Reno's Best Dive Bars?

[Christy Jerz]

What are some of your favorite Reno dive bars? Bars of the past and present are acceptable!

[Tom Clark]

I'm a big fan of Casales Half-Way Club on 4th street and the Coney Island. Both nice places to hang with locals and hide from the world a while. Food is great too. Casales old school spaghetti and meatballs is excellent but don't forget the cash - they have never taken credit cards. Damn, now I'm hungry - and thirsty. Happy Friday!

[Ryan Jerz]

I've eaten once at Casale's. Pretty solid place and totally somewhere you absolutely have to know about. Inez is a nice lady who I used to run into a lot at a former job. She always had cash, too.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but I started a website about loving Reno and I've never been to the Coney. It's on the list, though.

[Tom Clark]

Let me know when and I'll buy you a beer at the Coney.

[Kristen Kennedy]

Yes. I remember this bar as the Gray Goat (circa 1992) and then Freddies (circa 1996). Ken used to be the bartender...now serving at Bully's on Robb Drive...and would give us free pitchers of Jack and Coke and Long Island Ice Tea. Someone stole my purse there on my birthday, which was a huge bummer, but the free booze, good friends and endless foosball games made up for it.

[carothers]

I agree with Mr. Jerz. The Barrel was amazing in it's heyday. I remember going (I think Tuesdays) where draft beer was .50 until the first person went to the bathroom. The solution to this problem (for most of the patrons) was to simply piss under the bar. Ohh the memories. Anytime a band would play their set up would be so close to the crowd that somebody would always get tossed into the drum set or get whacked by the bass guitar "hero" guy. I still have a hard time eating at Jimmy Johns because I just can't believe they could remove all the years of vomit, piss and "stuff" that was deposited during the barrels prime. Boy I miss that place.

As for now, I must again agree with Ryan.... I just don't dive anymore, and I don't think I know StepHhanna.

[Stacey Crawford]

We use to hang out at the El Cortez Lounge on Second Street. A serious dive, but always let us underage kids drink. I drive past it now and can't believe we use to go there. I also have great memories of the Beer Barrel. . . I think I threw several pairs of shoes away because I couldn't get the Barrel-slug off. . .also the location of my one and only blackout.

Ryan & Christy, didn't you have your first date at the Barrel?

[Christy Jerz]

Since I did meet my husband at the Beer Barrel (during Sundowner initiation no less), it definitely tops the dive bar list. Back in the day, I also enjoyed a good under-age raid at Daiquiri's or frequenting any place that agreed to headline Convicted Innocence.

[Donica Mensing]

I couldn't resist contributing what a journalism student (Jordan Butler) wrote last semester about the Five Star Saloon downtown on West Street:
(You can read it here: http://nevadatravel.jour.unr.edu/?q=node/91)

5 Star Saloon: "Sthay a while"

Clothed only in leather underwear and tattoos, a man meanders his left arm under a breastless thirty-something Tina Turner - or maybe he was Whitney Houston - to a stentorian "Gimme More" on Milton Bradley's Twister. Someone orders a shot of Cum Fuck Me Punch and I giggle.

"Listhen, buddy," sasses a bartender. "I'm not Debbie Reynoldsth!"

Colors flutter through the room. We lick our salt and take the Tequila.

So who's gay and who's straight and who's a little of both among the canoodlers and gropers and talkers and laughing college floozies with way way way too much liquor in their veins? My radar can't sense that he fancies him and she fancies her and he he and she he and she the three and he me. And who're the lucky folks in the full house tonight with the winning $1 raffle tickets for iPods and 68 oz. bottles of lube?

A stranger emerges from this teeming maskless Mardi Gras. "Take off your coat. Sthay a while." I will, gentle sir, though I don't swing your way. I wanna take part in your delight.

[Jim_Scripps]

Oh yeah ... can't forget Mr. O's. That place was cool — haven't been in since it changed owners. And what about the now-defunct Snowshoes?

[Terri O]

I know we discussed this Friday night... my vote is the "original" Break Away. It sat at what is now the Circus Circus parking garage. That place was a dive! Kind of scary and any one in high school could get in. I can't believe I used to go there. When it moved up by campus, still frequented but not the same. And yes, I did have my beers of the world card!

My other favorite was, of course, The Beer Barrel. I don't know how many pairs of shoes I had covered in barrel sludge - nasty! And again, any ID (not really necessary) would do there. :)

[Kristin]

The Barrel and Blue Lamp top my favorite college dive bars. But, now that I don't frequent bars quite as much as I used to, I'd have to say that Burg's Victorian Bar has to be my most frequently visited "dive" bar. And, like most bars, it has lived under many names, but one of its name that most old timers will recognize is Adolph's, who happens to be Bo's great uncle.

If you stop by Burg's, tell Tony "hello."

[Stephanna]

I have to agree with Terri O, the original Breakaway was hard to beat. Of course, maybe that's because I was 19 and they never questioned my ID. Actually drinking all 99 beers on the wall is still listed as one of my honors on my resume.