You know you’re in a dive bar when…

[ghosthop]

Even questionable if they serve IPA in a can or bottle. The regular dive patron wouldn’t pay extra for “hipster piss”.

I doubt this in 2023, I know a lot of questionable folks that are real into IPAs because they can get drunk faster. I specifically remember a turning point when Voodoo Ranger came out, every meth curious person I knew was drinking it that summer.

[skaredshtles]

Bucksnort is *definitely* not a shit hole.

Appears the Bucksnort may not even be open any more. Again.

[AK47bp]

I doubt this in 2023, I know a lot of questionable folks that are real into IPAs because they can get drunk faster. I specifically remember a turning point when Voodoo Ranger came out, every meth curious person I knew was drinking it that summer.

Probably true. I haven’t been a bar rat since 2014

[mtnjam]

Dive bar near here is the Cactus or Gil's K9 bar. The Cactus takes the cake as the diveiest bar I've been in for a long time. There were some pretty seedy bars in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, but that doesn't hold a candle to the Cactus here in Boise.

[XXX-er]

A dive bar is perhaps a bar that does not have enough ferns ?

[exsparky]

The Valverde Yacht Club was a dive because the cigarette smoke was so bad, all the carpet sample wall paper had become the same color brown.
It had nice parking though.

[zion zig zag]

Up until this year I would have said the Sand Trap (RIP). Thirsty Horse would be my runner-up.

Valley-wise, the Shooting Star at one point would have qualified. It still maintains a lot of dive aspects.

Shit, how did I forget the Sand Trap? I used to end up there occasionally back when I was patrolling.

[Meadow Skipper]

Back around 1990 my wife and I were coming back from TSV and stopped in Abe's in Arroyo Seco for a couple of beers. I don't know what it's like now, but back then it was kinda low. Not long after we sat down some guy came in the door wanting to use the phone. Obviously not local, he started complaining about his rental breaking down. Bartender rolled his eyes and asked what beer he wanted while he was waiting for the tow truck. Touron declined the beer and asked for a mineral water. Holy shit you'd think he asked to fuck the bartender's mom.

Abe’s hasn’t exactly gentrified, but it’s not as easy, or likely, for an Anglo to get their ass solidly kicked as it used to be.

IME, Fairbanks has (or had when I lived there) some serious dive bars - The Boatel, the Mecca, Tommy’s Elbow Room, The Mine Shaft, The Lonely Lady…. And Elko, Winnemucca, Austin…Nevada is a gold mine of dives.

[ski_the_fraulein]

Surprisingly the Salt Lake valley has, or at least had, it’s share:

Club48
Twilite Lounge
X Wife’s Place
Duffy’s
Cheers2U
Bar Named Sue
Dick & Dixie’s (tho updated)

Some others no longer around, like original Bar X (Big Dick manning the door), Cotton Bottom and one at corner of 114th So and State. Definitely made it easier to ski and party back in college…



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[xyz]

When you’re in any bar in Butte, Montana.

[Buzzworthy]

Surprisingly the Salt Lake valley has, or at least had, it’s share:

Club48
Twilite Lounge
X Wife’s Place
Duffy’s
Cheers2U
Bar Named Sue
Dick & Dixie’s (tho updated)

Some others no longer around, like original Bar X (Big Dick manning the door), Cotton Bottom and one at corner of 114th So and State. Definitely made it easier to ski and party back in college…



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Cheers and Bar Named Sue are not dive bars imo.

[Brownski]

Dive bar…. there is somebody inside here napping with his head down on the bar. I mean I don’t know that for an absolute fact. It’s just been the case every single time I have set foot inside this place.

[babybear]

I remember standing in the same place for a bit and then going to walk away and having my shoes stick to the floor
RIP Log Cabin

[JimmyCarter]

Im a proud member of the local elks chapter and this is our dive

There are at least 10 different types of schnapps and a bottle of crown if you’re feeling like Mr moneybags. Pool, darts, a bartender who knows everyone as “hun” and what might be the last $2 beers to be found anywhere in the state.

[BCMtnHound]

Im a proud member of the local elks chapter and this is our dive

There are at least 10 different types of schnapps and a bottle of crown if you’re feeling like Mr moneybags. Pool, darts, a bartender who knows everyone as “hun” and what might be the last $2 beers to be found anywhere in the state.

Heh. That’s like calling the local legion a dive. Crossing a community hall with a bar does not make it a dive, despite the basic offerings of refreshment. And the rule to take your hat off.
IMO.

And if you are attending either the local Elks or Legion for drinks, you are in that other thread. Something about old fucks something something.

[Foggy_Goggles]

It's a sad state of affairs when everything has become so yuppified that what used to be just a bar is now a dive bar. If you are not scared sober it's not a dive.

But what I really miss is a good old fashioned lounge. Low tables required.

Sent from my Turbo 850 Flatbrimed Highhorse

[babybear]

I love Elks bars. reminds me that I need to start a membership because we would always go with my mom but she passed away last summer
Our elks also runs the local bowling alley which is excellently old school

[skiballs]

When you’re in any bar in Butte, Montana.

I’ll raise you, Dundalk MD


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[BCMtnHound]

When you’re in any bar in Butte, Montana.

I’ll raise you, Dundalk MD

It’s been a couple decades, but Libby, MT. gets my vote for bar hopping dive joints.

[JimmyCarter]

It's a sad state of affairs when everything has become so yuppified that what used to be just a bar is now a dive bar. If you are not scared sober it's not a dive.

But what I really miss is a good old fashioned lounge. Low tables required.

Sent from my Turbo 850 Flatbrimed Highhorse

Let’s also not discount the fact that “what used to just be a bar” is actually that same bar but aged 50 years with just about no maintenance or refresh.

I might not get stabbed, but it’s cheap booze, drunk locals, Keno, and a windowless room in the basement, so it’s close enough as far as I’m concerned

[muted reborn]

Let’s also not discount the fact that “what used to just be a bar” is actually that same bar but aged 50 years with just about no maintenance or refresh.

I might not get stabbed, but it’s cheap booze, drunk locals, Keno, and a windowless room in the basement, so it’s close enough as far as I’m concerned

Eagle's and Elks clubs are kinda dorky rundown bars most people don't want to go to, so based on this scientific hard data I say most qualify as dive bars.

That said, I spent some time in the Eagles in Bozeman in the early 2000's that looked exactly like your pic and it was great. Not a place you'd go to thinking you might find someone to take home though, maybe that's another clue you are in a dive bar?

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

A dive can't be well lit, especially with fluorescents like above. Only a couple of low lights behind the bar and maybe one by the door. And it needs a land line, and when ever the bartender answers it, he/she will meet the eyes of a patron who will immediately and instinctively shake their head.

[J. Barron DeJong]

It’s been a couple decades, but Libby, MT. gets my vote for bar hopping dive joints.

Feel like Dundalk would be hard to beat here.

[Art Shirk]

On a plane home from Vegas. I drove past a place called Fun Hog Ranch that I am positive would qualify. May want to Google that one incognito mode as I learned a few things.


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[anotherVTskibum]

i was highly disappointed in the Edelweiss on my annual trip to Cody this summer no more smoking and no shake of the day and my bloody mary was just tomatoes juices n vodka in a 7 oz cup with just a lime
a real dive bar should also have a video poker or slots machine that pay out cash

Whaaaaat? No smoking?

Last time I was in there, we were grabbing burgers and drinks on the way back from Cooke, I think. No one was smoking when we sat down, but then a family came in (like three generations) and seemed to be taking the ventilation into consideration so the kids didn't get too much of Grandpa's secondhand smoke.

Until they pulled out the cigarettes, it hadn't registered to be that there were ashtrays on the tables.