BimboSavant's Profile

This is cracking me up. I've worked in a few awesome dive bars, a beautiful little bistro, and another couple of rock and roll bars - my idea of a bad bar is any chain, airport, or pretentious dump that lacks love and character. I enjoy a beautifully made martini, artisanal liqueur, or house-made infusion as much as the next girl (and have made my share of each), but there's something equally great about an honest American dive bar.

In my estimation, anyone who thinks that a "bad bar" (bad enough to have terrifying ice cubes and glassware?!) would offer campari, lillet, drinkable sweet vermouth, drinkable wine, godfathers, americanos, clean beer taps, good scotch, gimlets made with anything but preserved lime juice, guinness on tap, limoncello, house-made sour mix, or good bloody marys...well, I respectfully refuse to believe that you have ever had the pleasure of visiting a real dive.

I have some informed advice, if you're interested. Should you find yourself afraid of the germs and rot in glasses/water/fruit/juice, then bottled beverages must be your only resort. If, instead, it is the bartender's experience that you find questionable, you have two choices: 1) be nice, but use your words. Tell the bartender that you would like your manhattan made with rye and a little extra sweet vermouth, but only if they have bitters. If you want your special drink in a special glass, ask for it as you order! 2) order only drinks with the ingredients clearly mentioned in the name, like vodka cranberry, rum and coke, whiskey and soda, whiskey on ice, etc.

Many of the comments above are at best goofy and out of touch. At their worst, they sound like some elitist instructions for how we may look down our noses at the servers of any establishment in which we feel out of place. Are you sure the tonic water will be terrible? - well, then probably it will be terrible and you will send it back, just waiting for some attitude from the bar staff, and happily fulfilling your own expectation of disappointment. That doesn't sound all that fun to me. I'd rather just drink a cold budweiser and enjoy myself.