Whats the best bar/saloon you've been in?

Wyatt p. Tato · Feb 28, 2015

Best view, rear table, the bucket of blood saloon, Virginia city, Nevada.

Most interesting, the mountain house, Livermore hills, California. welcome home Sonny Barger party, 1992.

Jboutfishn · Mar 1, 2015

Sea Cliff, Dar, Tanzania
Rum Bar, Reno Nevada

Wyatt Burp · Mar 1, 2015

In Sonora, Ca. there's place called The Sportsman that has a long bar to drink beer with a counter against the back wall to buy guns. Ammo is piled up behind the counter by the beer mugs and there's piles of dog eared gun magazines on the counter. Any place that has "cold beer", guns" and "ammo" on the same sign is my kind of joint.

Bkreutz · Mar 1, 2015

I think the one bar/tavern that I have the fondest memories was the Rock Inn in Estes Park. I worked at a resort the summer before the Army and we used to drive down to Estes and drink Coors 3.2 until they kicked us out. (3.2 was all that was legal at 18, but at altitude, I don't think it mattered).

Wyatt Burp · Mar 1, 2015

Bkreutz said:
I think the one bar/tavern that I have the fondest memories was the Rock Inn in Estes Park. I worked at a resort the summer before the Army and we used to drive down to Estes and drink Coors 3.2 until they kicked us out. (3.2 was all that was legal at 18, but at altitude, I don't think it mattered).

I hitchhiked through there once and stayed a few days in 1979. Summer was a magnet for tons of long haired kids to go. I ate at this big hotel where about a year later Jack Nicholson got possessed and tried to kill his family. And until then I never heard of 3.2 beer.

James&theGiant1911 · Mar 1, 2015

Platinum plus (closed now), Flying Saucer (over 100 beers on tap), and the Fox and the hound.

DR505 · Mar 1, 2015

The Depot in Monroe, WI - Try the "Vulcan Mind Meld" for a drink.

Ned Kelly's Last Stand in Hong Kong - Haven't been sine the '80's, but great then.

Scotland Yard in Tallinn, Estonia.

Raffle's in Singapore - Home of the "Singapore Sling."

The Old Buckhorn Saloon and Opera House in Pinos Altos, NM - just north of Silver City.

M E Morrison · Mar 1, 2015

James&theGiant1911 said:
Platinum plus (closed now), Flying Saucer (over 100 beers on tap), and the Fox and the hound.

Reminds me of a place in Marinette, WI called the Oak Room. Sadly it too is gone.

JeffNW · Mar 1, 2015

The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, Ca.

Second best bar: Chateau Liberte up in the Santa Cruz mountains where for a $2 cover you could see bands like the Doobie Bros.,(a "biker band" back then) New Riders of the Purple Sage.

BearBio · Mar 1, 2015

The most "interesting" but likely not the "best" were:
1. Hussong's in Ensenada (BTW: They DO card you)
2. Foster's Bighorn (Rio Vista, CA)==120 different species of mounts on the wall.
3. Safari Bar in Thermopolis, Wyoming+ another with LOTS of heads. Down the hall to the rooms (It's in a hotel) are personal pictures taken by the owner while on safaris all over the world.
4. The Number Ten Saloon (The REAL one) in Deadwood, just for the history. BTW: Jack McCall was tried in the Masonic Hall around the corner.
5. The "Pal" (Palomino) in North Hollywood=mostly for the urban cowboys there.

RSanch111 · Mar 1, 2015

Ye Olde Carriage House Inn, in Detroit. Best cop bar ever. It was sort of like what the wild west boomtown bars probably USED to be like. Bullet holes in the walls, card games, etc.....If you were in there when the sun came up in the morning, the sun would shine through the bullet holes and make rays of light through the smoke. It was almost a religious experience. There were pilfered street signs all over the walls and more than one gun toter bet another, after a few.... "I bet I can put one through the first 'O' in 'Woodward'!" One time, a female assistant prosecutor or possibly a nurse borrowed someone's .357 and tried to hit something on the wall and instead killed the video poker machine. Like something out of the Three Stooges when the PA system in the hospital said: "Ohhhhhh, you got me!!!!!" after being shot.

This was years ago. Bar has since shut down and the statute of limitations has run out on anything I witnessed there.

It's where I learned that cops and nurses go together like hot dogs and donuts.

Wyatt Burp · Mar 1, 2015

JeffNW said:
The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, Ca. Below is Neil Young playing there
in the summer of '77.

Second best bar: Chateau Liberte up in the Santa Cruz mountains where for a $2 cover you could see bands like the Doobie Bros.,(a "biker band" back then) New Riders of the Purple Sage.

I heard of the Catalyst when I was growing up in the east bay. I went with a girl to see Neil's solo show at The Boarding House in S.F. A dinky place. Did you listen to KFAT in those days? A great radio station long gone but you can still hear some of it online.

LittleCooner · Mar 1, 2015

Mint Bar in Sheridan Wyoming is my tops

Local bar - Peerless in Anniston, AL - really great, Old wooden bar from one of the Worlds Fairs back in the 1800's , its like a step back in time. Big selection of local draft brews and you can even have a cold brew on a Sunday Afternoon in conservative Alabama.

VAPA · Mar 1, 2015

Not the best but the most amazing, Billy Bob"s Texas in Ft. Worth about 30 years ago.

JeffNW · Mar 1, 2015

Wyatt Burp said:
I heard of the Catalyst when I was growing up in the east bay. I went with a girl to see Neil's solo show at The Boarding House in S.F. A dinky place. Did you listen to KFAT in those days? A great radio station long gone but you can still hear some of it online.

Yes, remember KFAT well and agree-great station!

BTW-Neil Young with the Ducks(no relation to the Oregon team

) played at various Santa Cruz bars that summer-some much smaller than the Catalyst.

chaparrito · Mar 1, 2015

I once delivered a horse to some bigshot in Prescott AZ, back in the late 80s. Having a pocket full of cash, decided to spend the night and got a room at the Hassyampa Inn and moseyed over to Whiskey Row, a short walk, passing my pal Buckey O'Neill on courthouse square. Went in to Matt's Saloon, it was a quiet weeknight. Sat at the bar and listened to the terrible band that was playing for a while. By and by I hear a real loud motorcycle pull up outside the open door. Some guy walks in alone and sits downbar and orders a beer. In a bit he goes up to the band and asks if he can sit in. I was not a Bruce Springsteen fan and so didn't immediately recognize him. He jammed with the band to an essentially empty house for about an hour. Then I bought him a beer and we gabbed for a bit. Nice fellow. I later heard he used to take off on bike rides to parts unknown and his drop-in habit was not unusual.
I had a similar experience at the bar in The North Bank Steakhouse in Phoenix, where I was a waiter in college. That time it was Jackson Browne, and I was a serious fan. "Everyman" had just come out and Browne drank, sang and took a LOT of trips to bathroom.

RSanch111 · Mar 1, 2015

I've been to Matt's in Prescott. Nice place even without The Boss. Probably my favorite bar on Whiskey Row. The Palace is too touristy and "Western Hokey". There was a place in the Granite Dells that was closed down last time I was there, but the times before that it was pretty interesting. I'd heard it was owned by a biker club. It was pretty tame by "Biker Club Standards". I think it was called the "Pinion Oaks" or "Pinion Pines". I think they got shut down for dope or taxes.

I think the most "famous" person I ran into at a bar was David Ruffin during his crackhead days. Saw him at "Desoto's" on Telegraph just outside Detroit. Within a year, he cracked out and died. I think he weighed about 90 pounds when I saw him. Skin and bones.

reddogge · Mar 1, 2015

The Owl Bar in the basement of the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore, MD is an institution well over 100 years old and predating the Prohibition. It's still there and this owl with lighted eyes still sits watch over the clientele. Just a great place to drink a couple of martinis.

"The Owl Bar became a hugely popular stop for travellers, especially those going by train from New York to Miami. They would stop in Baltimore, spend a few days at the Belvedere, and visit the Wise Old Owl. The key was knowing exactly when the illegal products and services were available and how to behave to avoid getting caught. That's where the wisdom of the owl came to the rescue and quenched the thirst. He imparted an excoded message that was clear to all of the in-the-know regulars. "The wise old owl sat on an owk, the more the saw, the less he spoke, the less he spoke, the more he heard." Patrons did not speak of booze, bokies, or other illegal products and services. They simply looked to the Owl for devious and "spirits-ual" guidance. If the eye was blinking, it meant that the shipment had made it; the feds weren't around; and it was sage to party. When the eyes were straight ahead (not blinking), "the wise old owl" sat on his barstool, spoke less and heard more. The ugly alternative was getting busted."

Wyatt Burp · Mar 1, 2015

Beemerguy53 said:
In Baltimore, there is a waterfront community called Fell's Point. It's the oldest part of the city, right on the harbor, just east of downtown. The streets are paved with Belgian Blocks that were used as ballast in cargo-carrying sailing ships, and it's chock-full of funky bars and bistros.

I have been going to Bertha's for more than 40 years. Ledbetters, the Wharf Rat, The Horse You Came In On, The Cat's Eye, Kooper's, and Duda's are also all great places, with a wide beer selection and good menu.

Those places sound great. If they're places where you think you might shanghaied but never do, that's a fun sounding rustic bar. Or bars in this case.

load748 · Mar 1, 2015

the green parrot, key west fl. "go in as a stranger but leave with 50 friends; never know a stranger ".the place goes 24/7.......

Whats the best bar/saloon you've been in?

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