old neighborhood bars

[Dr Doran]

MCSORLEY'S IN MANHATTAN

Speaking of firemen, I like McSorley's in Manhattan for an old neighborhood bar. Anyone go there?

 

[Tomasso]

I like McSorley's in Manhattan for an old neighborhood bar. Anyone go there?

Occasionally, but when I'm in that neck of the woods I prefer the Old Town Bar.

 

[Twitch]

Teekay, Nulty what you describe are truly neighborhood bars of the past for sure. Look back at the picture I posted and the inside is as you describe. These weren't sports bars or clubs by any stretch just quite, cool, dark places to have a drink and relax.

 

[VegasMike]

I'd love to find a little bar in Vegas that had that old time feel to it, but everything here is either a sports bar, a casino, or so seedy I wouldn't go in unarmed :/

 

[Fast]

In the L.A. area, go to the Blue Room in burbank. How anyone who ever went there, even to the bathroom there, didn't end up wasting their life there as a drunkard, I will never know. I spent a lost weekend there one year. It's deco and neighborhood and cheap and not quite sleazy and clean and. . . had great holiday parties.

Carpe diem
Fast

 

[Teekay44]

Twitch,the pictures are like so many of the places around here. Passed some on my way home.
A Golden Era tidbit is that Valenteno's was the place the workers from Hamlton Watch Company would stop after their shift.

 

[nulty]

I was down near Hazelton PA today....a Little town called Delano...Just a speck on a sparrows wing I suppose but it got me thinking ..

I was done with my job about 2 hours ahead of time so with time to spare , I thought Man..there has to be a dingy old joint around here somewhere.....
Old Railroad stop like this has to have a beer joint.....just the kind we've been talking about....I even had an old hat in the back seat....perfect...

Better sense got a hold of me when I thought about the 2.5 hour drive home so I sulked into the car, lit a smoke and drove home........

Boy how things do change...... :beer:

 

[PA Dancer]

Scranton is still one of those towns that has hardly changed during the past century. (Aside from a few changes and remodeling to the downtown area.)

Our towns still have those old neighborhood bars that you speak of. When someone asks where such-and-so bar is, we say: You know, it's that little old man bar on such-and-so street.

Man, I love my town!
: )

 

[Atticus Finch]

Hi Folks,

Here in my section of Bible Belt, sad to say, we have very few neighborhood bars like those contemplated by this thread. On the other hand, we do have a bountiful supply of road houses. But our road houses are not exactly places where one can go to relax. Indeed, relax is the last thing that I would suggest that one do in these places. And they most certainly are not family oriented. In fact, most bars here refuse to sell beer in long-neck bottles because long-necks are too easily used as weapons---not that most road house patrons don't arrive nicely equiped with their own knives and guns.

I really didn't understand what a neighborhood bar was until I began visiting my girlfriend's family in Milwaukee. Now there is a town with some fantastic neighborhood bars! Great food (brats and chips!), Great beer (ice cold Leinenkugels in long-neck bottles!), and the most open, friendly people I have ever met. I have never suspected that the person beside me in a Milwaukee bar was palming a snub-nosed .38 in his pocket, nor have I ever seen a sloppy drunk in one. I've seen one or two happy drunks, maybe, but never a sloppy one.

Whatever is the formula for growing Northern-style neighborhood bars, I wish it could be learned here in Dixie. I'm fifty-one this year. Do y'all think I'll live long enough to see it happen?

Atticus

 

[ClayBob]

In South Louisiana liquor licenses are distributed like speeding tickets. There is a dive about a mile from my place that was built in the twenties. It is an old style place. With so many additions over the years I can almost see the different eras by the type of materials used and different styles of construction. Dilapidated but functional.

 

[nulty]

Scranton is still one of those towns that has hardly changed during the past century. (Aside from a few changes and remodeling to the downtown area.)

Our towns still have those old neighborhood bars that you speak of. When someone asks where such-and-so bar is, we say: You know, it's that little old man bar on such-and-so street.

Man, I love my town!
: )

Do you live in Scranton PA Dancer? I agree, Scranton has it all as far as Old time feel to it......


Back in the early 90's I was down there near the the Steam Town shopping area..

I swore I saw what looked like a killer vintage clothing place...near Wyoming Ave maybe??

I never forgot it but still never got the chance to go back....

 

[VegasMike]

So I finally found a good bar in Vegas! It's not completely the classic style, but style it does have. The house Jazz band plays thur-sunday, and they are FANTASTIC. And I knew it was gonna be a good place when the sign had a fedora on it

So, if you're in Vegas, check out Sonny's Bar at Flamingo and 215, on S Grand Canyon Dr. It's a bit out of the way, but totally worth it.

 

[killertomata]

I will have to check it out next time I go to Vegas- which really I must soon because my BF needs to see the Star Trek experience (hi trek freak here).

One thing that threw me a bit about the opening post for this thread- a family oriented bar? I'm not sure I've ever heard of such a thing. I wonder what exactly one means by that?

I am reminded however of my mom's stories about my grandpa taking her into his neighborhood bar to meet his friends... she'd go in on his shoulders, she was five or younger... and everyone would fuss over her like mad and tell me Grandpa, "Oh Blackie, your daughter is so beautiful!" That would have been in the very late forties, I believe.

Maybe that is a family oriented bar!

 

[VegasMike]

Yeah, maybe I'm too young, but the family oriented bar concept kinda hurts my head. As far as I've ever known, you had to be 21 to get into ANY bar.

 

[John in Covina]

Lindenhurst, NY (on Long Island) has (had) a number of neighborhood bars with in walking distance. Each with it's own Identity and feel. There was one with a Horsecollar table, a game like shuffle board. Not fancy places but draft beer and a lot of talking going on.

 

[Teekay44]

Killertomata
My great-grandfather used to take me into a Bar when I was 4 or 5. I got a coke and they would put cartoons on the TV for me. I have vague memory's of it but good ones. This was Small town PA at its best. The place is no longer there but the older folks in that town still remember him and me.

I also remember getting my paternal grandfather out of the famed "Bottle and Cork" in Dewey Beach Delaware. ("Come on Granddad lets go fishing!!")It was the local hang out then. Dewey Beach was a small coastal town with not much going on. Heck, back then we stayed on the beach in a old 50's mobile home! The place was not the nightclub it is today. Just a small local joint.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Buffalo, NY - My favorite gin mill, EVER. RIP.

And for links to a great number of old school bars and lounges -

http://www.forgottenbuffalo.com/classictavernstravels.html

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Buffalo, NY - My favorite gin mill, EVER. RIP.

And for links to a great number of old school bars and lounges -

http://www.forgottenbuffalo.com/classictavernstravels.html

Come on, people! Take a look at the link! Really, it's cool! Take a look!

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Oops, forgot to say this before

It is cool. Thanks Mr. Lucky. I found a link to Rochester bars on a blog (the name was something like A bar a day) but after only about a week it was spammed, darn. I also found one on my hometown of Atlanta but their ideas and mine were different and so I wasn't interested.

 

[RondoHatton]

Gosh, these were quaint, but...

Commodification NOW! Let's all get used to the idea of living like good little consumers in the credit card TV commercial with Carl Stalling music, swiping our little cards or RFIDs or marks of the beast™© for our scarbucks™© and stepping lively out of the way so as to allow the next drone to pay up and get back to the cubicle. Bars are where people consume alcohol, right, and since that's baad,we just can't have that anymore, can we, I mean, for the children's sake, right? We could replace these old, worn out dens of alcoholic-male-dominated-culture with youth centers for diversity and empowerment, as long as it's not too too empowering! For we know what's best for you! We have a plan for you! (Why do they pronounce it "Dim-Jim"?)