The 100 Best Dive Bars in the World

1. The 50 #10 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Bar Team – Latin America & Caribbean
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Latin America & Caribbean

Vaughan's is a Bywater dive where the Mardi Gras tinsel never comes down and Thursday nights mean a brass band that doesn't start until 10:30. The red beans and rice are free, which makes it easier to stay on the dance floor with whichever neighborhood regular grabs your hand first. The owners live nearby and have run the place for decades, so the community events and Pride tea dances feel more like hosting than programming.

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
2. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
3. Eater These Are the Very Best Bars in New Orleans

The name comes from an era when locals climbed to the roof to watch atomic test blasts light up the Nevada sky. This old-school bar on Fremont Street has been around forever, and the Rat Pack drank here after their shows, which sets the tone pretty neatly. The red-tinted interior leans into Atomic Age kitsch, sour beers are a specialty, and the patio out back is where late nights tend to end up.

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
2. Time Out The best bars in Las Vegas
3. Eater The Best Bars in Las Vegas

Neon red signs glow against the brick walls of this Soho dive bar tucked down a backstreet off Tottenham Court Road, and the name is the only thing scary about it. The team behind the Cocktail Trading Company runs the room, keeping cocktails at £11 and deliberately un-fussy while landing something that feels like beauty and filth in quiet agreement. Sick tunes, a pet piñata, and no pretension anywhere in sight.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #21 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Denver
3. Eater The Best Bars in Denver

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
2. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
2. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

Poison Girl is a dark, narrow Montrose dive on Westheimer where personal space is treated as a rumor. The bourbon list is deep, but plenty of people at the bar are just ordering Lone Star and nodding at it. Everyone eventually drifts out to the backyard patio, where the evening opens up a little. Dress for sweat and spilled beer, and plan on a cheap tab and a bathroom with a past.

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Houston
3. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

EZ's is a Heights dive bar that has somehow acquired a very good bottle list, so you can pair a pool game and a chili dog with a pour of champagne, or stay loyal to the beer that calls itself the champagne of beers. The jukebox swings from George Strait to DJ Screw without apology. It's suspiciously clean for a dive, but give it time, this is Houston.

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Houston
3. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

The patio seating is made from repurposed toilets and road signs, which tells you everything about the vibe before you've ordered a drink. Double Wide is a Deep Ellum dive bar with a trailer park aesthetic, cheap and stiff pours, and a music venue across the patio hosting bands and DJs on most nights. Wildsam named it one of the 50 most essential bars in America, which somehow feels both surprising and completely correct.

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
3. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Dallas

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
2. Time Out #28 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
2. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
2. Eater These Are the Very Best Bars in New Orleans
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. The 50 #30 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
2. Miami New Times 100 Best Bars in Miami

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

Red lights, pool tables, a game room, and flatbreads until 2 a.m.: The Little Woody refuses to be just one kind of place, and Arcadia has loved it for years because of that. It's a dive bar with cocktail lounge bones, where dart nights blur into dancing and the Gun Shy Sour keeps the bourbon crowd happy. Weekend nights draw a younger crowd who treat the arcade games as warmly as the drinks.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Winner · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience
3. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

Muddy Waters and B.B. King both played this no-frills blues bar near Chinatown, which tells you something about the room. Live music runs every night of the week, and between sets the crowd shoots pool and orders pizza to soak up the local craft beer. The seasonal Halloween and Christmas pop-ups have become their own draw, which is a funny fate for a place with that kind of history, but the bar handles both versions of itself with ease.

1. Eater The Best Bars in Las Vegas
2. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Las Vegas

A tiki bar so small it was once a violin-repair shop, which tells you everything about the square footage and nothing about the ambition. Three generations of the same family have been pouring Mai Tais under the thatched canopy on Sunset since the sixties, and they do not serve beer or wine, so don't ask. Modern tiki bars tend to look like this place photoshopped. The original is still doing it straight.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

Grand Prize is a two-story dive where the interior is blacked out so thoroughly that the neon is mostly there to help you read the drink menu. Happy hour offers a "Happy Meal," which is a beer and a shot, and the pool tables are good for losing to a stranger. The kitchen rotates through bar food, birria tacos one week and chili-cheese dogs the next, and the terrace is where you go to confirm the sun still exists.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Houston
2. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

The stripper pole is decorative, full stop. That's the first thing to know about this Cedars bar, the second being that management wears suits while you eat a roller-grill hot dog next to a cigarette machine. It's dark and a little flirty, with pool and darts keeping things grounded. The dirty martini, made with fresh-pressed olive juice and an anchovy-stuffed olive, does a lot of heavy lifting for a place that also sells boxed candy.

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Bar With a Stripper Pole · Best of Dallas
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The tequila and mezcal list at this Deep Ellum bar is long enough to constitute a philosophical commitment. Ruins leans hard into Latin culture, with original artwork on the walls and cocktails that come with actual folklore attached. The Limbo Room out back hosts live music in close quarters. It reads like a dive bar that got serious about agave spirits without losing the plot.

1. D Magazine #14 · The 50 Best Restaurants
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Voodoo Queen Daiquiri Dive in the East End is a dive bar that also contains an arcade, a po'boy counter, and eight frozen drink machines churning like a laundromat for neon. Pool and air hockey keep the hands busy, and the menu runs to fried shrimp, hush puppies, and tater tots under roast beef. Come in jeans, split a flaming tiki boat with whoever you trust most, and expect to leave with a very green tongue.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Houston
2. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

1. Miami New Times 2025 · Best Bar (Miami) · Best of Miami New Times
2. Eater Miami’s 15 Essential Cocktail Bars
3. Miami New Times 100 Best Bars in Miami

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

Graffiti walls, mismatched furniture made from recycled odds and ends, and a cocktail menu where the drinks have names like Wasabi Wan Kanobi. Two Schmucks, tucked down a side street in El Raval, calls itself a five-star dive bar, which is both accurate and the best possible pitch. Ice-cold beers go out as fast as cocktails, and nobody is keeping score either way.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

The taco truck parked out front sets the tone before you even get inside. Charlie's is an old-school gay bar and dance hall on Camelback with a big outdoor patio, bleacher seating, two bars, and a dance floor that earns its own reputation after midnight on weekends. The calendar runs from drag nights and karaoke to Latin and country two-stepping, so the crowd varies wildly depending on when you show up, which is most of the fun.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Gay Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best After-Hours Dance Spot · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A honky-tonk dive bar on the east side of Phoenix where the lineup might be line dancing one night and back-to-back rockabilly the next. The bar menu runs wings, burgers, and nachos, there's a daily food special, and happy hour runs weekday afternoons. Sports play on multiple screens for the crowd that isn't there for the boot-scootin'. An old-school institution that closed for a stretch and came back, which says something about how much the neighborhood wanted it back.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bar Food · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Country Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A hanging mobile about Phoenix's infamous trunk murderess sets the tone before you've even ordered a drink. Valley Bar is a basement dive, reached through an alley off Central Avenue that will make you question your life choices right up until you hit the stairs and descend into genuinely good energy. Cheap beers, cocktails named after Arizona politicians, skeeball, shuffleboard, and live DJs on weekends round out a room that has no interest in taking itself seriously.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Basement Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Yucca Tap Room is an old-school dive bar and live music venue where cheap drinks and a no-fuss atmosphere have kept generations of Tempe regulars coming back. The punk shows are a fixture, and moshers in Halloween costumes remain a perfectly normal Tuesday-in-October situation. Half the space now belongs to Electric Bat Arcade, a pinball room that on some nights draws a bigger crowd than the bar itself.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The menu is designed to fold into a paper plane, which tells you everything about the vibe at this dive bar near the foot of Bukhan Mountain. Kissk keeps things deliberately loose, organizing drinks into Easy, Party, and Shooters categories, though the cocktails underneath the silliness pull from disco-era classics with real care. It landed on The 50 Discovery list, presumably while everyone was mid-paper-throw.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Old cartoons flicker on a single TV while graffiti covers every surface, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Melville dive bar. Rum anchors the drinks list, from a broad back-bar selection to a short cocktail menu running things like a Peanut Colada or a Marsala Rum Sour. The punk and grunge decor is commitment, not concept, and the weekly specials keep the crowd honest.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

No televisions anywhere, which tells you everything about the clientele. Swift is an Irish pub in NoHo named for the author of Gulliver's Travels, and the room looks like it's been quietly absorbing conversation since forever: long winding bar, exposed brick, reclaimed church pews, barstools worn in just right. Creative types fill it looking for somewhere to talk without shouting over a game. Civilised is the word.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The highball glasses here are 220ml, which is basically a tall person's thimble, and that's the whole philosophy in miniature. The Boilerman is a dive bar in Eppendorf run by the same person behind the very formal Le Lion, and the contrast seems deliberate. Bottled beers, American whiskey, and those precise little highballs fill the menu. Neighborhood regulars and cocktail nerds occupy the same barstools without anyone making it weird.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. The Infatuation The 12 Best Bars In San Diego

1. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

The bar at No.18 is a bruine café, which means brown walls, brown ceiling, and centuries of cigarette smoke baked into the woodwork, all of it legally protected so nobody can touch it. Locals call it "standing Hoppe" because that's what you do. An old-school Amsterdam pub that has been around forever, it's the kind of place that makes a gin and tonic feel like a historical document.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Bars In Amsterdam

1. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

The sign above the door reads "Getting Vegas Drunk Since 1962," and the bar delivers on that promise without much fuss. Dino's is a neon-free dive near the Arts District where drinks are cheap and the crowd skews toward people who own at least one ska-related t-shirt. Thursday through Saturday after ten, karaoke takes over the tiny stage and things get appropriately messy. Celebrities have been known to slip in for a song, which is very on-brand for a city like this.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Las Vegas

Graffiti and stickers cover every surface, dollar bills hang from the ceiling, and the smell of day-old bacon grease meets you at the door. Double Down is a dive bar in the Fruit Loop that's been hosting punk shows and burlesque nights since forever, drawing tattooed regulars and older locals who never look up from the video poker machines. Order a PBR, order an Ass Juice shot, and lower your expectations to CBGB levels accordingly.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Las Vegas

1. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

A miniature wrestling ring doubles as the karaoke stage, which tells you everything about the Lariat Bar's priorities. This White Center dive is floor-to-ceiling WWE memorabilia with an actual craft cocktail menu, a combination that shouldn't work as well as it does. The nonalcoholic drinks are listed under "Kayfabe," a wrestling term for keeping the fiction alive, which is either the nerdiest menu label in Seattle or the most honest one.

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

1. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

Melrose is a basement dive bar where the entertainment is built in: pool, ping pong, foosball, darts, and shuffleboard, so nobody is ever forced into conversation. It has survived floods, an era of indoor smoking, and a brief closing, and it came back with a light spitshine and most of the old character. Drinks are local beer and basic liquor, the popcorn is free, and dress code is whatever you wore to work.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restauranteur in the Face of Adversity · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray
2. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville

Taxidermy, graffitied walls, mannequins, shelves of old shoes, and a trippy dome with bean bag chairs on the second floor: Notsuoh is less a dive bar and more a three-story cabinet of curiosities that also happens to serve drinks. The art is strange, the vibe is stranger, and the whole place reads like a dare Houston issues to anyone who thinks Austin has a monopoly on weird. An old-school Main Street institution that earns every square foot.

1. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

1. Eater The Best Bars in Denver

1. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

1. The Infatuation The 12 Best Bars In San Diego

1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

The walls at this Deep Ellum dive bar are covered floor to ceiling in years of pen-and-marker graffiti, and the house policy is to add your own. Adair's Saloon runs on outlaw country and live music most nights, with the honky-tonk crowd and the boot-scooters sharing space without much negotiation. The kitchen stays open until nearly two in the morning, which is exactly when a bar burger tastes best.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The Venn diagram of bar and restaurant has Angry Dog planted right in the overlap, and nobody seems to mind. Cold beer, a game on, chili cheese dogs, burgers, and salads that have no business being this good for a place that smells like fried onions. Close enough to the American Airlines Center and Deep Ellum that it fills up fast on event nights, but regular enough that it works on a Tuesday with nothing going on.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Hot Dog · Best of Dallas

Oak Cliff locals have been calling it "Barb's" for decades, which tells you everything about what kind of place this is. A low-key dive bar with a retro-cool vibe, it runs karaoke on Thursdays and Sundays and burlesque on the third Wednesday of every month, so there's always a reason the room is full. Between sets, the jukebox swings from disco to hip-hop without apology. Your bartender probably drinks here on their nights off.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Hole-in-the-Wall Gay Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The "Be Kind, Unwind" sign sets the tone at this neighborhood bar just outside Deep Ellum, built from near-scratch inside the bones of the old Starlight Lounge. It's a no-frills spot with DJ nights, music videos, and karaoke keeping things lively. The frozen cherry limeade with vodka is the move, though an Old Fashioned made with Garrison Brothers Single Barrel is there when you feel like being about it.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Dollar bills papering the walls floor to ceiling, Christmas lights above, and a stage that gets a rock band most nights of the week: Chopper John's is a dive bar that knows exactly what it is. The black-and-red room off Indian School Road draws regulars who look like they were designed to match the decor. Pool tables, a patio for smokers, and baseball on the TV fill in the gaps between sets.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Rock Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Andes chocolate mints come with the tab, which sets the tone pretty well for this bar in the Ross Ave corridor. The whole room reads like a grandmother's parlor, elegant and faintly shabby, carpet included, paying loose homage to an old Dallas club of the same name. The drinks lean pricey and the crowd leans comfortable with that. A warm crab dip circulates if anyone gets hungry enough to order off the bites menu.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The glowing green facade on Dyer Street means your ride-share driver already knows the address. Inside, it's a bass-heavy bar where SMU students fill most of the floor and the dancing starts before anyone asks. Bar food runs better than the usual, and Tuesday open mic nights pull in live music, slam poetry, and stand-up, in case you came with something to prove or just enough drinks to think you do.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A neighborhood bar that's been around forever, Inwood Tavern is the kind of place where a Highland Park day trader and a regular Joe end up on the same barstool. The taps lean local, the back bar runs to 33 whiskeys and Scotches, and the porch is genuinely good. Scotty Scheffler reportedly drinks here, still in his Masters jacket, which says something about the room's lack of pretension.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The jalapeño beer-battered corn dog only appears after 11 p.m., which tells you everything about Lakewood Landing's priorities. This old-school dive bar packs a pool table, a jukebox loaded with local favorites, and a sprawling front patio into a small space that somehow feels lived-in rather than cramped. The burger has a loyal following, and the solo seat at the far end of the bar by the door is the best spot in Dallas for quiet, amateur people-watching.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Burger · Best of Dallas

Wood-paneled walls and old neon beer signs set the tone at Lee Harvey's, a classic Dallas dive bar that's been knocking the edge off long weeks for as long as anyone can remember. The patio is roomy enough to bring the dog, and the onion rings with chipotle aioli are the kind of thing you eat standing up and then immediately order again. Cold beer, no pretense, no dress code.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Pool tables in the back, a fireplace den up front, and a patio pulling double duty as meeting spot for both SMU students and regulars who've been coming since the place was one of Dallas' oldest bars. Under new ownership with a fresh look, Milo Butterfingers is a sports bar and neighborhood hangout that hasn't lost its original ease. Homestyle daily specials run cheap, and the booths are big enough that nobody has to go home.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Bar Upgrade · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Cash only, dark inside, and on any given night you might have to squeeze past a metal band unloading gear in the parking lot just to get through the door. Palo Verde is a Tempe dive bar where construction workers in hi-vis vests share the rail with ASU newcomers and neighborhood lifers. Drinks are cheap and poured strong, and the bartender has your order memorized before you've taken your jacket off.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Dance Hall · Best of Big D

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A cowboy-hat-wearing doorman perched on a barstool out front marks the door at this Western-themed dive bar on Ross Avenue. Inside, a beer-chugging bass fish watches over the pool table and neon booths, while glitter-filled drinks pay tribute to Dolly Parton. Out back, a patio big enough for line dancing hosts chicken shit bingo, with actual chickens making the call.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Rainbow decor flags this as the anchor bar of Dallas's gayborhood on Cedar Springs, and the vibe is loose, colorful, and cheap in the best way. Roy G's is a diner bar where the shot combos come with candy as a chaser and the prices make a Thursday feel like a Friday. The food, from a pickle-brined chicken sandwich to a smash burger, holds its own against the drinks, which is a higher bar than it sounds.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Ships is a dive bar that's been around forever, wedged between the Lower Greenville club strip and an old East Dallas neighborhood. That geography shows up in the crowd: regulars who've held the same barstool for decades sit a few seats from musicians and late-night stragglers catching a game. The old guard enforces a genuine no-cussing policy, so keep it civil, or at least quieter than you planned.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A dive bar on Lower Greenville where the TVs outnumber the opinions, which is saying something. Stan's Blue Note runs on sports, cheap pitchers, and a rotation of barstools and soft couches that makes a four-hour game feel almost reasonable. Table shuffleboard and foosball cover the gaps when nothing's on. The Cowboys will probably lose, and this is a perfectly decent place to watch that happen.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

The Sunday flower market on Columbia Road starts right at The Birdcage's corner, which means this old East End pub spent years famous almost entirely for its postcode. Gentrification caught up with the street eventually, and the surrounding restaurants and bars have turned it into a nightly destination rather than a once-a-week pitstop. A proper neighbourhood pub, worn in the right ways, with a crowd that arrived before the area did.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Plywood floors and neon signs for Busch Light and PBR set the mood at this Greenville Avenue dive bar, and the mood is firmly "nowhere to be." Cheap beers, darts, and well-priced shots are about the full extent of the program, which is precisely the point. The kind of place where regulars need no introduction and newcomers feel at home by the second round.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A neighborhood bar where the kitchen runs until 1:30 a.m. and happy hour stretches to 10 p.m. on weekdays, which tells you everything about who this place is for. Service industry workers fill the stools after their shifts, drawn by strong pours and a late-night burger that gets talked about seriously. The jukebox swings from Lizzo to Jerry Jeff Walker without apology. Cash in hand, no dress code required.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

The smoked meatloaf plate, with house-ground beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese, tells you everything about what this downtown Dallas dive bar is up to. Hockey on the TVs, whiskey and craft beer behind the bar, and a menu that takes bar food more seriously than its gritty room suggests it will. The fancy bologna sandwich is a standing option; the pork tenderloin shows up Friday through Sunday for those who plan ahead.

1. D Magazine 2023 · Best Bar for Beer · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide