4 ms·
I don't think its mean spirited. "Dive bars" have always been popular. A friend of mine in college opened a dive bar, which quickly became very very popular.
by _red 7y ago
I don't think its mean spirited.
"Dive bars" have always been popular.
A friend of mine in college opened a dive bar, which quickly became very very popular. This was the type of place where you could smell the ammonia from the urinal when you walked in the door. Spending more than an hour in there, and you left smelling like cigarette smoke and stale beer.
When opening his 2nd bar, he made the rookie mistake of "trying to finally do it right". His new bar was walking distance from the original, and had a beautiful wood bar, leather chairs, fancy plate glass windows with frosted lettering, etc (top notch plumbing too).
His 2nd bar never caught on and he eventually had to close.
The importance of "dive's" is that everyone feels comfortable. You feel you can do no wrong. Spill your beer...so what. Whereas if the place it too fancy, everyone becomes too self-aware.
These types of places like BdB aren't about customers "looking down" on the place, its about being in a place thats comfortable and where the average joe doesn't feel looked down upon.
- dwighttk 7y agoeverything in your description of a dive from "smell the ammonia", to "cigarette smoke and stale beer" to "spill your beer...so what" makes me feel uncomfortable.
- tsunamifury 7y agoSome people feel comfortable in Dive bars and others in the King Cole Bar.
- dagw 7y agoWhere I grew up there where two bars basically next door to each other. One was a dive who's primary selling point was that the drinks where always cheaper than next door and the other was a nicer place who's primary selling point was that it didn't attract the sort of people who's primary concern was how cheap the beer was. Both did very well.
- vorpalhex 7y agoTraveling a bit, I've noticed that regardless the language, customs, atmosphere or locality that all pubs offer a kind of simple baseline. Whether it's in a ship or a totally foreign country, you can get a beer and some food and ask pretty direct questions of your bartender to get an honest lay of the land around you. The best part of the crappy, touristy cruise ships is getting the hell off the ship and finding a local pub where you can chat with the locals outside of the tourist/vendor relationship. The second best part of those ships is finding the empty pub onboard where the crew will open up and share their own stories and experiences.