View allAll Photos Tagged divebars
This whole photography thing gets pretty easy when you're in a completely fabricated dive bar for a large-scale commercial shoot. Lighting is all installed and adjusted for equal color temps, props are meticulously positioned by the art department, and the air is thickened by fog machines. It's a well-constructed LA still life, not real life.
Canon 5D MKIII (1/50th @ 2.8f)
Thanksgiving pre-leftovers at the annual Hotel Utah Saloon potluck event. 500 4th Street, San Francisco.
Note the two "Best of the Bay" award plaques in the background. Voted on by the public at large.
part of the streetscape on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland since 1922.
I've wondered about this place since I first noticed it about 1965. I've still never been inside.
Here's a history!!
Back in the mid-70's when Marg was in nursing school at USF, she lived a few blocks from the Marina on Pierce Street. Just down the hill, and around the corner there was neighborhood bar that I had my eye on. One night while Marg was at school I decided to check it out.
It wasn't a big establishment as bars go--a long bar greeted you when you entered the front door with perhaps 15 stools complimented by a few rickety tables littered around the walls. On this night there were maybe a dozen or so patrons gathered about the bar chawing the fat about the local sports team and complaining about their bosses. I found a stool and ordered a Cutty and soda.
I was halfway through my first drink, when the guy sitting next to me taps me on shoulder and asks me where I'm from.
"I live down the Peninsula in San Carlos," I told him.
"Then why don't you get the hell back to San Carlos," he growled, "this ain't no tourist bar."
Normally I would have slid down a few stools and ignored the SOB but not in San Francisco. I hold a few trump cards here.
"Really," I said, "let's check your facts."
I stood up and pounded my glass on the bar a couple of times with authority and shouted, "excuse me folks, could I get your attention for a moment." The bar went silent.
"I'd like to see a raise of hands for all the people present who were born and raised in the City." I raised my hand.
An old guy at the end of the bar nursing a beer raised his hand, and a lady at one of the tables held hers up.
"Just as I thought," I said looking at the original troublemaker. His hand hadn't gone up.
The bar was quiet for a few seconds when someone shouted, "buy that man a drink." And the drinks started arriving at my elbow.
Well, I'm not a heavy drinker so I pawned them off on Mr. Troublemaker who acted like an old sourdough who'd just found King Solomon's mine. In fact, he drank himself so sloppy that the bartender asked him to leave.
Some other time, I'll tell you what to do when your patriotism is challenged in a bar. I've had that happen too.
As you can see I'm feeling a little chatty this morning.
San Francisco, CA
7B Horseshoe Bar aka Vazac in the East Village always looks magical at Christmas. The storefront where @7bhorseshoebar is located was originally opened in 1935 as a neighborhood catering spot know as Vazac Hall & after transforming into a bar it was known simply as Vazac but in more recent years has also taken one of its three names from the street corner it resides on at the corner of 7th Street and Avenue B & the long horseshoe š“ shaped bar running down its center. Musicians and celebrities who have frequented the bar include Iggy Pop and members of the Strokes who both lived nearby. Many famous movies and TV shows have used 7B for filming including Crocodile Dundee, The Verdict with Paul Newman, Rent, Marvel Comicsā Jessica Jones series as Luke Cageās bar and Godfather II , where the Rosato brothers attempt to strangle Frank Pentangelli.
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Let us know if you have been to this fabulous neighborhood spot which we included in our āGreat Bars of New York Cityā book.
If you like music and are ever in NYC, do yourself a favor and look up 55Bar.com to see if Mike Stern is playing.
First of all, 55 Bar is an old, classic dive bar in the West Village. The place is tiny, rustic....and just old. But world class jazz musicians play here nightly, and none bigger than guitarist, Mike Stern.
Early on, he was the guitarist for Blood Sweat & Tears....then played for Miles Davis. Now he is a massively successful solo artist. He constantly tours the world, but between tour legs he comes home and practices his chops at 55 Bar, where you can sit at an arm's length and watch him play....and then chat with him between sets.
It's always an unreal musical experience to see him here. Only in New York.