Duffy's Love Shack, Red Hook St Thomas V.I.

With a name like Duffy's Love Shack, it ought to be a fun place to check out. It sits in a parking lot in a shopping center in the Red Hook section of St Thomas. The front is open air. It is like a little Tiki bar on speed.
I would dub this more of a tourist bar then a local bar. But the tourists are fun and create a lively atmosphere. Not many wet dish rags hang out a in a place like this.
The place is known for touristy drinks in cheesy Tiki glasses. Even if you are not apt to fall for gimmicks like this, you have to indulge. As the evening rolls on the customers usually become the entertainment.
The Washington Post wrote: What if Jimmy Buffett gave a party and everybody came? It would look like Duffy's Love Shack. It's almost guaranteed to blow your inhibitions away.....it's Parrot Head paradise.

Yankee Tavern, Bronx, NY

Est. 1928. Says a lot.

Located one block off of River Ave where the elevated 4, D & B train run and where the outer wall of Yankee Stadium backs up to.

161st St is a face paced street with shops all along. The Yankee Tavern sits on the corner with entrances on both 161st and on Gerard Avenue.

A deli counter is at the 161st St entrance and is always busy. The Tavern serves some of best pastrami and corned beef in the Bronx. The bar is many deep before, during and after Yankee games. There is a little eating area in the rear of the bar.

The bar decore is a virtual museum of Yankee memorabilia, with murals of Yankee greats like Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, and most prominently Babe Ruth. In fact, the Babe was known for coming in and buying a round of drinks for the house.

A must stop for anyone going to a Yankees game at the stadium. I can't say how out of town guests are treated when wearing the opposing attire. I have only seen Mets fans inside before several of the Subway Series.

Max's Pub, Lynn, MA

The place is now closed down. Actually, it's a gay bar (under a different name). Now. Not then. Not when it was one of my favorite places. Not gay then. Just want to set the record straight.

I refused to admit that it is now a gay bar when I returned to the Boston area to visit friends. I thought they were just saying that so I wouldn't want to go into Lynn to drink.

This is the part where a writer writes; "Not that there is anything wrong with that".
Not on this blog. It's a fucking travesty if you ask me.

This place was in Olympic Square, near the radio station WFNX 101.7. We lived within walking distance of Max's. It quickly became a Friday night stop for unbelievable steak tips and Rolling Rock long necks. I tried for years to duplicate that damn steak tips recipe. (Update: I think I found it! I found a message board. A butcher from Lynn posted the local recipe. I tried it recently; UNBELIEVABLE.

We always had the same waitress, who was a nice as could be.
We always had the drunk guy in the motorized wheelchair zipping down the aisle, brushing our table and tipping our beers. We always caught the tipping beers and never seemed to mind.

A few Boston Garden and Fenway Park pictures on the walls. Not an outright sports bar. Always had the Red Sox game on the tube during the season.

They really had good food. And you wouldn't know it from looking at the outside, or looking at the inside.

It sucks, I have no photos of the place. There is little to no info on the internet.
Just another in a long line of great places to come and go.

Margaritaville, Ocho Rios Jamaica

I'm no fan of touristy bars. I try to avoid them like the plague. I'd rather belly up to a local dive and take in the customs. None of those places existed in Ocho Rios, as far as I could find. And if I did find one, would I want to belly up with the Ocho Rios locals? I spend hours dodging them at every turn.

Ocho Rios is a shit hole of town. After going through the gauntlet of every stoned local with their hand outstretched looking for a handout, a place of refuge was needed. And a manufactured hot spot with a bunch of other tourists was just what we ended up yearning for.

I did feel a little filthy walking into a chain bar. But it was a beautiful rustic structure on a scenic Caribbean beach. This is the largest restaurant ever constructed on the north coast of Jamaica. The high energy place is humming all hours of the day, and well into the night.

The decor is rustic West Indian with a 98 foot water slide from the rooftop into the pool.
There are three bars, including one inside the pool. The service was good. Defiantly a tourist crowd. Not sure if locals are allowed in or they just don't bother to come in.

Being the beach is public, the locals are allowed to wonder up and down and try to get your attention to sell you weed. Fortunately the ones in my party who were being solicited were my young children, and they had no money.

With the exception of the many beer carts on the streets in Ocho Rios selling ice cold Red Stripes, there weren't many other places to go. By all means, support your local vendors in Ocho Rios who sell Red Stripe.

Much of the energy in the bar seemed to come from pent up frustration from everyone locked on a cruise ship for two days. The bar is situated next to the port where the ships come in.

I would not go into a Margarttaville Cafe in the states. There are just too many other choices. But in Ocho Rios, it would be my first stop if I ever returned.

Woody's - Cary, NC

A life long rule has been never to expect much from a suburban strip mall bar.
Get in, get out, go home empty and disappointed.
Plus, Southern cities are not known for old time corner tap rooms. Nor are passionate sports fans known to inhabit such places.
And usually when a bar has to bill itself as a "sports" bar, it usually disappoints.
So the first time I ventured into Woody's I was expecting bad wings, big brewery beer selection and cheesy sports memorabilia bought at a local KMart.
Not so. First off, any bar that serves Red Strip and Labatt Blue in ice cold bottles will get my attention. Couple that with the hot waitresses, great wings, both Buffalo and Jerk, and local Tobacco Road, Panthers and heavy Hurricanes memorabilia.
Most sports bars downplay the local NHL team in favor of more popular sports. Raleigh only has the Hurricanes. They are front and center.
The atmosphere at Woody's is real.
It is surely one of the better sports bars I have been in south of the Mason Dixon line.
So many strip mall bars could take a lesson from Woody's. There is no need to be bland and boring.

Lightning Jacks - Pasadena, MD

We had one simple request from the lady at the crab place we were about to leave. Where is the closet bar? (Not the cleanest bar. Not the friendliest bar? Not the most hospitable bar. Just the closest.)
That is how we ended up at Lightning Jacks. One of the guys in the group took one look at the place from outside and said, "Holy shit, we're gonna get killed". So we went in.
Only to be met quickly by a hostess who noticed we were not dressed like the biker/redneck clientele. And certainly not from the area.
Apparently, for our own safety, she escorted us to the empty back room to the furthest table in the farest corner.
It didn't take long for us to take a liking to the place.
At one point my old boss, a former bar bouncer, and myself went to the jukebox to find the gayest songs to play in an attempt to rile the locals. When that didn't work, we kept playing and playing "The Final Countdown" by Europe . Why the Final Countdown? I have no idea.
But it must have belted out over a dozen times that evening.
And as things got really kicked up, a fine local lady (I think) cornered me and somehow the conversation shifted to her walking into the bathroom last week. She stated she found one woman patron (the pleasurer) orally pleasing another female patron(the pleasuree) in the stall. The local apparently did not take a liking to what she saw. She then related she grabbed the pleasurer by the back of her head and commenced to smashing in into the ground yelling: "No cunt eating in my bathrooms".
At that point I had to stop her from continuing her story, gather the boys and politely ask her to repeatt her recent experience. Which she did, with much more flair.
I found on website where a poster wrote: "Somebody gave this 5 stars: It must have been some locals? If you like to be covered in smoke and walk on a dirty floor, you have found the right place. The crowd gets a little rough and downright ugly at times."
In my book I give this shithole a 6 out of 5 stars.

McGlinchey's - Philadelphia

Perhaps the bar's myspace page can give you some insight into this fine establishment:
"I am a bar. All my drinks are cheap, my bathrooms are horribly disgusting and small, and my staff is often disagreeable. But I am good. If you don't like it, you can go fuck yourself. No shouting, no dancing and no throwing beer at the bartenders. I don't serve Jagermeister. If you want that shit, take your ass to Penn you funkin joke."

Or how about this review from a satisfied customer: "You are the worst bar in Center City, that one waitress wit the tattoo's and black hair doesnt deserve any of my money unless she is using to go buy Midol, that bitch sucks at life. Quite a disgrace to the service industry, never again will i ever step foot in that shithole if she still works there, have fun being a cunt".

You can't argue with a recommondation like that!

There are plenty of places to go if you want to feel welcomed. This is not one of them.
Check your candy ass mantra; "The customer is always right" at the door before entering.

Hockeytown Cafe-Detroit

Been a few times. By myself and with the kids.
The downstairs bar has a band around the perimeter with ice chilled by the same technology that freeze ice hockey rinks.
I never experienced an occasion where I drank a beer so slowly that it needed to kept chilled. But the concept is cool.
Lot of Red Wing photos and memorabilia abound.
The place is across the street from the historic Fox Theatre and tne new Tigers Comamerica Park.
The place is a passionate sports bar but the best feature of all is the strong Canadian beer selection available.
There aren't many places south of border states that have a strong offering of Molson and Labatts products.
I had my illusion crushed when we visited the place with the boys, who were in Detriot for a travel hockey tournament. I did the tour of the memoribilia behind glass when my son turned to me and asked why there is still a price tag hanging on an apparent game used jersey.
At least I still felt like a kid in a candy store there even if the kids did not.

Tortugas' Lie- Nags Head, NC

Tortugas' Lie is a pastel colored shack on the Beach Road around MP 11 in the Outer Banks.
The Caribbean inspired beach bar is a crammed room with a decent selection of tap and bottled beers. Additional seating is available on the porch.
NC inspired steamers on the pub style menu with decent seafood and jerk inspired fare. The place has a diverse crowd of locals and tourists. The bartenders control the music from behind the bar.
A great laid back atmosphere to suck down a few ice cold Red Strips.
I don't recall many times when Jimmy Buffet tunes were playing but it is one of those places you expect to hear some Correl Reefer Band being piped in.

Buddy's - Richmond, Virginia

Buddy's is an old Northeastern type corner bar stuck in The Fan section of Richmond.
Bars come and go in Richmond. Not many have staying power. Confiscatory ABC laws does not make bar ownership attractive and profitable to many in Virginia.
Somehow Buddy's has found a way to survive along with keeping it's old neighborhood feel.
Not much has changed at Buddy's in the last 25years.
A single bar with wooden booths along the outer wall. A few flat screens which broadcasts mostly sports in the evening.
Decent pub fare from the kitchen. Always a hustle and bustle in the evenings.
Buddy's is well off the Virginia Commonwealth campus, which is located at the other end of The Fan.
The clientele is a mix of local Fan residence and upscale suburbanites from the West End of the city.
Most have a connection with Buddy's from the past.
It is one of the few places I will take out of town visitors.

The Beach Bar-St John USVI

St JohnVI- The Beach Bar is an outdoor spot which sits on a small beach in Cruz Bay, St John's main port.
Just a ferry ride from St Thomas, you can let the Caribbean lap at your feet while enjoying a cocktail. Cheap tropical drinks are plenty like the $4 Painkiller (rum, orange and pineapple juices, coco lopez and nutmeg). There’s live music on most weekend nights, plus jazz on Sundays.
From local favorites to Trey Anastasia of Phish, you never know who may show up to play at The Beach Bar!
Part of the fun is trying to catch the ferry back to St Thomas if you are not staying on the island. Especially if it is the last boat of the evening.

Sullivan's Tap, Boston

An old time joint which sits perpendicular to the front of the old Boston Garden. With the new barn built just 8 feet from the wall of the old, Sully's is still a staple before and after Bruins games.
A tight but long bar with scattered sports memorabilia on the walls.
It is a place with roots in a sports crowd but appears to try hard not to brand itself as a sports bar.
Usually there is no room to walk or even belly up to the bar.
There is a warmth to the place when you walk in from the bitter chill of downtown Boston on a winter's evening. The sounds of the hustle and bustle outside disappear when you walk though the doors.
On a St Patrick's Day 2 years back while attending a hockey tournament I picked up the first round. Fighting to get my place at the bar a guy next to me ordered a beer called Brubakers.
He looked over and asked me if I ever had that gem. Then began raving about how good it was.
I couldn't resist. I ordered 5 for the crew.
I think my round came to like $6. Not a good sign.
That coupled with the fact the bottles were 1950's thick and weighed close to 10 pounds a piece and were covered with dust.
I muscled my way through the crowd to dispense my buy. And caught holy shit for it.
Some good came out of the it. I was forbidden from buying another round the rest of the night.
It was St Patrick's Day so I save a boatload.

Dirty Franks, Philadelphia

No windows. No frills. No level bar. No sign. If you don't know about it, you'll never find it.
This is only a place you would find by accident. In my case, a co-worker happened to live on the block and suggested this place.
Growing up in a seedy neighborhood with tap rooms on every corner, this place was not too foreign for me.
I once took an out of town friend here one Saturday morning before an afternoon Flyers matinee game. I went to use the bathroom when I noticed there was no door and with the pisser in full view of the bar.
When I got back to the bar, I told the bartender I was here on Thursday night and swore there was a door at the mens room. He informed me there was a fight last night. A guy ripped the door off the hinges to beat the other guy over the head with.
You never know who will be there. The crowd is a cross section of society's seediest. Where everyone seems to be welcomed.
I once took another out of town buddy who was from a large Northeast city. A former offensive lineman in college. Very large and never intimidate. After the first round I went to order a second. He leaned in and said, "Let's get the fuck outta here".
My last excursion was this summer after a Phils v Red Sox game. After the afternoon game, we went with a first timer. We couldn't get him to leave.
May be the best dive bar I have ever been to. And how bad can a place with a mural of Frank Sinatra painted on the outside wall?

Stan's Sports Bar, Bronx, NY

Stan's is located under the elevated train tracks on the outside of (old) Yankee Stadium.
The bar is located in the center of the floor and walls decorated with old Yankee memorabilia.
A great atmosphere before, during or after ball games.
The crowd is spirited. One Saturday afternoon after the Yankees beat Seattle, the Little League World Series championship game came on the TV. The US team was from Toms River (NJ).
The crowd was engrossed and hung on every pitch. After runs were scored or the locals finished off an inning, the entire place erupted in "U.S.A. U.S.A" chants.
We are not sure how the dynamics of the place will change once the Bombers move next door.
The view from Stans is basically tressels and the tall backside of the (old) stadium.
Once the old stadium is demolished, the site is going to be a park.

It's Always Sunny.....

Long before the hit show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Paddy's was an Old City standby in the shadows of the Ben Franklin Bridge.
I was introduced to Paddy's by a guy at work who lived in the neighborhood.
On a scale from dive bar to upscale, condemned comes to mind.
One night after a Flyers game I took an out of town buddy here. A Harley was parked on the sidewalk and no patrons were inside. The Harley was the bartender's. The female bartender.
We got to talking about cheap beers we drank in college. We asked for the shitiest beer she had behind the counter.
She opened the cellar trap door behind the bar, climbed down a ladder and emerged a few minutes later with a case of Ortliebs (out of business long ago).
We each drank one. Being the objective was to drink the cheapest beer, we asked how much we were being charged. The response was; "You can drink this shit all night for free".
A good idea at the time. Until later that evening when my new seersucker sofa was introduced to some new shades of greens, reds and vomit pinks.
Paddy's also, before their $45 renovation, had one narrow bathroom. On the wall hung a sign that read something to the effect: "State Health Dept Requires Handwashing Prior To Returning to Work". The sign hung above the toilet. The room had no sink for the food servers to wash their hands.
Behind the bar are plenty of police related memorabilia along with a photo of Mayor Rizzo.
This is the inspiration of the bar on the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Neither the outside or the inside of the bar on the TV show are the real Paddy's.

Mutt Lynch's Newport Beach, CA

A beachfront bar located on The Strand in Newport Beach. A local institution since 1976. I was introduced to Mutts in the early 90's when I made annual trips to Dodgers and Angels games from Boston while visiting an old fraternity brother.
It has become a Southern California destination since.
With a quintessential So Cal surfer decor, Mutt's is a friendly type pub with great pizza.
It doesn't hurt that the bartenders are usually female. Very talented females.
When things get rocking during a sunny summer day, a crowd of men occupy the large picture window facing the beach and yell scores to the constant parade of bikini clad local.
A Southern California "4" is an East Coast "9".
A great place to hang out even on a Sunday morning with a copy of the LA Times to take you through the first football or baseball game.
I opened the place on Game 1 day of the Angels 2002 World Series at 10 AM.
Working for a So Cal based company, I was always able introduce the local office boys to this joint. On their dime.