Barflys, what kind of atmosphere do you prefer?

[Puzzicato]

I like a bar where they appreciate that a woman is not a camel and don't make you wait 45 minutes to take your order. There is one place where I got up and went behind the bar and helped myself because it took so long. I am still welcome there but the management has changed.

I also like somewhere with a nice buzz but not so loud I can't hear my companions talk.

A couple of decent beers on tap (extra points if there is a Belgian or a wheat beer), a choice of wines by the glass (and by choice I don't mean red or white) and mixers in bottles, not those horrible post-mix taps. And if they offer cocktails they need to know how to make them.

I don't mind lounges and armchairs, but I prefer chairs and tables where you can lean across and tell secrets.

I want it dark enough to be flattering but light enough to read the snack menu.

I want to feel like I can nurse a glass of water all night without being made to feel unwelcome. Not that I would, but I'd like to feel I could.

 

[Unca Dusty]

In Cincinnati: O'Malley's in the Alley, located on Ogden Place, between Vine and Race, between 3rd and 4th streets. It's a time capsule, except for the non-smoking. One of the very few 'dive' bars where you feel safe and the food is cheap and actually pretty good. Only one window: the grimy pane of glass in the entry door that looks very uninviting.

Not to argue, but I once took some friends to a hang out of mine and they were shocked. "But this is a DIVE!" It was then my turn to be surprised. I had always felt safe there--in my book a bar couldn't be both a dive and secure. Anyway, O'Malley's sounds like my kind of place.

 

[Tango Yankee]

It's been a long time since I was in a bar. I never liked coming home smelling like an ashtray so I quit going. When I was in England I'd go to my local or the one in the next village over from time to time, but again the smoke mostly kept me out. (I've since found out I'm allergic to tobacco.)

Now that the laws have changed I wouldn't mind finding a nice bar, lounge, or pub that the wife and I could go to for a few drinks, perhaps meet friends, that sort of thing... but living in rural southern Ohio that's not gonna happen. Heck, living in rural southern Ohio so far has meant not finding anyone in the area with similar interests to be friends with, anyway.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[phinz]

Dim. Good drinks. I have a real fondness for tiki bars.

The Hapa Haole Hideaway:

The Jungalero Lounge:

The Molokai Bar:

My home bar, Trader Scott's, which is about to undergo extensive renovation.

 

[grundie]

For me the ideal pub has no music or television. The pub and it's décor have to genuinely old and a little understated. The clientelle should be able to hold an intelligent conversation. There must be no sportswear allowed. The bar staff should do more than just pull pints, they should be able to do favours such as pass on messages or know the sports results. They should also be able to remember what you ordered last and be the best friend of the bars newest customer. Mobile phone use should be discouraged, quietly. There must be no bouncers working the door as competent bar staff know not to serve rowdy types and can easily eject them if need be. There should be a good selection of drinking 'accessories' for sale behind the bar - crisps, nuts, pork scratchings, snuff, matches and tobacco.

This pub exists - Mulligan's in Dublin. An oasis of clam in the middle of one of the most rowdy pubby cities on earth.

 

[mummyjohn]

One of my favorites here in Columbus is the place I went to on my twenty-first, The Library. Wooded, billiard tables, you can smoke indoors (which the folks around here tell me is a rarity), and it's got a nice jukebox (unfortunately touch screen, blech, not 45's). But what sold me was that first trip, when the bartender checked my I.D. and instead of screaming "hey it's his 21st!" to the whole joint, she simply said a sincere "Happy birthday," followed by "this one's on me."

Back home, though, it's hard to beat the simple dive atmosphere at The Frolic Room - about twelve feet wide, cheap heavy drinks. For more of a night out, though, there's no place as cool as The Edison.

 

[Edward]

All depends what I'm in the mood for, really. If I'm going somewhere for a quiet drink, I want it to be almost as silent as the grave if I am alone and want to read (offhand, I can only think of the one bar I'd do that in here in London, not that I think there aren't more, I just don't go out much on my own). If I'm out with a friend for a drink, I want somewhere that isn't so quiet you become the entertainment by having a conversation, but where you're not competing with everyone else and/or music (live or recorded) to be heard. Different story if I'm going somewhere specifically for the entertainment on offer, of course. A dress code isn't necessary.... though I do prefer the sort of bar that has a "no-sports colours" rule. I find that's often enough to keep the trouble makers out (though that said, I tend to avoid going to the pub when there's sport on, so it's not often an issue for me). I like the place to look a bit old and worn in too - not some plastic, modern fun pub. Decent food is also a plus: it can be nice to go for lunch at the weekend and sit on for the afternoon, or have a quick dinner and stay on for the evening through the week. I also really like places that still do the old style 11pm closing - last orders, then all out by quarter past eleven. I can't be doing with this open-til-six hoo hah. Have people no homes to go to? Bah. Kids today....

Irish bars..... eh.... I've been in a few really awful ones, the sort of Plastic Paddy places full of regulars who think they're Irish because their granny ate a potato once. Hate them. The most authentic Irish bars I've been in outside the island itself, though, were in Hong Kong, fwiw - run by first generation Irish immigrants to Kowloon. One of them (Delaneys, I think?) had the most fantastic drinks list, with a shots menu that included "the carbomb" and the "culchie". lol

It's liquid bread!

It's the devil's own pee is what it is. Can't abide even the smell of the stuff.

Well, perhaps my favorite bars were Irish pubs (particularly after they instituted the smoking ban. Not trying to start that debate here, but not feeling like i'm coming down with the flu does wonders for my ability to enjoy an establishment), where i generally drank Guinness and sometimes Harp. But i've little use for "Irish" bars i've been to here at home (but it could be that i'm in the wrong part of the States for that).

Harp... jinkies.... big in the Six Counties, that. I'm not a beer man at all, though. If I'm drinking product from the old country, I'll stick to whiskey. I'm mostly drinking gin these days, though. I hear you on the smoking ban - nothing used to put me off an evening in the pub more than the thought of coming home stinking of fags because somebody at the next table was puffing like a train all night.

 

[sal]

Blues
Old Fashion or Vodka Martini (stoli)
just the noise of subdued conversation

 

[1961MJS]

Hi y'all

Edward, you shouldn't be disrespectful of Guinness, it IS beer after all. Other cereal malt beverages are light beers, but Guinness IS BEER.

Jumping off that stump, two pages ago someone mentioned a bar with 200 choices for Scotch. I've seen a nice bar in Alabama with say 50 bourbons, choices are nice. I used to drink Scotch and water, then we moved to Alabama. Scotch in the South tends to Cutty being the call brand, and Piccadilly (grocery store brand) Scotch, but the Southern BAR BRAND Bourbon was usually Jack in the Black. Choice bourbons tended towards single barrel stuff,Maker's Mark etc. I'm back to Kansas, and one of the bars also has several Single Malt choices.

I don't much like bars with "regulars". If you have time to be a regular in a bar, its like you need to have somewhere to go. The place we go after work (about once a month) is called Magoo's. They have a few regulars, and a few aerospace worker. Nice place, good food, inexpensive drinks.

Wichita has a city funded, Old Town made up of old factory buildings and warehouses. The city is basically funding a baited field (you hunters know what I mean) for the Driving Under the Influence boys. Five or six meat markets,and a couple of decent food places. Expensive, pretentious AND snooty. At least they have a brewery...

Rant mode off

Later

 

[m0nk]

In the summer I enjoy the tiki style bars, but most of the rest of the year I'd prefer an Irish pub. The typical pub around here will also serve food so there's no longer smoking areas, meaning I can't enjoy a nice pipe or cigar, but at least I can get a Guinness and have a nice chat with friends without the typical dance crap that you find going on in most bars.

 

[Edward]

Hi y'all

Edward, you shouldn't be disrespectful of Guinness, it IS beer after all. Other cereal malt beverages are light beers, but Guinness IS BEER.

Which is precisely what's wrong with it. Yuck!

 

[1961MJS]

Which is precisely what's wrong with it. Yuck!

Edward, you sound like my neighbors back in Rural Illinois, they drink NOTHING but Michelob Ultra.

Personally it's like drinking fuzzy water from an old Budweiser can.

Later

 

[Edward]

Edward, you sound like my neighbors back in Rural Illinois, they drink NOTHING but Michelob Ultra.

Personally it's like drinking fuzzy water from an old Budweiser can.

Later

No, no, no.... I don't drink beer of any description. Spirits, yes, cider, yes.... Well, I drink Crabby's Alcoholic Ginger Beer, but that's hardly the same..... lol

Budweiser I can just about swallow as it has less of a taste than real beer, but then (as a wise man once said), I find your American beer is a little like making love in a canoe....

 

[1961MJS]

No, no, no.... I don't drink beer of any description. Spirits, yes, cider, yes.... Well, I drink Crabby's Alcoholic Ginger Beer, but that's hardly the same..... lol

Budweiser I can just about swallow as it has less of a taste than real beer, but then (as a wise man once said), I find your American beer is a little like making love in a canoe....

Edward, you're missing out in a way. The UK has the best ales in the world (in my personally esteemed opinion) while Germany has the best Lagers. Unfortunately for my heritage (German, we left in 1865), I like ales better. Of course, the UK's spirit selection is pretty damn good too, all the world's Scotch, and a lot of the Gin.

My Grandfather was born in the 1890's in Illinois. He stated that all of the towns had their own brewery (before prohibition) and that they were ALL better than our current beer. Well, there was ONE town that had skunky beer, but then they had skunky water to brew it with.

Later

 

[Atticus Finch]

Well...I really like road house blues bars. But they can get real hinkie real fast. Not a great place to take a date...unless your date is Ms. Glock. Also, since they're usually way out in the country, you've gotta drive away from them. Not a good plan after a long night of bourbon and blues. The good news is the music is often raw and real at these places, and you can sometimes meet interesting folks that you might not meet at more pedestrian establishments.

On the other end of my preference list would be sports bars. I've rather have a root canal or a colonoscopy than spent an evening in one of those places.

AF

 

[AtomicEraTom]

We don't have any place very high class in my parts. I usually go where the people are, which are the hipper bars in town, where they're pounding music so loud I can't think.

If I get to pick, I usually go to the Blarney Stone, it's a small old-timer bar in town. I also sometimes like to make a trek into the next town over to go to the honky tonk.

 

[John in Covina]

The Edison in Los Angeles is very fun.
Lucky Baldwins in Pasadena or Sierra Madre.

In NYC - The Old House at Home - McSorleys Ale House.

In California - many brewpubs are well done.

 

[Will015]

I rarely go to bars anymore. When I do, I prefer things a little more low key and I'm definitely not closing them. I like to go down to the Dutch Tavern and watch jeopardy week nights at 7. It's apparently quite the baseball bar but I don't much follow baseball.

Here's a little history on the place: http://www.thereducers.com/1999/06/20/the-dutch-taps-into-history/

I believe they stop serving food at 3 and it's beer and wine only.

 

[Flicka]

A friend of mine dismisses the typical American beer as 'chick beer'.

No, no, no.... I don't drink beer of any description. Spirits, yes, cider, yes.... Well, I drink Crabby's Alcoholic Ginger Beer, but that's hardly the same..... lol

How about Gueze then? It tastes closer to cider than 'beer' to me. Not to mention that nobody can hate a glass of Kriek along with a chocolate truffle!

I love ginger beer. I can't believe that we don't have it here! But then, I also love Guinness.

To get back to the original topic, I like quiet bars where you can get a decent martini. Maybe a little soft background music but not so loud you can't have a conversation. Usually hotel bars are the ones that come closest to what I like. I like a place that makes you feel like you've dressed up even if you haven't.

Unfortunately, my friends don't agree, and so I tend to get dragged into places with cheap beer where they play Meshuggah...

 

[Edward]

How about Gueze then? It tastes closer to cider than 'beer' to me. Not to mention that nobody can hate a glass of Kriek along with a chocolate truffle!

Never encountered either. If it has anything of that bitter, beer taste, I won't like it. I did once find something called "Cola Beer" (it also came as "Lemon Beer") in Poland which was quite palatable. I think ,however, that was along the lines of a shandy, which is not so much girly as for children.