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Tucson Dive Bar Tour - Feb 19, 2022
Okay, here's how it went down! When the girls are away the boys must play! Our wives decided to drive up to Scottsdale and attend the Arabian Horse Show so my buddy Jay and I started texting each other around 9:00 am that Saturday morning. Of course both of us were still in our robes. "How you doing?", "Good"! "What are you up too?" "Nothing!" "Want to do something?" "Sure." "What?" "We can go hit some golf balls." "Boring!" "How bout bowling, a matinee or here's something....Tucson Dive Bar Crawl!" "What do you mean?" "Well you were born and raised here and I keep driving by all these little dive bars and I'm all about the adventure of checking these places out!" "Plus going to these places during the day with some day-drinking is a lot safer than at nite." "You know what they say....nothing good happens after 9:00!" "One of us drives or we Uber, we have one beer at each place and we make an afternoon of it!" "I'll drive!" "You sure?" "Yeah I'm sure, I'll pick you up at 1:00!" "See you then!"
Now just for grins I googled Tucson Dive Bar and looky here....15 fine establishments popped up! I sent them to Jay since he was the Captain!
So Jay picked me up but before he did I grabbed a bunch of my hats! Now if you've been following the HBT you know that I'm into hats! Big, small, stiff, floppy, calm, outrageous, cool, not so cool....whatever it is, it's on my head!! So as we cruised down the boulevard I showed Jay the assortment and he said, "let me warm up a little bit!" So I guess what he meant was, "let me get a couple drinks in me and then I might wear one of your crazy hats!" Conversation turned to the list of 15 dive bars and Captain Jay mentioned The Bambi Bar.
 The Bambi is on the south side of Speedway between Swan and Craycroft. 5050 E. Speedway Blvd, Tucson......as we pull up and park on the gravel it definitely looks like a dive bar! Brick, small, dirty and no windows.......perfect!! Jay leads us through the back door as if he's a regular. Once our eyes adjust we see a u-shaped bar with stools, a couple pool tables, jukebox, a hi-top with four disheveled old guys playing cards and a young lady dressed in black, covered in tats with a big smile on her face welcoming us to the Bambi!! We sit at the bottom of the U, I put a $20 on the bar and we order beers!! Rhea is a sweet young lady!! She is the grand daughter of the owner and has been hangin at the bar most her life. There's actually a pencil drawing done by Rhea when she was 10 years old of her Grandmother bartending.....too cool for school!!!! Looking around the bar there are drawings of 100's of customers on the wall and I asked Rhea if she could draw Jay and I and she said, "already did"!! I love this place!!! We drink our beers, Jay buys 10 boxes of Girl Scout cookies while beating me in a game of pool. We sit back at the bar ready to order more beer and then we remember our one beer per bar pledge....."I, Jay and Clyde, promise to drink only one beer per dive bar, so help us God"!! You know it's serious when you mention God!!! We get up to go and I engage with the old guys playing cards behind us and being from Wisconsin I immediately see they're playing euchre. They can't believe I know it's euchre.....I grew up playing euchre!! We got the biggest kick out of it. If we weren't on a dive bar adventure I would have sat down and played me some euchre!! On the way out I was yelling bye to all my new best buds!! Fun place with nice people and don't forget the cold beer!! On to the next dive bar!!!
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  The Buffet Bar, 538 E. 9th Street, Tucson.....Tucson's oldest dive bar opened up in 1934. This longstanding dive bar is playful, has graffitied walls and offers pub grub, pool & shuffleboard. Jay and I did the front sign selfie and it had the feel as if we weren't the first! The minute we walked in and after our eyes adjusted I realized we had arrived at a Dive Bar Mecca!! First of all the place was packed, it was 1:30 in the afternoon it had been open since 6:00 am and from the looks of it some of the customers had been here since 6:00. We took over a couple bar stools, got comfy and order our one drink. To my right sits Angela, a friendly 30 something lady drinking a shot and a beer. About 15 minutes in she asks me where we're from. I guess my Wisconsin accent was shining through. So anyhow she's a transplant from LaCrosse, Wisconsin where I lived growing up. We talked Granddad Bluff, Valley Road which is the street we lived on....it was like old home week!! She's sick of young men still living off of mom and dad, no ambition and no goals. She was a lot of fun and she was full of spit and vinegar! She kept talking about getting cooter juiced at the Bayhorse, which is a bar and some special signature drink!! She pointed out "W", who was on the other side of the bar washing glasses to pay for his bar tab. Parents named him the letter "W", one letter short and sweet.....got to love this place!! Suddenly she jumped up gave another young lady full of tats the biggest hug ever. Old friends long time no see. Talking about being clean and holding a job and being happy.....way to go young lady!! Time to go get cooter juiced!!
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Bay Horse Tavern, 2802 E. Grant, Tucson....opened in 1948 and moved to current location in 1958. Long "L" shaped bar with cold beer (PBR on Tap), jukebox, dart board, free shuffleboard and an outdoor patio. Front sign selfie and we shuffled in to the Bay Horse. A couple folks sitting at the bar and we get situated on a couple bar stools and Elizabeth is front and center with a big smile and taking our two pints of PBR order. I immediately feel like I'm at home in my comfy recliner, I'm moving around and I finally realize there's a well worn leather elbow rail that was the most comfortable thing ever!! It would be kinda easy to be a regular at this place. The Cheers affect....."hey Clyde, how you doing?", "want your regular?", "how's the wife, dog and the kid?" I'd have my own personalized beer mug and favorite stool and if someone was sitting on it when I showed up each day they would move and give me my stool. It would be great right up until it wasn't!! As Jay and I sat there a younger couple came in ordered a couple stiff drinks and pounded them down and I said what's the hurry, and they said, "we have 10 minutes before we told the babysitter we'd be home"! Been there, done that!! Asked Elizebeth if we could get a bar selfie with her in it. She said of course and we got the biggest kick out of her leg up on the cooler pose which she quickly apologized to the guy at the end of the bar for flashing him and he said, "no problem"! We saw the sign for the cooter juice but decided not to partake. Even though my elbows had never been so comfy it was time to pack up, say our good byes to Elizabeth and exit stage left!!
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Next and final stop The Shelter Bar, 4155 E. Grant Road, Tucson.....vintage-themed cocktail bar with JFK memorabilia & pinball machines located in a fallout shelter.....thus the name!! You can't make this stuff up!! At least you can tie one on as you wait for your demise! Front sign selfie out by the road and as we walked up to the front door there was a younger couple looking like they were also taking a selfie but in fact they were filming and talking still shots of us walking up. Which was kinda funny but kinda creepy at the same time. We had a short friendly exchange and we walked in the Shelter and they left. U-shaped bar, comfy bar stools and all kinds of JFK Memorabilia with some way cool lighting fixtures shattered around!......even a 1970's disco ball hanging from the ceiling. We ordered beers and I told the bartender that we were on a dive bar tour and she said, "well we're not a dive bar"! "I beg to differ"!! But as I looked around I could see what she was talking about....clean, organized, patrons with full sets of teeth and limited tats!! Maybe she was right......wrong!!! Down deep this fall out shelter skirts right on the edge of either being a dive bar or a regular bar......drum roll please.....decision......DIVE BAR!!! So Jay and I are sitting and drinking, kinda the two things you do in a Dive bar and up walks the young couple, Gabriel and Tatum, that we met outside the bar before we came in!! "Hey, when we met you two outside earlier you seemed like two pretty cool dudes so we came back to hang out with you"! I felt it was pretty neat that a younger couple thought a couple old guys were cool dudes but Jay felt if we partied with these two one of us would wake up in the morning missing a kidney!! Jay's local and doesn't trust too many people, where I've never met a stranger!! Be it as it may, I'm 64 and still have two kidneys so either I'm doing something right or I've been lucky up to this point!
Tucson has some epic dive bars that deserve some love!! Jay and I had so much fun we're planning another outing with some of our other buds and a designated driver!! Good times had by all, man!!
Don't be a spectator, live your life because one is all you get!!
Until next time and remember . . .
Go get'cha one!!
Okay, here's how it went down! When the girls are away the boys must play! Our wives decided to drive up to Scottsdale and attend the Arabian Horse Show so my buddy Jay and I started texting each other around 9:00 am that Saturday morning. Of course both of us were still in our robes. "How you doing?", "Good"! "What are you up too?" "Nothing!" "Want to do something?" "Sure." "What?" "We can go hit some golf balls." "Boring!" "How bout bowling, a matinee or here's something....Tucson Dive Bar Crawl!" "What do you mean?" "Well you were born and raised here and I keep driving by all these little dive bars and I'm all about the adventure of checking these places out!" "Plus going to these places during the day with some day-drinking is a lot safer than at nite." "You know what they say....nothing good happens after 9:00!" "One of us drives or we Uber, we have one beer at each place and we make an afternoon of it!" "I'll drive!" "You sure?" "Yeah I'm sure, I'll pick you up at 1:00!" "See you then!"
Now just for grins I googled Tucson Dive Bar and looky here....15 fine establishments popped up! I sent them to Jay since he was the Captain!
So Jay picked me up but before he did I grabbed a bunch of my hats! Now if you've been following the HBT you know that I'm into hats! Big, small, stiff, floppy, calm, outrageous, cool, not so cool....whatever it is, it's on my head!! So as we cruised down the boulevard I showed Jay the assortment and he said, "let me warm up a little bit!" So I guess what he meant was, "let me get a couple drinks in me and then I might wear one of your crazy hats!" Conversation turned to the list of 15 dive bars and Captain Jay mentioned The Bambi Bar.
The Buffet Bar, 538 E. 9th Street, Tucson.....Tucson's oldest dive bar opened up in 1934. This longstanding dive bar is playful, has graffitied walls and offers pub grub, pool & shuffleboard. Jay and I did the front sign selfie and it had the feel as if we weren't the first! The minute we walked in and after our eyes adjusted I realized we had arrived at a Dive Bar Mecca!! First of all the place was packed, it was 1:30 in the afternoon it had been open since 6:00 am and from the looks of it some of the customers had been here since 6:00. We took over a couple bar stools, got comfy and order our one drink. To my right sits Angela, a friendly 30 something lady drinking a shot and a beer. About 15 minutes in she asks me where we're from. I guess my Wisconsin accent was shining through. So anyhow she's a transplant from LaCrosse, Wisconsin where I lived growing up. We talked Granddad Bluff, Valley Road which is the street we lived on....it was like old home week!! She's sick of young men still living off of mom and dad, no ambition and no goals. She was a lot of fun and she was full of spit and vinegar! She kept talking about getting cooter juiced at the Bayhorse, which is a bar and some special signature drink!! She pointed out "W", who was on the other side of the bar washing glasses to pay for his bar tab. Parents named him the letter "W", one letter short and sweet.....got to love this place!! Suddenly she jumped up gave another young lady full of tats the biggest hug ever. Old friends long time no see. Talking about being clean and holding a job and being happy.....way to go young lady!! Time to go get cooter juiced!!
Next and final stop The Shelter Bar, 4155 E. Grant Road, Tucson.....vintage-themed cocktail bar with JFK memorabilia & pinball machines located in a fallout shelter.....thus the name!! You can't make this stuff up!! At least you can tie one on as you wait for your demise! Front sign selfie out by the road and as we walked up to the front door there was a younger couple looking like they were also taking a selfie but in fact they were filming and talking still shots of us walking up. Which was kinda funny but kinda creepy at the same time. We had a short friendly exchange and we walked in the Shelter and they left. U-shaped bar, comfy bar stools and all kinds of JFK Memorabilia with some way cool lighting fixtures shattered around!......even a 1970's disco ball hanging from the ceiling. We ordered beers and I told the bartender that we were on a dive bar tour and she said, "well we're not a dive bar"! "I beg to differ"!! But as I looked around I could see what she was talking about....clean, organized, patrons with full sets of teeth and limited tats!! Maybe she was right......wrong!!! Down deep this fall out shelter skirts right on the edge of either being a dive bar or a regular bar......drum roll please.....decision......DIVE BAR!!! So Jay and I are sitting and drinking, kinda the two things you do in a Dive bar and up walks the young couple, Gabriel and Tatum, that we met outside the bar before we came in!! "Hey, when we met you two outside earlier you seemed like two pretty cool dudes so we came back to hang out with you"! I felt it was pretty neat that a younger couple thought a couple old guys were cool dudes but Jay felt if we partied with these two one of us would wake up in the morning missing a kidney!! Jay's local and doesn't trust too many people, where I've never met a stranger!! Be it as it may, I'm 64 and still have two kidneys so either I'm doing something right or I've been lucky up to this point!
Tucson has some epic dive bars that deserve some love!! Jay and I had so much fun we're planning another outing with some of our other buds and a designated driver!! Good times had by all, man!!
Don't be a spectator, live your life because one is all you get!!
Until next time and remember . . .
Go get'cha one!!