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Mine would include any that have a reasonable number of people drinking at 10 AM.
There was one in Journal Square right atop the PATH station that was aptly called THE TERMINAL BAR...but they bulldozed the entire square. Friend who worked for the City would go in at 8 AM and down 2 martinis before work.
Whenever I see a place called TERMINAL BAR, and there are a lot of them, I always think of a place where you would go to have your LAST drink and fall off the barstool the VERY LAST time...probably covered in peanut shells as you meet St. Peter.
NYC liquor prices have soared so much that you can't really find anything comparable anymore. There used to be lots up and down Ninth and Tenth Avenues but they all got too chi-chi for the REAL drunks that make a "beer joint" a DIVE!
It just doesn't work if the beers are $6...and shots another $4, or $8.
Mine would include any that have a reasonable number of people drinking at 10 AM.
There was one in Journal Square right atop the PATH station that was aptly called THE TERMINAL BAR...but they bulldozed the entire square. Friend who worked for the City would go in at 8 AM and down 2 martinis before work.
Whenever I see a place called TERMINAL BAR, and there are a lot of them, I always think of a place where you would go to have your LAST drink and fall off the barstool the VERY LAST time...probably covered in peanut shells as you meet St. Peter.
NYC liquor prices have soared so much that you can't really find anything comparable anymore. There used to be lots up and down Ninth and Tenth Avenues but they all got too chi-chi for the REAL drunks that make a "beer joint" a DIVE!
It just doesn't work if the beers are $6...and shots another $4, or $8.
This is indeed accurate Kefir King!
Real dives usually also have a guy sleeping on the bar, And another patron who comes up to you and goes hey hhaodogoroorrr!! (Gibberish.) If you are in there you may be speaking the same way.
Mine would include any that have a reasonable number of people drinking at 10 AM.
There was one in Journal Square right atop the PATH station that was aptly called THE TERMINAL BAR...but they bulldozed the entire square. Friend who worked for the City would go in at 8 AM and down 2 martinis before work.
Whenever I see a place called TERMINAL BAR, and there are a lot of them, I always think of a place where you would go to have your LAST drink and fall off the barstool the VERY LAST time...probably covered in peanut shells as you meet St. Peter.
NYC liquor prices have soared so much that you can't really find anything comparable anymore. There used to be lots up and down Ninth and Tenth Avenues but they all got too chi-chi for the REAL drunks that make a "beer joint" a DIVE!
It just doesn't work if the beers are $6...and shots another $4, or $8.
I hate to go off on a Tangent but i'm just curious, how old are you?
Everytime I pass through Journal Square you can see remnants of the neighborhood before they built those ugly buildings, what was it like?
I hate to go off on a Tangent but i'm just curious, how old are you?
Everytime I pass through Journal Square you can see remnants of the neighborhood before they built those ugly buildings, what was it like?
I came to the area in 1970 and found a terrific gay bar in the Hotel Plaza...everyone ion the COUNTY eventually wound up there. An elegant old dame long since down on her luck. It was a terrific hangout (with huge $.95 martinis.) When I first got there you entered the PATH into a HOLE but at the bottom of the escalator IN the station was a big bar.)
Alas by that time Journal Square was down on her luck with a slezebag hotel (forget the name) that kept having fires. In that block was a great pizzaria (Three Brothers.) In the back of the Square was a bus station, fairly large...like 6 bays. The movies, Loew's, Stanley, and State were still operating. I saw only ONE film at the Stanley before the Holy Rollers bought it and spiffed it up beautifully. I was flummoxed to see the exits numbered UP TO #114.
The LOEWS was grand but "sticky" and then they cut it up into a multiplex. Worst ruination of a classic building ever.
Terrific buffet joint: THE YELLOW BOWL was a great value after drinks at the PLAZA.
A wonderful old relic to speakeasy days was a converted nightclub, then a Chinese restaurant callled THE CANTON. It was used for the opening nighclub scenes in TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING JULIE NEWMAR. Then it sat vacant...I think it's a Bally's gym now...or closed. As a restaurant it was grand with tired seating around a sunken stage and a TERRIFIC Wor Shu Op.
But in truth, by 1970, "THE SQUARE" was really down on her luck. You had to LOOK for any charm. Then they built the PATH tower and everyone walked away. It's kind of dull and sterile now with too many DOLLAR STORES and I haven't been back in well over a year or two. They keep talking about a revival but over 20 years all the area ever got were expensive models from mayor's brother in laws showing splendid, and expensive dreams...and no action.
There's an attempt to "gentrify" with the conversion of the Beautiful old art deco Medical Center of the Haig era into condos called THE BEACON...maybe 5 blocks away, but the building opened into the Great Recession and nobody followed suit. I think prioces at the Beacon have fallen by HALF since it opened.
Last edited by Kefir King; 12-30-2011 at 07:20 AM..
I like this thread. Not in NYC, but out in Jersey I used to hang out at a good old dive bar, and I think the bartender expressed the definition quite well when he said, "The day they get cherries or a blender in here, I'm gone."
The place is gone. Owner was a gambler and eventually the IRS caught up with him, too.
I came to the area in 1970 and found a terrific gay bar in the Hotel Plaza...everyone ion the COUNTY eventually wound up there. An elegant old dame long since down on her luck. It was a terrific hangout (with huge $.95 martinis.) When I first got there you entered the PATH into a HOLE but at the bottom of the escalator IN the station was a big bar.)
Alas by that time Journal Square was down on her luck with a slezebag hotel (forget the name) that kept having fires. In that block was a great pizzaria (Three Brothers.) In the back of the Square was a bus station, fairly large...like 6 bays. The movies, Loew's, Stanley, and State were still operating. I saw only ONE film at the Stanley before the Holy Rollers bought it and spiffed it up beautifully. I was flummoxed to see the exits numbered UP TO #114.
The LOEWS was grand but "sticky" and then they cut it up into a multiplex. Worst ruination of a classic building ever.
Terrific buffet joint: THE YELLOW BOWL was a great value after drinks at the PLAZA.
A wonderful old relic to speakeasy days was a converted nightclub, then a Chinese restaurant callled THE CANTON. It was used for the opening nighclub scenes in TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING JULIE NEWMAR. Then it sat vacant...I think it's a Bally's gym now...or closed. As a restaurant it was grand with tired seating around a sunken stage and a TERRIFIC Wor Shu Op.
But in truth, by 1970, "THE SQUARE" was really down on her luck. You had to LOOK for any charm. Then they built the PATH tower and everyone walked away. It's kind of dull and sterile now with too many DOLLAR STORES and I haven't been back in well over a year or two. They keep talking about a revival but over 20 years all the area ever got were expensive models from mayor's brother in laws showing splendid, and expensive dreams...and no action.
There's an attempt to "gentrify" with the conversion of the Beautiful old art deco Medical Center of the Haig era into condos called THE BEACON...maybe 5 blocks away, but the building opened into the Great Recession and nobody followed suit. I think prioces at the Beacon have fallen by HALF since it opened.
I agree about the Beacon, why pay those prices when you walk a block or two away and your in a pretty bad hood. Doesn't Magic Johnson own that building? Yeah there are lots of dollar stores, but i've also found there are plenty of cheap rentals down Kennedy on some of the side streets, some beautiful rowhouses as well.
thanks for the write up, couldn't rep you because i've already repped you too many times recently, gotta spread it around lol.
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Any specific Borough?
and then they cut it up into a multiplex. Worst ruination of a classic building ever.
