Hank’s Bar
840 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
map

Downtown is no longer the desolate place it once was.  In years past, the empty spaces between the skyscrapers were more reminiscent of the American Southwest with silent breezes echoing between empty plazas.  Today the hubbub of modern life has encroached, with kids from the suburbs shivering in lines outside of trendy nightclubs on Spring Street and searchlights seek meaning above LA Live.

There are a few nooks which still evoke the days of old downtown, and Hank’s Bar is one of these.  It sits in the base of the seedy Stillwell Hotel, our second Hotel adjacent bar in as many dive bar outings.  While just a stones throw from FDIM students picking out low fat salad dressing at the downtown Ralphs or v-neck t-shirts ordering cocktails at a 7th Street nuevo lounges, Hank’s bar has a spot at the bar for the working class patron who just wants a bud light, free popcorn, and a few songs on the jukebox.  While it has been over two years since we have visited Hank’s, it still has ‘Yesterdays Charm’ as the bar’s motto states.

And best of all, two years ago in the small fish tank behind the bar, a young turtle swam endlessly against the flow of the recirculating pump - reminiscent of those old dive bars such as Charlie O’s and Crabby Joes who were powerless to resist the gentrification of the downtown scene.  Today, thankfully, the turtle is fully grown, and Hank’s is still with us.  May it always be so.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em,

Travis, Brian, and Neil; hosts

for The World Dive Bar Tour Executive Committee

“Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache”

Ajahn Chah

Back Door Pub
813 South Flower Street
Los Angeles, CA 90017
map

Often on the Tour we escort our debauched devotees to dive bar landmarks. On a rare occasion, however, we have the pleasure to introduce our well-versed followers to a true unknown.

This week we venture into a recessed corner of downtown to check into the Back Door Pub at the Milner Hotel. With an entrance located off of the alley, this dreary dispensary of domestic lager is not your typical hotel bar. And why would it be? The Milner doesn’t really attract the convention crowd, choosing instead to advertise its accommodations through scanned photographs of hand-written customer surveys on its website. Feedback includes something that reads like “Feculent Hotel,” but upon further inspection is actually “Excellent Hotel.”

Very reassuring.

Navigate the hotel’s rear alley entrance (or, for the less adventurous, the main lobby entrance) and you’ll find that the Back Door Pub is neither a pub, nor directly accessible through the back door. Rather, the entry is located in the middle of a hallway and the bar itself feels a lot like an unfinished basement. But what it lacks in decoration it makes up for in dive bar comforts. Take for the example the self-serve popcorn machine, or the jukebox in the entry way greeting you like an old friend. There’s even a Golden Tee machine shoe-horned into a shadowy corner. Did I mention two for $5 on beer and wine for $2 a glass? Whiskey is cheap, too, and it’s served by a fresh-faced bartender who should be showing you his ID. Nevertheless, the service is adequate and seating is plentiful so invite your friends over for a nightcap at the Back Door Pub.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own and we’ll find you.

Carpe Drink’em,

Neil, host

for The World Dive Bar Tour Executive Committee

“Cause I’m a back door man/The men don’t know/But the little girls understand” – Willie Dixon, as interpreted by Jim Morrison

]]> http://www.worlddivebartour.com/v1/2011/09/26/september-28th-2011-back-door-pub/feed/ http://www.worlddivebartour.com/v1/2011/05/31/june-8th-2011-tony%e2%80%99s-saloon/ http://www.worlddivebartour.com/v1/2011/05/31/june-8th-2011-tony%e2%80%99s-saloon/#comments Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:56:55 +0000 World Dive Bar Tour http://www.worlddivebartour.com/v1/2011/06/01/wednesday-june-8th-tony%e2%80%99s-saloon/ WEDNESDAY, June 8th, 2011

Tony’ Saloon
2017 E. 7th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90021
map

This Wednesday the tour will throw Los Angeles a bone. Or more specifically, throw the Los Angeles bar scene a bone. As a careful reader of this humble newsletter and as a casual attendee of the tour you will likely know that we consistently rage, rage against the dying of the light. For each dive bar where the spark of perfect accessibility is fed into the incinerator of velvet ropes, doormen, and cocktails sporting infusions of acai berries, we shed a tear and often light a few devotional candles to St. Petersburg del Florida, the patron saint of dive bars.

This week we visit Tony’s Saloon, which is not really a dive, but more of a neo-dive. Owned by the same group behind The Golden Gopher and Seven Grand, Tony’s is located at the far eastern extent of the normal dive bar territories, well off the beaten path, in the midst of the confounding hybrid industrial trendy loft landscape between Skid Row and the Los Angeles river. Tony’s offers a quality pool table, darts, and a ping pong table on the patio. There is free parking in the lot right next to the bar, but carpool if you plan on attempting to make your way through the whiskey list…. as it is much longer than those offered at our usual dives.

And, if the scene is just way too upstanding for your taste, feel free to head back west on 7th street a few blocks to Campers Corner; a dive so deep it doesn’t even have a yelp review to its name and may also be a check cashing service. We might just decline to join ya.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you, if the friendly regulars don’t find you first).

Carpe Drink’em!

"Everyone kept telling me, ‘Just be yourself. Be yourself.’ I kept thinking, there’s got to be more to it than that!" -Tony Danza

Casey’s Irish Pub
613 South Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
map

What can be said about a country that hasn’t produced anything? To be fair, western civilization might have been saved when the Germans went on their original war holiday through Italy and Gaul. A more modern scribe gave us a great story about a dedalus and a treatise on gibberish. There is also a famous band that, you too might know, although I still haven’t found the name I am looking for. These minor things aside, Ireland has only produced one thing: Irish. They stick to what they do best.

This week, the World Dive Bar Tour pays its annual tribute to Saint Patrick. We shall drink their beer. We shall sing of Ire. We shall stare at the corned beef. We shall be Irish.

On Thursday.

But the WDBT only works on Wednesday (and one Saturday a year), so, we will be raising a pint a day early at Casey’s Irish Pub in Downtown. Our stop, sits under the sidewalk of Grand Avenue. Down the stairs and through the doors lies a warm, wood paneled lair of the familiar. Sneak in an extra day of Irish this year, pull up a chair, have a sip of Guinness and tell a story.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own we’ll find you.

Is fearr de thú Guinness,

Carpe Drink’em,

Brian and Travis, hosts

for The World Dive Bar Tour Executive Committee

This stop is one of a three part Underground Series. Casey’s is literally underground but we will be a be more metaphorical in the weeks ahead. On March 30th, we will be going to a seafood restaurant that only serves beer, veggies and peanuts. And, it is not to be found on internet(s). It might be a Central American gay bar; we’re just not sure.

Tony’s Saloon
2017 E. 7th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90021
map

This Wednesday the tour will throw Los Angeles a bone. Or more specifically, throw the Los Angeles bar scene a bone. As a careful reader of this humble newsletter and as a casual attendee of the tour you will likely know that we consistently rage, rage against the dying of the light. For each dive bar where the spark of perfect accessibility is fed into the incinerator of velvet ropes, doormen, and cocktails sporting infusions of acai berries, we shed a tear and often light a few devotional candles to St. Petersburg del Florida, the patron saint of dive bars.

This week we visit Tony’s Saloon, which is not really a dive, but more of a neo-dive. Owned by the same group behind The Golden Gopher and Seven Grand, Tony’s is located at the far eastern extent of the normal dive bar territories, well off the beaten path, in the midst of the confounding hybrid industrial trendy loft landscape between Skid Row and the Los Angeles river. Tony’s offers a quality pool table, darts, and a ping pong table on the patio. There is free parking in the lot right next to the bar, but carpool if you plan on attempting to make your way through the whiskey list…. as it is much longer the those offered at our usual dives.

And, if the scene is just way to upstanding for your taste, feel free to head back west on 7th street a few blocks to Campers Corner; a dive so deep it doesn’t even have a yelp review to its name and may also be a check cashing service. We might just decline to join ya.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you, if the friendly regulars don’t find you first).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & where the hell is Travis? - WDBT Co-czars

"Everyone kept telling me, Just be yourself. Be yourself. I kept thinking, there’s got to be more to it than that!" -Tony Danza

Shatto 39 Lanes
3255 West 4th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90020
map

This week the World Dive Bar Tour takes its annual rite of spring, the bowling night. While our exploration of the Los Angeles dive bar bowling alley has ranged far and wide, from joints named ‘Mar Vista’, ‘Midtown’, and ‘Bay Shore’, it has never led us to this corner of Los Angeles. Yes, Shatto 39 Lanes is one of the first destinations for the tour directly adjacent to Little Bangladesh*. For the whole story on Little Bangladesh, you’ll just have head on down to the the bowling alley so we can give ya the scoop. In addition to exhaustive explanations of neighborhood politics and low impact intrigue, Shatto Lanes offers cheap bowling in a wonderful 60’s styled decor (which was installed in the 60’s when it was just plain old decor), a full bar with inexpensive Oat Sodas and Caucasians, a collection of vintage arcade games, and diverse cross-section of Angelenos including the aforementioned Bangladeshis.

Free parking is available in the garage, and is likely the most shady element to encounter. We would also encourage all bar goers to check out the neighborhood nearby where in addition to the pulse of Bhangra there is a literal menagerie of sights, sounds, and flavors.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you, if the friendly regulars don’t find you first).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis - WDBT Co-czars

*neighborhood designation still pending

Proposed Name of Community: "Little Bangladesh"
Street Boundaries / Area: "Area surrounded by Wilshire Blvd, Western Ave, 3rd St., and Vermont Avenue."
Reason for name change: "We have a lot of people of our Bangladesh commnity living within that boundary."

-from City of Los Angeles application to name or rename communities

Bar 107
107 4th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
map

This week, the World Dive Bar Tour heads downtown to visit one of the dwindling holds in this once-beleaguered city center. Wasn’t it just yesterday that any adventurous soul could find themselves downtown, tiptoe around questionable sidewalks, and duck into a dark establishment to find a cheap drink within easy reach? Now there is a different movement afoot around our historic core, one which requires dress codes, cover charges and lines of credit; things well beyond the scope of our Wednesday night mandate.

Luckily, when converted from an old Latino gay bar several years ago to its present state, Bar 107 eschewed any of the trappings of gentrification and instead installed copious amounts of taxidermy, a 50’s style jukebox, mildly pornographic bible art, an extremely large doorman (if we are lucky), a few old school video games, a photo booth in the backroom, and tall cans of fine macro-brews (such as Pabst, Tecate, and rumblings of Olympia) for just a few dollars. While all this might seem like a bit much rest assured that it all hangs together for a ramshackle good time.

An item of note: the weekends can get a bit busy, with a DJ often spinning for the dance floor, sometimes a cover at the door, and as the bar is the official after party destination of the Los Angeles Derby Dolls.

As it is our compulsion to visit such dives mid-week, we will miss such distractions and should expect plenty of room in the comfortable booths for a relaxing drink or two. As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM an gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em,
Alex, Damien, & Travis - WDBT Co-Czars

"One Hundred And Seven is the 28th Prime Number"
- Wikipedia

Lotus Lounge
1135 N. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
map

There are times when this city can still surprise and delight. It’s the feeling one gets in a slightly grimy neighborhood, which you have passed through hundreds of times, when you wander in a slightly grimy doorway, which you have never before noticed, and find a dive bar that warmly welcomes you and serves up the most inexpensive pitcher of beer seen in years. It is harder and harder to uncover a new dive never before seen on the tour, but this week we will bring such a bar into the fold.

This week sets us down smack in the middle of town, on axis with the great dive bar heaven of San Pedro and somewhere between the neighborhoods we often call "east" and "west." The bar is just a block from a stop on our often neglected subway system between downtown and the valley. It is just a stones throw away from the 24 hour Mexican restaurant known affectionately as ‘The Gran’. A pitcher of beer will set you back just 12 dollars. There is a dart board, a pool table and over sized 80’s macro-brew posters all over the walls. If you do decide to drive (rarely has a dive bar destination been so accessible to public transportation) you will find copious amounts of street parking and a small lot in the back. Stay long enough and you might find yourself in a crackpot conversation about the economic future of the United States of America with a nice old-timer. With all these factors taken into account, I am beginning to think the Lotus Lounge could be a lynch-pin of the entire Los Angeles dive bar universe.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM an gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis, WDBT Co-Czars

Hank’s Bar
840 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017

This might be the most important dive bar of the year. It will be the first night after the epic election of 2008, and quite possibly the first dive bar night of a new epoch of humanity. Okay, maybe not an epoch of humanity, but surly a epoch of the next four years. And no matter if you are all about environmental conservation or conservative economic theory, you will find common ground in the conservative prices for your standard mixed drink and support the continued bar’o'diversity of the downtown food-web. No matter if you are way down with unconditional discussion or conditionally applied freedoms, don’t worry your little heart, we will be unconditionally welcomed with the liberty to drink as we please, on the condition we keep up on the tipping schedule. But there is one reminder of the new deal or the welfare state that cannot be ignored. There is free popcorn.

Located to one side of the entrance to the wonderfully shady Stillwell Hotel, Hanks bar was founded in 1959 by its late namesake, Hank Holzer (who unfortunately passed on in 1997), and is a gem of the type. The bar is approximately 8 times longer than it is wide, the TV’s are smaller than a typical shoebox, the jukebox is not connected to the internet, there seems to be a table in the back with a crock-pot, a microwave, a toaster, and a huge supply of mustard, and behind the bar (hopefully staffed by the wonderful Wanda) is the sign ‘Yesterdays Charm’.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis - WDBT Co-czars

Cosmos Saloon
333 E 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

For those who have followed the ebb and flow of dive bar for many years, the name Cosmos might sound very familiar. Last season, on an ill fated full moon, we attempted to visit this fine establishment. Unfortunately for the intrepid group of dive bar goers that night, on the dutch door of the bar entrance a handwritten note was posted. Written mostly Japanese characters, it was the final line in English which hurt the most. "Bar Close Tonight." Those assembled, who had gathered for the promise of a Japanese pre-’scent of a woman’ Al Pacino bartender, karaoke in languages we can’t even speak, and Suntory Whiskey, found solace in a nearby shady hostess bar followed by a local brewery.

On that night, just like General Douglas MacArthur in retreat from the Philippines in the face of Japanese aggression, we of the WDBT vowed to return.

This week marks the day we make good on that promise, and return to Little Tokyo. Where with the help of a few big bottles of Kirin, we will be belting out Japanese pop songs like regulars, smoking an odd cigarette, swapping stories with the old man who always seems to be firmly planted at the bar, and otherwise raising quite a ruckus. Comfortable with the knowledge that in this Cosmos, yes, we can all be a star. Just remember - no dancing.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM an gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you, if the friendly regulars don’t find you first).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis - WDBT Co-czars

"Here we are. Earth. Full of things as usual."

-King of All Cosmos