Best dive bar you’ve ever been to and why it deserves a monument

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Shane Limbeck

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Every town has one. The place with more character than health code points. Sticky floors, strong pours, and regulars who look like they came with the building.

What’s the best dive bar you’ve ever stumbled into, and what makes it legendary?
Tell us where it is, what they serve, and why it should be protected like a national treasure.
 
The K2 Hideaway Grill in Bozeman, MT is the home of FE's own Bozeman Lunch Club. Head in there and order a Negro-Knee from the bartender. Hopefully they'll know what you're talking about
Every town has one. The place with more character than health code points. Sticky floors, strong pours, and regulars who look like they came with the building.

What’s the best dive bar you’ve ever stumbled into, and what makes it legendary?
Tell us where it is, what they serve, and why it should be protected like a national treasure.
Bar Darn in Thailand: A small cocktail bar on Khao San Road, ask mike from montana
 
I am a regular at Ted’s Hideaway in Miami Beach. The floors are indeed sticky, the beer is cold, and the crowd is South Florida seedy. The neighborhood is fancy which make’s Ted’s feel like a middle finger to the over coiffed crowds at Forte dei Marmi and Carbone. It’s an awesome place to stare into a whiskey on the rocks and contemplate life.
 
The Hamilton, Cedarburg WI - Fancy name, not a fancy bar. Former grain mill, turned pub in the late 1800s. Top tier bar pizza, cheap beer, hard to beat.
 
The Trading Post (might be under a different name now), in Beulah, Wyoming. We stopped there on a road trip during 4th of July some years back and the beer was cheap and the food was good. Between girls getting naked and old timers fighting it was the highlight of the trip.
 
Duffy's Place in Valparaiso, Indiana needs to be on everyone's list if you're in the Chicago land area. The last annual health inspection, they were gifted 20 health code violations. Best wings I've ever had.
 
Flora-Bama. As the name implies on the border/ beach of Florida and Alabama. Beer, Booze and oysters served case beer boxes.
 
Bruno’s Dive Bar in San Antonio’s King William district. It’s a dingy building to go enjoy a drink at after dinner, and the entire building is illuminated by a neon sign of a buck mounting a doe.
 
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The Swan in Stockwell, South London. It's one of the few pubs to still genuinely have sawdust in the floor to mop up the remnants of the night's activities. Its been in situ since 1400. Back in the day it used to open at Friday 6pm and serve pretty much straight through till Sunday at noon. It remains one of the few places to get a drink after midnight in London that won't cost you the same as a Blaser R8 - stays open until 5am and is an absolute dive!
 
The Swan in Stockwell, South London. It's one of the few pubs to still genuinely have sawdust on the floor to mop up the remnants of the night's activities. Its been in situ since 1400. Back in the day it used to open at Friday 6pm and serve pretty much straight through till Sunday at noon. It remains one of the few places to get a drink after midnight in London that won't cost you the same as a Blaser R8 - stays open until 5am and is an absolute dive!
 
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X-Wive's Place in Salt Lake City. Horrible place, but too many great nights there in college. It was called "My Wive's Place" until they got divorced, so she spray painted an X over "My" and the name stuck. Carpet flooring, 5 pool tables, cash-only, and Ted Bundy spent many nights there in his heydey (that part is not a positive, but adds to the lore). Whiskey cokes were $2.50 each and a pitcher of banquet was $8.
 
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