In creating Callahan’s Place, the central locus for his endlessly warm science fiction series Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, author Spider Robinson whipped up something very like the platonic ideal of the bar as the modern church. The empathy-heavy philosophy of Callahan’s regulars—who range from time travelers and would-be world destroyers to local New Jersey doctors and affable barflies—is expressed late in the very first book, and it remains powerful in its simplicity, even now: “Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased.” Now, if your vision of said shared joy doesn’t include a truly regrettable cavalcade of awful puns—there’s a long, drawn-out one about an extra-terrestrial giant that I haven’t been able to knock out of my head despite decades of work—then Callahan’s might not be for you. But if the idea of a well-lit drinking spot where nobody pries, but everyone is ready to listen, appeals, there are a hell of a lot worse Places you could probably end up. [William Hughes]
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Villain Pub from How it Should have Ended.
Is Cheers too obvious? It seems like the friendliest bar ever. Everybody already knows your name!
Cheers is cliche plus, you’d be in Boston, and fuck that!Moe’s is number one on my list
Honestly Moe’s is as big of an oversight as Cheers.
Norm!!!!!!!
Seriously. Not a single writer said Cheers?
Damn kids. I’m surprised they even know what a bar is.
Millennials.
STOP.
Stop what?
They were probably worried their hipster cards would be revoked if they chose Cheers. Sign me the fuck up. I remember being a kid and thinking how sweet it’d be to tuck into one of those tables in the alcove by the door with my girl or some friends.
They were probably worried their hipster cards would be revoked if they chose Cheers.
Those of us who are old remember that there actually was a chain of licensed Cheers bars (mostly in airports) in the late 1990s. Which was a bit weird given that the show had been off the air for years at that point.
There’s now a chain of licensed Cheers bars in Boston. Including the actual Cheers exterior location. But there are more.
Seriously. Not a single writer said Cheers?The show ran from ‘82 to ‘93. It lived and died before any of the writers were probably even born.
Just be glad no one picked the equally obvious Mos Eisley cantina…
Holiday Special cantina or canonical cantina?Seriously though, I thought about that one later, and I thought about how for most answers, you’re really just predicating your response based on the hope that in-universe characters will pop up. (Who would want to go to the Snake Hole Lounge, for example, if there was no hope of running into Leslie and co.? Even they think it’s horrible). So that, in turn, made me realize something else: The only real regulars that I would want to run into at the Cantina would be Han and Chewie, and since I don’t speak Wookie, Han would have to be included. Now, I love Han as a character—he and Leia are the best characters in all of Star Wars for adult-me—but I probably wouldn’t want to have known him back then. He was a bit of a jerk in A New Hope, and I doubt alcohol made him any more affable.
Also, are Han and Chewie really “regulars”? They aren’t from Tatooine but were just passing through. Ben wasn’t looking in particular for Han, he just knew that there would be *some* shady smuggler in the bar that he and Luke could hire.
But somebody sort of did
That place seems pretty violent, we are in there for like 5 min and a guy gets shot & another guy gets his arm chopped off by some old geezer.
Also, I’m not sure if my smartphone would violate the “no droids” policy.
Think of your closest major city: does any bar like Cheers exist? Every bar has a gimmick now, but given how centrally located Cheers is to the college district, I’m surprised they don’t have a younger clientele. Plus, they’re probably considered the side show to Melville’s upstairs, so it’s mostly a stopover for married couples. For that reason alone – that it’s basically a classy joint where you can hear yourself think – I would say Cheers.
Strangely enough (and being raised in the Boston area) the old Bull and Finch was, if I recall correctly, known for catering to State House staffers. (The State House is five blocks away). So it’d have been a good place to pick up gossip if you were a political junkie. But this is going back oh, 35+ years.
Given where Cheers is by the way, college students wouldn’t be so common as all that, unless they went to Bay State or NE College of Business — to get there from where BU is, for instance, takes a few Green Line stops. It’d be a bit of a hike given the other watering holes along the way that are more college-kid friendly.
On that basis it’d definitely be where you can hear yourself think.
I mean let’s be real, somebody has to mention Cheers! Currently on season 10 for the first time. It’s been quite a trip to say the least.
Fun! I’ve tried binging it on Netflix a few times. The laugh track gets to be too jarring, and I usually take a break and come back to it again later. I grew up with shows with laugh tracks, too, it’s just that I disliked them even then and now that so many good sitcoms have moved away from them they’re even more jarring to hear.
I hope you can get back into it at some point! The writing transcends the laugh tracks imo. For the most part, Cheers holds up really well. Of course, the Diane era is the series’ peak. Your mileage may very though! If you do try it again, have fun!
NORM!
Eh. On one hand, I’ll agree that the early seasons with Diane were possibly higher quality, because the show was less sitcom-y then. On the other hand, I found Diane completely insufferable and struggled through S2-5 because of how immensely I disliked her. Once she left the show, I enjoyed my viewing experience a lot more.
Diane’s snobby character worked great, but for me personally I was impressed with the Rebecca character, too. I’d only seen Kirstie Alley in serious roles up to that point, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out she was actually good at comedy as well. Her frequent “wtf is this shit?” pausing expressions in the show were the best.
Really? You and I had completely different viewing experiences. Mind you, I haven’t finished the show yet (mind you, I’m mid-way through season 10, will be on 11 soon) but I absolutely loved Diane’s character. She was the perfect counterpoint to Sam and their conflict created some of the series’ best moments. Diane’s intellectualism paired against Sam’s false machismo gave the show added dimension and layers that were a cut above most sitcoms at the time.
Alternatively, Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) does not measure up in the slightest. The writers don’t even try to make her a compelling character with actually agency or drive of her own. The writers exaggerate Rebecca’s lack of self-actualization to the point of absurdity. Her constant pining for Evan Drake and Robin Colcord become ludicrious as it becomes increasingly clear she will pursue rich narcissists even if it means having no self-respect. Rebecca is just a pathetic character through and through.
Moreover, the Rebecca-Sam dynamic that dominates much of seasons 6-10 has potential to be interesting on paper, but the writers don’t give it any effort whatsoever. Instead of the intense push-and-pull of the Sam and Diane dynamic—where every step of their relationship and conflict showed us something new about them—the RS storyline is comparatively one-note. Sam is reduced to a sexist jerk and Rebecca a career woman who, due to clumsy writing, is not good at the one aspect of her life she focuses on the most. The latter may have something to do with the idea of a career woman being a relatively new concept in the ‘80s, but even then Diane is proof the writers knew how to write a female character imo. Anyway, I could go on at a much longer length about Cheers but I’ve already talked for quite a bit. I have my misgivings about the second half of the series—although I will see it through to the end—but I am genuinely glad you enjoy the Rebecca Howe era. What do you think?
That show is not built to be binged, take it one episode a night
I watched every episode when it original aired. My point was that laugh tracks have not aged well.
Oh come on, you are not old enough to have watched a show from so long ago. 🙂
Hey, that’s no laugh track. Cheers was filmed before a live studio audience.
All those Massholes? Sam trying to put the moves on any attractive girl who enters the bar? Cliff rambling your ear off? Frasier (and Lillith) being insufferable? Carla being grating and confrontational? Diane or Rebecca being uptight? Norm is pretty cool (though you can’t really smell Norm through the TV), and Woody/Coach would have been good for a laugh, but that doesn’t seem like that great of a time.
Oh, go blow up British Parliament, you party pooper.
Frankly, I don’t want to be in a bar where ANYBODY knows my name.
I remember when the first episode of Cheers started, being shocked that I had actually been in the basement bar at that address on Mount Vernon Street. My girlfriend had worked at Little, Brown up the street from the place and I’d been in the place with her once or twice.
I almost wonder if there was some kind of “And it can’t be Cheers!” stipulation in the AV Club office.
I was thinking the same thing, like there was an intro explaining that part that someone got behind on writing, and the Q&A just got published without it.
Right? Not one Cheers? Let’s tear this place apaaaaaaaart!
Cheers is so obvious it should be ineligible. Anyway, the lights are a little bright – it’s almost more like a home or a work place than an actual bar. Mother’s from Peter Gunn has atmosphere and great live music – I’m not a huge jazz fan, but I could learn. That little Parisian basement joint in Charade where they pass the orange seems cool, although there are a lot of tourists. The place where the cops hang out in NYPD Blue is a regular bar-bar. Then there’s Joe’s place, you know, where you can talk about how you’re a kind of poet as he sets one up for the road. I’ll take Richard Thompson’s place:
You can be a gambler/Who never held a hand/You can be a sailor/Never left dry land/You can be Lord Jesus/All the world will understand….” – “Down Where the Drunkards Roll,” Richard Thompson
It is obvious merely because it is the best choice.
Cheers, mate. And everybody.
Hog’s Head in Hogsmeade. BYOB that place.Tattinger’s for some classic cocktails.Is Milliway’s a bar?Also, any bar in “Futurama.”
hogs head exists in florida.
That one doesn’t count.
There’s also a “Hog’s Breath” saloon.
Milliways actually came to mind first along with “The Prancing Pony” from Fellowship of the Ring.
Just don’t sleep it off on the ground floor rooms.
I’ve had dinner in the pub that is supposed to have been the inspiration for the Prancing Pony. No hobbits, but the beer and food were good after a day of rainy country walks.
Milliway’s is a restaurant that has a bar, presumably for patrons to hang out while waiting for a table. It is not explicitly stated whether the bar is accessible to folks who aren’t having dinner, but I think it’s fair to give the benefit of the doubt. I can imagine some sad regulars pounding pan-galactic gargle blasters and gynnan tonnix, waiting for the universe to end again.
I think most of the serious alcoholics hang out at their sister establishment at the other end of time, the Big Bang Burger Bar.
any one? The Boars nest.
the space bar from michael mitnick’s play “spacebar”
my ONE problem with parks and rec is some little shithole town in shithole indiana would NOT have that much cool shit going on. they might have ONE gay bar, but it would be terrible and full of fat bears.
Well now that Pawnee has gotten all gentrified it might be nicer now.
Not as nice as Eagleton of course
It’s all Pawnee now! Bwhaha take your cancelled dressage department and shove it.
Pawnee isn’t actually that small of a town. I once figured out that it had to have at least $50,000 people in it
im from green bay. 100K+ when i was young in the 90s. 0% chance it would have any of this.
Not the stuff from later seasons, definitely. But the bar Andy was playing in when he and Ann started the breakup, or the one he tried to get into with April, could definitely exist. And Schindler’s Lunch, of course.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you hadn’t had your coffee yet when you wrote that…
Two cups actually. Unfortunately it takes me 3 or 4 to get my act together.
I love this post so much, I want to gay marry it.LOVE WINS
Wow, those are some pricey hookers.
Yet I ain’t met one worth 2 cents.
They do have a gay bar. It was called the Bulge and it looked like a fun time, at least when 2 male penguins are getting married.
I’d be curious to try out Essence in Eagleton, not a huge drinker anymore (especially with the diabeetus) so I’d be willing to try different means of getting alcohol into my body.
This 1000x. I love Parks and Rec, but even in the early seasons when Pawnee was supposedly at its shithole-iest, it had more going for it than like 85% of actual Rust Belt towns.
All the filming in Studio City really threw some incongruous stuff into that show.
Pawnee isn’t actually supposed to be a particularly small town. It’s stated that it’s the seventh-largest city in Indiana, with about 80,000 people in it.
Pawnee is actually modeled after Muncie IN, in fact the map of Pawnee seen often in the Parks Dept is the map of Muncie turned upside down.
I spent a day in Muncie once and it was exactly one day too long, I remember there being nothing to do but lots of places to eat (no Paunch Burger though).
I live in a shithole Indiana town. We used to have Hickory Hiram’s (named after a Stan Laurel character prior to being partnered with Oliver Hardy), long gone now. There was a selection of beers that was rather impressive, and if you could drink one of each, you drank there for free.
Management had a few restrictions:
1) You could not pass out.2) You could not vomit.3) They picked the sample order. Guinness was always the last.Apparently a few made it there but my favored stout ended everyone.
terrible and full of fat bears. Choose one. Not both.
The Restuarant at the End of Universe for a Pan Galactic Gargal Blaster
Would you eat some of the really excited cow?
It seems The Restaurant has isolated the vore gene and implanted it into species that have never heard of the internet, the twisted bastards.
The cow could make excellent recommendations on the cuts of him I should eat…
I was hoping somebody would pick this.
that was gunna be my answer
Lest we forget the Big Bang Burger Bar…
The bar in The Continental from John Wick, which probably has a name I’m too lazy to look for. If I was there, it would mean I’m an ultra-cool assassin in a parallel world. The rest is details.
That place has RULES, you know.
My membership can be by mine own hand be revoked.
The only answer is the Regal Beagle.
Correct answer.Back in college, an older friend of a friend set up her garage as a Regal Beagle replica. Fucking incredible.
I’m going to assume Doctor Cerberus’ Bookstore from Sabrina on Netflix turns into a bar a night. That looks like my kinda place.
Jackys 33 from Dr. Katz. Just hanging out with Julie, Stanley and the Doc. Listening to pure gold nonsense.
Right. And it’s pretty much the only place you can get away from that nutjob BEN.
I can’t believe someone else remembers “My Boys” fondly. It was one of my favorite shows and nobody I ask ever seems to have heard of it or watched it.
You, me, and Gwen, apparently. God I love that show. The fact that it isn’t streaming on Netflix anymore is upsetting.
I got them on DVD a while back before I became familiar with streaming services. Now I’m glad I did even though I use them now.
Top 5 Bars I’d Drink At: 1. Cheers2. Quark’s3. McClaren’s Pud4. Paddy’s Pub5. That saloon in Back To The Future Part 3
Also, Phil’s from Murphy Brown is my alternate if none of those are open.
3. McClaren’s Pud“This drink tastes like dick.” 🙂
QUARK’S. YES.
Yes to Quark’s, and I also agree with 10 Forward as a great choice, because Whoopi Goldberg rocks a wimple and platter hat like no one else!
Either bar means I’m living in Star Trek’s future. Whether I would prefer Quark’s or Ten Forward would really depend on how I felt about Cardassians and the Dominion.
That’s a solid list. I’d prefer Quark’s to 10 Forward. Quark’s had games and shady dealings while 10 Forward had all the atmosphere of a cheap airport lounge. Which is ironic, as Quark’s was functionally an airport lounge.
Reading the other answers in the article, I was completely led away from Quark’s. That’s weird, because it’s the only one I’ve actually been in. Let’s add Vic’s Las Vegas Lounge, may it run forever in Quark’s holosuite.
Yes, while 10 Forward would be great, Quark’s would be more fun.
Boars nest #2
The correct answer is: Mos Eisley CantinaYou spend anytime there, you’re gonna see some shit.
From the looks of the place, that’s what you’d be drinking, too.
I’ll be careful.
Are you kidding me!? It’s a shithole bar on a shithole planet! It’s dangerous as fuck! And, the band sucks!
While I completely agree with you, we are not using the word “shithole’ anymore.
You may not be, but I will say shithole until I go to the fucking grave!!!!
So be it. But best not to use the phrase if you are ever in Haiti or El Salvador.
Yeah, I’ve been to enough dangerous bars that I would go there for a drink at least once. And if I’m lucky, I hope I will get to go to the Star Wars Land cantina at Disney World and get the alcohol without the danger. Thank you for showing the clip where Han Solo is the only person who shoots. There is no “Han Solo shoots first” because there is no second shot. It is just straight up Han Solo blasting a killer for hire specifically so that there is no chance for Greedo to fire a shot. Also, this is the scene that introduces Han Solo to the audience, and it made a hell of a first impression.
The correct answer is: Mos Eisley CantinaAre you fucking kidding me? It’s a hive of scum and villainy!
and intergalactic sluts but those scenes were left on the cutting room floor.
While the Mos Eisley Cantina and Korova Milk Bar are strong candidates, nothing tops Hell’s Club
That’s pretty fucking good.
Lord, I just went through parts 1.5 & 2 as well. 1’s the slickest but Part 2 comes alive half way through with the Alien attack.
The Golden Horn from Barfly. “A Friendly Place”.
https://brewingdebate.kinja.com/big-eds-the-bar-behind-the-golden-horn-1827595225Good choice. Big Ed’s in reality and seen in many movies and TV shows.
Came here to say the same. Wasn’t disappointed.
Any bar Don Draper and Roger Sterling are hanging out in.Or, the bar where Don and Ted Chaugh hatched the pitch for Chevy. (Note, they’d have to be there as it seems rather dead otherwise).
There’s actually an employee’s only bar located in the ad agency Mad Men is based off of. Clients and friends can only get in with an invite.
When you think about it, Don’s office is pretty much a bar….
So – all the bars in NY….
The one with Don and Ted was in Detroit…..
There are many but the first two that come to mind are:Marion’s place in Nepal from Raiders of the Lost Arkand The Gem from DeadwoodI like the diviest of the dives, what can I say.
Yeah, I was going to say Marion’s but then I always remember that dang blizzard draft that comes through whenever someone opens the door :/
The Gem! Yeah the chances of running into Swearinger would more than make up for the likelihood of getting shot/contracting syphilis.
Or, the dreaded getting shot while getting syphilis.
Ah, the Gem: where the pussy is half price and the peaches are gratis.
free gratis
free fuckin’ gratis
WELCOME TO FUCKIN’ DEADWOOD! Can be combative.
And smallpox vaccines are free gratis.
Marion’s bar burned in a mysterious fire, unfortunately.
She never did collect on the insurance…“Nazis? Surrrre…”
I second the Gem.Marion’s burned down. Didn’t you hear?
Goldshire Tavern. I’ve already spent way, way too much time there.
Long as it’s not an RP server. God help the man who switches on a UV lamp in that place.
Do not go into the rooms upstairs…Iv been and needed an adult after.
The Double Deuce anyone?Or Mos Eisley Cantina, or Moes, or Sister Margaret’s School for Wayward Girls, or Paddys. Maybe I just have a thing for dive bars.
Was waiting for the Double Douche. Thank you.
The World’s End from Sandman probably takes the cake for me.
That reminded me of the one John Constantine ends up in at the end of Hellblazer, sure you’re stuck there forever but with John present you’d at least hear some pretty entertaining stories.
The Winchester. Heard a lot about this Big Al guy.
Shaun Of The Dead or Minder?
The Brick.
Made my list.
Tried to find a better pic of the interior but the internet is failing me. That’s the movies, Ed, try reality. No, thanks.
I gave the same answer 8 minutes after yours totally by coincidence. Excellent taste you have there!
No Strangefellows in the Nightside? (Also includes a high likelihood of death.)
You don’t see it that often, but The Wobbly Elm from Schitt’s Creek seems like a fun roadside dive.
Dude, Biers for sure. Hang out with a bunch of monsters, don’t let anyone talk shit about Mrs. Gammage.
Biers, or the Mended Drum? The Librarian tends to hang out at the latter, and I hear he’s a good conversationalist. Ook.
Sure, but I know for a fact that six drinks in I’d hit on Angua or Susan, and I don’t need that kind of ass-whuppin’.
Any bar that Brockmire is hanging out at, really.
Jilly Rizzo’s Bar and Grill in The Manchurian Candidate – perfect for a game of solitaireThe Tataglia bar in The Godfather – risk of garroting aside, it looks like they would serve a perfect ManhattanThe Ritz bar in Fitzgerald’s “Babylon Revisited” – to toast the end of the Jazz Age
Paddy’s Pub. Want an ominous feeling that you could get stabbed at any moment.
If Rickety Cricket is around, you can do a lot worse then get stabbed.
Anywhere that the chubby mustachioed guy is not gyrating to his utter lack of rhythm..
I’d say the pub in Hot Fuzz. I prefer cozy wooden stained glass ambience, where you can grab a pint and a bowl of something hearty
Cranberry juice for me, please.
Obviously the Milk Bar in West Clock Town from Majora’s Mask. Where I get to be a one-man band.Also, Cheers from Cheers.
Does Bob’s Burgers count? They served beer that one episode.
That might be “Speakeasy Rider,” one of my favorite episodes of one of my favorite series, in which Teddy starts supplying the restaurant with his home brew, Teddy’s Brewski. The restaurant regularly serves bottled beer otherwise, though, like in “Ear-sy Rider,” when we first meet the One-Eyed Snakes after they intervene on Louise’s behalf to get her rabbit ears back from Logan. The One-Eyed Snakes are having a funeral for Horny Dave next door at Mort’s, and afterwards they pour into Bob’s Burgers and drink the restaurant dry.
Yeah the one where they serve the homebrew is the one I read referencing, and they claim to be baking their own bread to try and trick Hugo.
Love it. Love the go-cart race a-plot with the kids, love the b-plot with Bob and Hugo. Hugo saying, “And I’ll be back to try that bread, Bob—and you better have sausages!” and Bob’s screaming back, “We’ll have it!” still makes me laugh every time.
They have beer on the menu, too.
The Ragged Flagon from Skyrim or Quark’s from Deep Space Nine.
Quite obviously the Snakehole Lounge. Dance up on me, Jean-Ralphio.Not sure if this one counts as it’s technically not fictional (although it has since been demolished), but I’d kick it all day at the Cockatoo Inn, the bar where Jackie Brown takes Ordell Robbie in ‘Jackie Brown’. Love its old-school 70s cool. Red carpeting, brick and wood, stained glass, dark red lighting at night, ashtrays on every table, super dope. I’ll be in a booth.I suppose I’d hang at the House of Blue Leaves from ‘Kill Bill’, too, but I’d most likely get in a fight there. There aren’t really 88 of them. They just call themselves that because they think it sounds cool.
Does the Diogenes Club count? I just love the idea of a place I can go to be around other people, read, sip brandy by a fire, and enjoy the fact that everyone is required to shut the fuck up.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned The Drones yet. That usually gets brought up by someone. Maybe the Wodehouse fans didn’t survive the Kinjapocalypse.
Seeing as how I’m female, plebeian, and poor, I’m pretty sure that the Drones wouldn’t let me in the door. Nor am I entirely sure that I’d fit in at a club where throwing soft-boiled eggs at the electric fan is, canonically, an accepted method of passing the time. 🙂
Uh, “The Griffin” is a real bar in LA where they filmed exteriors for “New Girl.”
Quark’s > Ten Forward
The Rovers Return. Sure it’s not cool to watch Coronation Street anymore, if it ever was, but there aren’t many shows around that I have such a history with. I’ve been watching on and off for nearly forty years. Even if it’s frequently crap, it’s still where I would like to visit.
I’d just never live there, because odds are I’d either be murdered or falsely imprisoned or have my baby stolen by someone who lost their own child and went nuts. (Seriously, I have lost count of how often they have used that plot, but it pops up every few years. Right now there’s a couple on the street who have both done it, as well a character who was the first baby to suffer it and had her own baby stolen.)
Definitely the Rovers over the Queen Vic, though what shall we do without Betty’s hotpot?
The pub from Goodnight Sweetheart.
I still remember the old, pre-Kinja, sucked but not as sucky as the AV Club is now…AV Club where one of the writers would’ve said Mos Eisley Cantina or Cheers. I still remember that time but that time is no more obviously. How am I supposed to put any faith into anything you twitwads write if you can’t even get those two into your list?I’m outraged.
There was definitely some pretty random choices on here. I didn’t even know the bar from New Girl had a name!
The pub that Jeremy and Super Hans co-owned on Peep Show:
Sha-Booms, with Kenny Powers and Clegg.
OMG. The tavern from From Dusk Til Dawn. 10/10
Contrary to what Sex Machine thinks, they have an awesome band.
The Stardrop Saloon from Stardew Valley. Really, I just want to live in Pelican Town.
I quit drinking, but I’d love to go to Jack Rabbit Slims to eat and have a $5 milkshake.
Rick’s. Casablanca. I look good in Black & White
I’m amazed that this one did not come up first with the most.
They didn’t mention Caritas either, so…
You can pick any bar from any fictional universe and you pick the oe with just as many nazis as we have right now?
At least they can sing!
Well, if they sell OE it can’t be all bad.
Well, at least they’re fictional Nazis.
I think Major Strasser and co. had only recently arrived when the movie takes place, if I recall correctly, which admittedly I might not.
At least he picked Casablanca instead of Barb Wire.
My kind of elitist behavior.“Your money’s good at the bar.”“Do you know who I am??”
“I do. You’re lucky your money is good at the bar.”
Of all the gin joints in all towns in the world….
I’m shocked, shocked! To discover that no one picked this.
The show’s been over for 5 years, and wasn’t really good after season 3, but I’m gonna go with Fangtasia. Pam and Eric were the only consistently good pairing on True Blood. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with a viking vampire and his sassy lesbian progeny?
Similar to the bar in The Deuce, I would go with Lieutenant Dan’s 70’s bar in Forrest Gump. There’s something about a dark, grimy bar that calls out to my inner demons.
Fantastic music scene considering it’s in North Central Washington State.
I promise you, there is nothing you can do right now that will be better than listening to Lizzy Descloux’s “Hard Boiled Babe” while watching that Ron Swanson GIF.
My true alcoholic self says it has to be Trees Lounge.
My first thought. I’m 4 years dry tomorrow, and I still miss places like that.
Yeah either Puzzles or The Griffin.
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I want to spend some time with the chalk board in “The Ends of the Earth”, located on Looking Glass Key…
yeah, it’s the snakehole lounge, hands down.
The Flying Swan, for a pint of Large. I have the exact amount ready….
I think I would like hanging around HIMYM’s main bar, McLaren’s. The center booth is apparently always available, the bartenders trust you and probably give you a lot of buybacks even after you’ve pulled all sorts of shenanigans, and there’s apparently a large enough turnover of customers that there’s never a scorched-earth scenario where you can’t go back because too many people have seen your shtick (always a danger when you have a regular bar.)
Cocktail Lounge on the spaceship Avalon
These days I am inclined to drink alone, preferably 3,000 light years away from planet Earth.
The Bamboo Lounge in Goodfellas. All the best people hang out there.
Jack’s Crocodile Bar, American Gods. Odin’s money’s no good if I’m there.
The Titty Twister… But only for a quick happy hour, then duck out early before the main act takes the stage.
And miss Salma Hayek dance????
Priorities.
Exactly. 🙂
Bar from Superman III. Seeing that greasy, stained House of El chump gorge on stale peanuts, drink rot got, and generally look like that piece of crap he is.Source of total fun for me.
There’s an episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” called ‘Lou’s Place’ in which Lou Grant buys his favorite neighborhood bar after it’s owner dies (only to realize the joint itself was also dying). A neighborhood Minneapolis bar in the early 70s peopled with a bunch of old newsmen shooting the shit sounds like heaven. Otherwise, the old bar Dana Andrews and Frederic March go to get tanked in from “The Best Years of Our Lives”, the one where Hoagy Carmichael is the piano player.
The Prancing Pony
The Barrel because Jaye Tyler hangs out there.
The Barrel because Jaye Tyler hangs out there.
Read most, if not all of the Callahan’s books and really liked them, but there was always something poking at me for not loving them. I finally realized that there is a strong undercurrent of libertarian smugness that really irritated me. Gave them up.
No one said “Cheers”? What the fuck?
The Regal Beagle or Joe’s Bar on the Galactica.
1. The Dude and Catastrophe.2. Anywhere else.
I’ve
have to bring some friends and we’d all have to pack some heat to
go there, but there’s:Very
important to sit close to the door too.
This may not mean much to most of you, but Catherine’s Bar in Death in Paradise would have to be my choice.
Sadly disappointed that no SP family said Harvelle’s Road House.
Surprised nobody said Paddy’s Irish Pub (although amusingly, someone actually did mention the garish, vapid bar from the episode where they try to win an award, which for a site that’s clearly currently trying to reach a more mainstream audience in a way that ultimately pleases no one, couldn’t be a more apt metaphor). I love going to dive bars, and Paddy’s is a place where it would be fun to go catch a buzz and watch the the gang bicker with each other as they hatch various schemes. Cheers is another great, if obvious, choice. There actually is a real Cheers: it’s on Beacon Hill in Boston. They filmed all their exterior shots at a bar called the Bull & Finch Pub, but due to the enduring popularity of the show, they made the obvious choice to rename the bar Cheers in 2002.
SCUMM Bar from Monkey Island. Great place. Free grog. Also I want to find out about LOOM.
The one from Kubrick’s film of The Shining
1.) The traveling jazz club/speakeasy from the episode “Hashtag FOMO” of Broad City. If only because I’d like to meet Val.2.) the bar V.I Warshawski hangs out at, near her office in the Pulteney Building. I can’t remember the name.
Sister Margaret’s from Deadpool. All the amenities and good work of you need it.
The answer is Paddy’s, always Paddy’s. The gang is most likely too busy arguing, scheming, or off on a zany adventure so I’d be able to serve myself. Plus it’s not crowded, unless they’re doing a fake ID thing, and I appreciate that. Moe’s would be my second choice.
Moe’s is another big oversight
The dank. The dank!
Not since he took “It’s Raining Men” off the jukebox…
Especially during the “Flaming Moe’s” period of the bar. That place was popping.“Where Liquor in a mug can warm you like a hug, happiness is just a Flaming Moe away.”
Gotta be careful at moes. There might be some illegal stuff in the back with whales.
Arthur C. Clarke’s “White Hart”. Or that place where Frank Sinatra and Harlan Ellison got into it. But only on that night.
The Hotel Adriano where all the sea-plane pilots hang out in Porco Rossohttps://goo.gl/images/xRo9oM
The Zocalo from B5. I remember they had some really shit live entertainment. Would be fascinating on a car wreck level. Also, you’re in space.
Just be careful when Mr. Morden asks ‘What do you want?’
I think it would be fun to get tipsy with Londo.
Another choice: The club where Samuel L Jackson plays in Black Snake Moan
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon
Damn, I had forgotten all about those books. Fun light reading. Not as good as Terry Prachett, but entertaining enough.
Mac’s pub from the Dresden Files novels.
And considered neutral ground by the Accords
There’s only one fictonal bar. Norm!
I’d go The Mended/Broken Drum from the Discworld books. Specifically around about ‘Guards! Guards!’ in the series. At that point, it seems less horrifically violent than it was in ‘Colour of Magic’, but not as gentrified as it appears in the later books.
The city’s most reputable disreputable pub!
The Boars nest, anyone?
Bada bing, no? I have a friend who would love Tracees braces.
Whichever bar admitted Phoenix Wright to practice law.That’s got to be a fun place.
5. Rosa’s Cantina from the song “El Paso”
4. The Brick
3. The Gold Monkey
2. Green Dragon or Prancing Pony
1. Rick’s Cafe Americain
TechNoir. Although sometimes the fights get out of hand.
And Terminators don’t even drink:/
While from the point of view of wanting to be in a particular “Universe”, 10-Forward would be nice, to be honest I think I’d rather be at the follow-up location to Callahan’s, “The Place” located in Key West. Good people, Irish coffee, music, and yes Puns. It’s too bad that Robinson is in poor health, so we haven’t seen any new material in a while.
Second place would be McAnally’s from the Dresden Files series, another author who I’d like to see finish the next damn book in the series. Although, I think I would have to be careful about actually hanging out at McAnally’s without the benefit of some kind of major magical protection/skills. And where’s the damn new Dresden TV series!?! God knows how many years of Supernatural, and we don’t have Dresden?
Spending my formative drinking years in Baltimore, I would vote for Paddy’s. Unlike Paddy’s the dive bars I hung out at had great pub grub and at decent prices.
i didn’t love the movie, but i liked that empty spaceship bar in passengers a lot.
Well, obviously, fun cats like Pratchett or Adams have talked about bars. But I always think about something Denis Johnson said:“The Vine had no jukebox, but a real stereo
continually playing tunes of alcoholic self-pity and sentimental divorce
“Nurse,” I sobbed. She poured doubles like an angel, right up to the
lip of a cocktail glass, no measuring. “ You have a lovely pitching
arm.” You had to go down on them like a hummingbird over a blossom. I
saw her much later, not too many years ago, and when I smiled she seemed
to believe I was making advances. But it was only that I remembered.
I’ll never forgot you. Your husband will beat you with an extension cord
and the bus will pull away leaving you standing there in tears, but you
were my mother.”
Do hotel bars count? If yes, then the Marbella Hotel Bar in Jane the Virgin. Murder, musical guests, and wrestling matches, it’s never boring.
What Fictional Bar Would You Want To Hang Out AtName Every Bar From Famous Sitcoms
It wasn’t even close for me:
The first, the best and only answer:
The pilot movie of Magnum, P.I. has an homage with Rick’s bar. He even wears a white tux.
On a regular binge night – CheeersThose other nights
The Brick from Northern Exposure, obviously. A bar filled with burly, odd characters with crazy stories who sit around and talk about philosophy in a bar in Alaska all winter. That’s the only right answer here. BTW, if you’re in a utopian future, flying through space and you want to spend your time in the workplace lounge, that is the wrong answer!
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&authuser=0&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=663&ei=nNiNXL7GAZCZ5gLl7ZWYBw&q=sam+elliott+the+big+lebowski&oq=sam+elliott+the+big&gs_l=img.1.1.0l2j0i24.2744.14475..18233…0.0..0.133.1528.15j4……1….1..gws-wiz-img…..0.fubkMwxWndM#imgrc=Xd6Ylo8IOgNxQM:
The first thing that popped into my head was Harvelle’s from Supernatural. A total dive frequented by grizzled monster hunters and run by an extremely hot, take no shit middle aged woman is my idea of heaven.
The OJ from Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder novels. It’s a seedy New York bar, but the storeroom in the back is the site where Dortmunder’s crew plans their capers (which pay off pretty well about half of the time).
Very nice. Draft beer and salt is already in the back room with the bottle. Made good time.
The driver, Stan, always babied a beer with salt to keep the head up because he had to drive home across a bizarre route that he’d spent a long time considering. Dortmunder and Kelp always drank “Amesterdam Liquor Store Bourbon – Our Own Brand” when they were planning a job. One of the stories features John going down into the OJ’s basement and being disturbed to find a barrel full of the stuff.
I love Stan. One of the recent books I read had the mob take over the OJ, and the gang find it impossible to plan anywhere else, so they have to get the bar back before they can do the caper.
I like Tiny. Just a huge guy walking down the street stealing cars by picking them up and putting them on flatbeds. It’s the last place you’d expect to find a reference to it, but the Saints Row games have a character, Oleg, in one of them that’s an 8 foot tall giant Russian who has too many similarities to be just a generic big Russian stereotype.
Red wine and vodka. Tiny is very funny.
Plus Rollo may not know your name, but he always knows your drink.
Following Caitlin’s example, I’ll pick one from fantasy lit too: McAnally’s Pub from The Dresden Files. It has the kind of aesthetic and subduedness that I so love, plus a bartender that doesn’t bother you, knows his steaks and really knows his beer. And knowing you’re safe from any supernatural warring is a nice plus too. The Eolian would be a good second if I didn’t get a huge tryhard and hipster vibe from how that place is described. I’d probably get scoffed away from that place by people much cooler than me.
As a single man I have to nominate Pavlov’s Bar on Two & A Half Men and as a single man in 2019 I must do so without further comment.
Either Bob’s Country Bunker or the Double Deuce.
Hell’s Club https://vimeo.com/137961348
Only if you survive.
I thought the bar from Horace and Pete would be kinda cool. Old timey (if there’s a dart board…)
Will I have to watch some guy jerk off while I’m there?
I trust Steve Buscemi to keep Louis CK in check.
Anyone else shocked that Sam doesn’t like to leave the house? lulz…
How about McAnally’s from the Dresden Files?
Nnobody mentioned The Mended Drum in Ankh Morpork? Sit there long enough and every hero on the disk will appear and try to steal your horse.
The Winchester. Great clientele and a phenomenal jukebox. (Cuppa F bombs, some of us use it as an adjective after all, so maybe NSFW)
Paddy’s is the right answer…
This one!
What about Quark’s from Deep Space Nine
and The Mariposa from Westworld?
One of the many “Bars with No Name.” Sure you risk the very good chance of being caught up in a fight, a firebombing, several drive-bys, and an apocalypse or two, but the stories are always awesome or at least awesomely pathetic.
Regal Beagle??
Double Deuce? Roadhouse anyone?
Shorty’s From Wynnona EarpSullivan & Son from the eponymously named showThe Warsaw Tavern from the Drew Carey ShowNoonan’s Bar from The Flash comic books (where all his Rogues hung out)Moe’s Tavern for the Skittlebrau
Definitely The Warsaw Tavern
Munden’s Bar in Cynosure….
Obviously Rick’s Cafe Americain.
The Crow and Crown from Withnail and I. No man has put me down yet.
I raise a pint in solidarity; I would be a very happy and well-boozed writer if I could hang out a Callahan’s. Not sure how well I could handle drinking and socializing at the successor, Mary’s Place, down in Key West, but it would be wonderful to visit there, too, and find out…
Not actually a bar I’d want to visit, but I’ve always loved Sinner’s Inn.(Volume Warning, couldn’t find a better version.)
Moe’s Obviously. Less obviously “One Eyed Jack’s”
There’s just something so damn compelling about the bar in The Shining – makes you wanna sell your soul for a glass of beer….
The Villain Pub, as seen on the YouTube Channel “How It Should Have Ended” – though I doubt they’d let me in.
The bar from Ally McBeal. Live music, lots of rich lawyers, and Sting might show up!
Can’t believe Parks and Rec fans picked The Snakehole Lounge over whatever jazz club Duke Silver is playing at on a particular evening
“Natalies” from New York Undercover.All kinds of legends ran through that place.
I’m torn between Draco’s Tavern and The Mended Drum.
How does Ten-Forward beat out Quark’s on this list? I need just a little grit in my post-scarcity utopia.
I am a sucker for a good dive bar and I would probably love to visit Paddy’s, but two other bars where I would love to get a drink are Caritas, the karaoke bar from Angel and The Barrel, the local Niagara Falls bar from Wonderfalls. Who wouldn’t want to watch some demons sing their heart’s out and I could do with a little advice about my future, and maybe a little deformed wax lion might start talking to me as well.
Quark’s Bar on ST: Deep Space 9. I had my wedding reception at a facsimile of it at the Las Vegas Hilton on 2006, and it was great. Yet, to be served drinks by Quark himself and have Leeta as our Dabo girl would have be so much more awesome.
The Winchester from Shaun of the Dead.
Does the bar at the bowling alley in the Big Lebowski count as an actual bar ?
The leaky Cauldron is high up there. Maybe the Waystone inn Tavern.
Platform One (Dr. Who)The Founding Fathers (Bones)The Crash-n-Burn Bar (Star Trek: First Contact)Deep Space Station K7 (The Trouble with Tribbles)Purgatory (Real Genius)
The Brick from Northern Exposure