What Makes a Great Bar?

Nothing makes a guy prouder.

 

So true. Those cardboard coasters are hard to write on and don't fold up neatly into your pocket.

50 percent of the time those napkins turn out to be useful documents; the other 50 percent of the time, you're thinking "Goddammit, I was drunk last night."

 

I think the perfect bar would be any place that Mike Royko was willing to visit:

I wonder what he thought of Elaines.

 

He didn't like it at first, but then he came back with Breslin and liked it a lot.

(Bottom pp 53 to top 54)
http://books.google.com/books?id=kOkCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=mike+royko+at+elaines&source=bl&ots=71-GzUM7ap&sig=15WqOtLAwomP08zjvqkWY21uMAw&hl=en&ei=T8j3Tb2sOo-v0AHFpb2PCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Booches.

 

A place that comps your Cokes if you are the DD or just not in the mood that night.

 

This reminds me of my old bar....story time:
I drank...a lot....from 21 to about 25...and got the body to prove it's seen it's share of brews.
For a good part of two years, prior to getting married, this was my schedule with a crew of about 4-6 people:
Wednesday nights was Tequila Night at a bar I didn't work at in which they handed out money to people according to numbers drawn from a a bag of ping pong balls
Thursday was "Diaper Night" (18 and over allowed in) at the bar I worked at. So there was always young tail to chase (and buy drinks for, I buy a Jack & Coke double tall, they get a Coke and we go in the bathroom and split it up)
Friday there was always a house party or else just bar hopping
Saturday I DJ'd and drank for free then stayed at the bar til sunup, watch the sun rise over the lake from the deck and go to McD's for eggs and hash browns
Sunday was pitcher of beer and a frozen pizza for 5 bucks at a biker bar
Monday's was Thai food, beer and Monday Night Raw
Tuesday was our day of rest...go hang at my bar, play trivia on those electronic blue boxes you can find just about anywhere and drink homemade cherry cokes (with those fake candy cherries included)...all for the price of whatever tip you left.

Man, I miss that bar. Main owner died of cancer a few years after I left town and his wife finally sold it.
The bar was so popular, they made a facebook page for it...then had a reunion for the "bar flys" two summers ago. It was well attended.

 

Spikechiquet's liver was great in The Client.

 

Its in Hartford's West End. If you're ever in CT, holla at your boy.

http://www.thehalfdoorhfd.com/

P.S. TVs are for Rugby and soccer.

Oh, and how can we ever forget McSorely's in NYC? Oldest continuously active pub in the City. I had heard the health department made the owner take down all the wishbones from the chandelier because of all the dust accumulation. He didn't have the heart to throw them out, so he took them home. (They were in memory of servicemen who never came home).

Haven't been there in a while...Will have to check that out.

http://www.mcsorleysnewyork.com/

 

http://goo.gl/maps/gs1J

25 oldest bars in America. Didn't realize one of them was in the town I just moved from! Derp!

 

If I remember correctly (and given we were doing a drinking/walking tour of the city, I might not be), there's a bar around the corner from the Bell In Hand Tavern that also claims to be the oldest bar in Boston.

We stopped for a drink at Bell In Hand and as we were leaving somebody spotted a sign down a cobblestone street advertising another "oldest bar in Boston." To cover our bases, we had a drink there too.

 

My state boasts one member of that list, but the menu at Newport's White Horse Tavern is just a little out of my league.