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

[Wyatt Burp]

We were in The Crystal Palace in Tombstone one night and it was great partying with people in the vicinity of so much western history. Atlantic City, MT. is a town much smaller than it's name, just down a dirt road from South Pass City. There was a great saloon there. The Iron Door Saloon has the oldest still open saloon in California. It's touristy now but 30 yrs ago it was fun wild place in a mountain town packed with cute women. There was a great tiny rustic bar in Mokelumne Hill, Ca. where you could open the refrigerator and enter a secret pool hall with a full mounted buffalo in it. And my favorite being "Pappy & Harriet's in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree.
I'll think of others, but what great saloons have you encountered, sometimes in out of the way places?

 

[Xfuzz]

The Menger bar.
Menger Hotel San Antonio, Texas.

 

[SC_Mike]

It's between two, The Saloon in SF and Big Daddy's in NO.

I was told later I had a good time.

 

[RUN2424]

Brants river bottom bar. Sits about 1/4 mile north of the Canadian river.
Butch, the gentlemen that owns it has one eye that goes one way and the other eye goes another. But he is the story telling person i ever met. Has his house on the west side right next to the bar. Beer only 2 pool tables juke box full older country and it a half round metal building.

 

[Tom Beavert]

Elk Horn Bar, in Walden CO. Good folks.
tb

 

[mstem]

Here in Virginia we don't have bars. We have restaurants that serve alcohol. I'm 61 and I can honestly say I have never been in a bar. And the last time I was drunk is when I was 28. That's when my ex-wife left!!!!!!! Didn't need a reason to drink anymore!

 

[the ringo kid]

Crazy Horse in Harlingen,Texas. I knew most of the ladies who danced there as I spent every Friday getting my butt kicked by them when trying to play pool. Oh and, did I ever mention it before but--I dated one of their dancers for the last two semesters of college I had. Her name was Daisy. My grades suffered quite a bit and I put full blame on Daisy. Runner up is:Shooters--which is across the parking lot from Crazy Horse.

 

[Bill_inBouse]

Probably the Malamute Saloon in Ester Ak. back in the early and mid 1970s.
The owner would recite Robert Service poems while you drank beer and ate peanuts. The boss lady got so drunk there one night when we got back home we had to prop her up next to the car and hold her pressed to the car to keep her from falling down. The Northern Lights were dancing like crazy, what a beautiful sight it was, the boss lady was NOT a beautiful sight. .ahhh fond memories of our time in Alaska
Glad she doesn't read this

And if you have never read Robert Service, look up the Cremation of Sam McGee....

"Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

 

[Comrad]

McSorley's Old Ale House, generally known as McSorley's, is the oldest tavern in New York City.
Not sure if it's the best but it's quite interesting even though it's become a little touristy since they started letting women drink in 1970.
Beer, cheese, crackers and raw onions.
Not a lot of places you can drink that also served Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Teddy Roosevelt.
There are also wishbones hanging above the bar hung there by boys going off to World War I, to be removed when they returned, so the wishbones that are left are from those that never returned.
I'm suddenly craving cheese and beer.

 

[billlenk]

Ranch House just out side of Dallas

 

[gunship]

The saloon in Tortilla Flats, AZ

 

[Bkreutz]

Probably the Malamute Saloon in Ester Ak. back in the early and mid 1970s.
The owner would recite Robert Service poems while you drank beer and ate peanuts. The boss lady got so drunk there one night when we got back home we had to prop her up next to the car and hold her pressed to the car to keep her from falling down. The Northern Lights were dancing like crazy, what a beautiful sight it was, the boss lady was NOT a beautiful sight. .ahhh fond memories of our time in Alaska
Glad she doesn't read this

And if you have never read Robert Service, look up the Cremation of Sam McGee....

"Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

You should have walked down the street (I use that term loosely) to the "Howling Dog", no tourists. That place brings back memories.

 

[pawngal]

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

Whatever one I'm in when I want a drink or entertainment.

 

[Rustyt1953]

All of them.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Seriously, the Beer Barrel Saloon in Put-in-Bay.
World's longest bar. 160 bar stools and seating for 1200.

I wept.

 

[Damn Yankee]

Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar Saloon in Bandera Texas. Had a great time there on a Saturday afternoon. Bunch of the locals come on Sat and just sit and play for a few beers. Sawdust on the floor relicts on the wall and bullet holes in the ceiling.

Wife and her sister had pictures taken with the musician's and they evan let the girls hold their guitars. Cold drinks (Lone Star) but cash only.

Would have stayed longer and drank more but was a hour away from my lodgeing. In all my years never have met a nicer bunch of Cowboys and Gals.

If you get anywhere near San Antonio be sure to stop in.

One more thing is the men's john. It is just a big old bathtub,what a honor to stand where some of the greatest country singers have stood.

 

[chaparrito]

I tended bar in the 70s at a place called Ninth and Ash in old town Tempe, AZ. A 1920's house with a solid copper roof and two stories, built of river cobbles from the nearby Salt River. Intimate little bar off to the side, lounge in the nearby living room of the house, old couches and overstuffed chairs in front of a giant fireplace. Upstairs bedrooms turned into dining. Typical steak and lobster menu from that era. Complete with its own ghost who used to walk down the creaky stairs when I was counting the till alone after closing. My Plymouth and Boodles martinis were know throughout the neighborhood. It's since been gutted and reimagined as "Casey O' somebody or other's Irish something or other". Still there, but not the same at all.
I lived for a dozen years on the Navajo Reservation in N. AZ. On weekends I'd go to Flagstaff and always stopped in to Joe's Place on Rt. 66. Joe was an elderly-ish Chicano gentleman of dour countenance, and he was always there, usually alone. He had a Louisville Slugger displayed prominently on the back bar below a large sign that read "Be 21, be good, or be gone". All the Flagstaff bars on 66 downtown in those days were dives. Great place to get the snot beat out of yourself on Friday nights. Except Joe's. Perfect place with quiet music, long skinny old dark room, bar the length of one side and a single row of high backed old booths on the other wall. The guy could make a Manhattan. Joe closed it, retired and died shortly after. I've heard it's re-opening under the same name but am not optimistic that it will be remotely the same. Neighborhood bars are scarce as hen's teeth around here now. Pretty sad.

 

[truckemup97]

I have to pick one?!?

 

[PatAz]

Something I just never got into, no name comes to mind.

 

[RobertJ.]

In my travels I've been to a couple that are well-known, but my favorite is 20 minutes to the north, in the town of Astoria.

Fort George Brewery and Pub is Astoria's happenin' spot. Some of the best beer in the country brewed on location (although I don't drink anymore). Live music every Sunday night, wood fired pizza, and the World's Best Albacore Fish & Chips.