.m.

 

No one in the bar gives a shit about this beer or how it is poured.

This is America. Shot and a beer with sports on the tv. Local newspaper sits on the bar for people to read.

 

A bar where I can throw a $20 on the bar and the bartender makes change out of it until I need more money. And I don't have to touch the money when I go take a piss or talk to some people across the room.

Oh, no juke box.

 

Every beer deserves a good pour. A Guinness demands it.

 

A good bar is NEVER full. If it's full, too many people know about it.

A good bar has bartenders who understand the benefits of buying regulars drinks. If you don't understand this, you don't deserve a good tip.

A good bar has a jukebox loaded with classic country. Live music, karaoke and Internet jukeboxes automatically disqualify any bar.

A good bar provides glasses for drinking, but none bigger than 8 ounces. You don't need a yard of beer, fratboy.

A good bar has stools. If a bar only has tables and booths, it's a club.

A good bar does not make you feel at home; it makes you feel like you're on vacation. If the bar is home, it's time for rehab.

A good bar is the kind of place where you can be yourself. Performing is for the circus, not the bar.

 

A level pool table.