This may have been addressed before, but are any of the dives in the opening sequence of Barfly Still around? Did Bukowski actually drink in any of the bars in the film?
Finally, which is why I put this question here: What memorable dive bars have you frequented as a quasi-regular?
In Tampa: Leo's, The Hub, Corsica Jean and Juanita's Palace (hehe -- Jean was a wrestler!). The Hub was a journalist's hangout back in the day and its pours are legendary. A glass of gin with a splash of tonic. 2 cocktails and you were well on your way. The original site was scummy and small, but the new locale still served stiff drinks.
DeLand: Red's, Teet's. Both could be hairy, lots of bikers. But if you were cool and didn't look for trouble, they accepted you well enough.
D.C.: O'Leary's? I can't recall the name but there used to be regular concerts by a kind of enigmatic and shabby poor man's James Brown who called himself Dr. Hot Pepper. A small, wiry, but charismatic performer and hard drinker. One co-regular was an ex-college professor felled by alcoholism, another pal delivered and picked up laundry and lent some of us younger drunks his houseboat, which was a great place to tie one on.
Albuquerque: Jack's, Mori's, El Rey. El Rey was a dank, skid-row joint. The most down and out place of the lot.
Ithaca: The Chanticleer. I used to pass there every day after work. Sometimes just for a pint or two, but I often closed the place down, eating pizza for dinner.
I moved around a lot between 18 and 32!
Dark, smoky, windowless places with people who came to drink and mind their own business, but where fists would sometimes fly. No craft beers, no hipsters. Just a mix of working-class and middle-class men and women who took their drinking seriously. Some of them also had package stores.
Great, if blurry, memories in all of those places. I just re-watched Barfly and it brought back a lot. I've been in France now for about 18 years and while ratty bars exist, they just don't have the same ambiance. I do most of my drinking alone these days. I really miss those very American dives, with padded leather on the doors, stained carpets, scarred bar tops, juke boxes with 45's that were all 20 or 30 years old. Man, they seem to be a dying breed. Sorry for the nostalgia trip, but those old bars just had a charm to them I really miss.
So what dive bars have you spent or do you still spend hours?
Finally, which is why I put this question here: What memorable dive bars have you frequented as a quasi-regular?
In Tampa: Leo's, The Hub, Corsica Jean and Juanita's Palace (hehe -- Jean was a wrestler!). The Hub was a journalist's hangout back in the day and its pours are legendary. A glass of gin with a splash of tonic. 2 cocktails and you were well on your way. The original site was scummy and small, but the new locale still served stiff drinks.
DeLand: Red's, Teet's. Both could be hairy, lots of bikers. But if you were cool and didn't look for trouble, they accepted you well enough.
D.C.: O'Leary's? I can't recall the name but there used to be regular concerts by a kind of enigmatic and shabby poor man's James Brown who called himself Dr. Hot Pepper. A small, wiry, but charismatic performer and hard drinker. One co-regular was an ex-college professor felled by alcoholism, another pal delivered and picked up laundry and lent some of us younger drunks his houseboat, which was a great place to tie one on.
Albuquerque: Jack's, Mori's, El Rey. El Rey was a dank, skid-row joint. The most down and out place of the lot.
Ithaca: The Chanticleer. I used to pass there every day after work. Sometimes just for a pint or two, but I often closed the place down, eating pizza for dinner.
I moved around a lot between 18 and 32!
Dark, smoky, windowless places with people who came to drink and mind their own business, but where fists would sometimes fly. No craft beers, no hipsters. Just a mix of working-class and middle-class men and women who took their drinking seriously. Some of them also had package stores.
Great, if blurry, memories in all of those places. I just re-watched Barfly and it brought back a lot. I've been in France now for about 18 years and while ratty bars exist, they just don't have the same ambiance. I do most of my drinking alone these days. I really miss those very American dives, with padded leather on the doors, stained carpets, scarred bar tops, juke boxes with 45's that were all 20 or 30 years old. Man, they seem to be a dying breed. Sorry for the nostalgia trip, but those old bars just had a charm to them I really miss.
So what dive bars have you spent or do you still spend hours?