best bars in america

The Double Deuce in wherever Roadhouse was filmed.

 

I'd vote for my local, The Blue Goose. Owner-operated. Still serve draught beer in those old-style 8 (?) oz glasses at $1.35 a pop.
No tabs, no credit cards and servers (hello, Janice!) who take crap from nobody.

Big circular bar in the middle of the joint and established seating and standing positions for all the regs.

Cheapest beer in Toronto ($4.10 for a pint of Blue).

And they're shooting American Pie 3 there for the next three days.

If you're involved in minor hockey,  coachs' meetings are Sundays at 3:00.  

Oh, and the Madison Pub is damn fine.

 

There was a great place in Bennington, Mickey's, but it burned down in '98 or '99. Too bad. It was a classic joint for grisled newsies to tie one on after midnight deadlines. Great, sordid characters were the fabric of that bar.

 

Pierce Street Annex, Newport Beach, Calif. -- Neighborhood place during the day, license-to-print-money meat market at night, with a long line out the door and a cover for a DJ -- because they have a huge patio where you can smoke, and where you cook your own dinner -- burgers or brats or steaks you've bought from them -- on the huge grill in the middle.

John's Bar, Third Street, LaCrosse, Wis.: Quintessential small-town downtown spot, served 25 cent drafts in my day -- althoug I was almost disappointed to find they have a website: http://www.johnsbarlacrosse.com/

Tobacco Road, Miami -- Blues club, open until 5 a.m. nightly. Although it has been yuppified since it was "saved" in the 1980s.

And then there's my local pub.

That's all I got right now.

 

Good call on Tobacco Road -- I only knew it in its yuppified days, but still plenty of atmosphere.

 

Based on a real bar in Kansas City.

 

I forgot one.

Pen and Pencil Club, Philadelphia.

I only went there once, but it's a bar for "newspeople." (Less so journalists.) I almost took a job because it was a major factor, it was so cool: http://www.penandpencil.org

Sadly, a Miami equivalent, the 1800 Club (except it was much more than Herald people, it was lawyers, politicians, power people) closed in 2002. I'm pretty sure, although never confirmed, that at least one Absence of Malice scene was either in, or supposed to be in, the 1800.

 

The Half-Time Rec, St. Paul Minnesota.

The Red Head Piano Bar, Chicago.

 

Bull O' The Woods
The Motherlode
Red River, New Mexico

One of these, not sure which one, was the setting for the song "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother"

Personally, I prefer the Bull.

 

Stand-up Franks, Minneapolis
Nye's, Minneapolis

 

I should've listed Nye's. Best live polka music around. And I shit you not, get four or five drinks in you, and you will fucking love polka music.