A dive bar is really just an informal neighborhood bar.

The more precise definition depends on location. In SF, a typical dive bar doesn't have a "cocktail menu," doesn't do blended drinks, and is cash only.

But here on the Peninsula, a dive bar might give some leeway. Our beloved "I still call it Rossotti's" is a dive bar, and I don't even know if they match any of the SF criteria. It doesn't matter, it's still an informal neighborhood bar, that's what really counts.

For me, ultimately the "neighborhood" part is the defining component. One of my favorite dive bars from the Nineties attracted all types: high-tech engineers to construction workers, off-duty cops, Mafia bookies, movie stars, politicians, journalists, line cooks, out-of-town pool hustlers, local pool sharks. Attorneys: trademark/intellectual property types to the ham-and-eggers who hang out near the jail.

I can tell you that a dive bar isn't the playground for privileged high-tech brats from Facebook, Google, Twitter, whoever.

Tune into KNBR on your old-school transistor radio for Giants coverage. Our local broadcasters blow doors on the lame national TV commentators anyhow (*cough* Joe Buck *cough*).

'In SF, a typical dive bar doesn't have a "cocktail menu," doesn't do blended drinks, and is cash only.'

So too, exactly (also no draft beer), at Mountain View's main "dive bar" -- since 1963 -- in the center of downtown -- and so low-key, even some longtime locals still don't know it's there. It's now the oldest continuously operating bar of any kind in MV. Little changed since 1963 (but for the intrusion of a staircase, which claimed some of its space a while back), and even though smoking has been banned now for decades, hints of it still pervade the very wood. No one would have things otherwise.

Mervyn's Lounge opened daily at 6AM for decades -- it closed only from 2AM to 6 AM until this past summer. I'm told that even as recently as the 1990s, there was real demand for a bar downtown at 6AM, but that trade has slackened lately. In the course of a slight remodel and an ownership shift this past summer, the opening hours were "modernized" to 11AM. Web Link

Unless there are at least a few people, head down at the bar in the morning, it is not a dive bar. Dive bars are for the collection of alcoholics who have no use for a bar except to get their fix so the shaking hands can stop. It's clientele is comprised of many people who have sadly ruined their lives and likely the lives of others. It is not a place to celebrate nor is is a place for people to go and have a unique kitschy drive bar experience. Go there to mourn the waste of humanity, not to have joke about and have fun in the middle of misery. If you're able to have a good time in what you think is a dive bar, you're likely not in a dive bar...just a place less tidy than what you may be used to. Oh, prostitution and drug dealing are rampant in the real dive bars. There are more than a few in SF that will make you reset how you use the term.

The Office is a dive bar?

The Office is a great place to watch the game with friends. But is it a dive bar? I've always thought "dive" to be a negative descriptor, but a quick search has many references in a positive light, that "neighborhood bar where everyone knows your name." Thus the question. You tell me.

The Office is not a dive, it's a (need newer term for) 'yuppie' bar mostly frequented by the parents up in White Oaks that do not go 'downtown' to the Laurel Street bars and restaurants because they are tired of getting harassed by the cops/sheriffs. Later in the evening it's taken over by a younger group of kids - the same kids that a few years ago, as fresh 21 year olds traveled as a pack to the dive bar de jour (was saddleroom for a bit, then Carlos Club, then old pro, etc..)

the office - Great beer. Good crowd. Fun fire pits. Horrid food. Best fall-back is the skirt steak, get fries not that wilted thing they call 'salad'. Maybe they'll bring in the fried chicken from their new place around the corner - 3 pigs.

Laura Stec how about a special world serious meal?

can you endorse me, my old BAA friend?
mark weiss
giants fan since the days of tito tapping his bat on the plate but can name four or five of the men on deck when Bobby not Hank Thompson hit the shot

see also my blog
Web Link

you know, D. our former BAA leader and one of the reasons I drifted into the muck here leaves me cold in that he will only vote for or endorse on the single silly issue of his anaerobic or I call it "green goop yes" digester doo hickey. Tom says he will go down in history as being silly, if I can quote Mr. J who come to think of it says he is not voting for me this time despite being my advisor in 2012 because I was too flip with the League of Conservation Voters, who picked what I call the "Barry Goldwater Enviro Slate" as in 9 out of not 10 but 100. got all that! go giants! Or as danny kaye would say: heller throws to haller blah blah blah

Web Link

i am not making this up: hiller haller hallejuhah twist

Alright Mark -there's a plug for you. But pray tell, what does this have to do with food, parties, or dive bars?

Whoever would know America would know baseball...

You want a 2,000 word guest treatise on the role of dive beers in a properly lubricated Democracy?

Sam Adams, not just a beer but a revolution, Boston Tea party guy, the original.

All things are connected, Chief Seattle.

Giants in World Series AND City Council turning point election -- how is that not all stitched together like a baseball?

Decadent dinner, movable feast.

(Basically the main issue in Palo Alto dovetails with this in that the push by developers for office space, for high tech workers also includes displacement of the working class or public house; I can think of five places that I used to program --produce concerts at, if you excuse the digression from baseball or dive bars per se--so I think this is related, so close to election...)

Or edit and delete as you see fit.

As I sit wilting at my stool, I wonder what lies ahead - a quart of Coors or a hipster ale from the tap - my aged oak counter seat hasn't changed since forever and I like it that way. A quart of Coors or a glass of wine for the lady, but if you want to fade into distant memories of nonsense I recommend absinthe from the PA scene like the previous poster has overindulged in.

Oh Old MP - you are poet. Please come back for another Food Party! soon. We are nothing without you.

Our favorite "Dive" Bar doesn't even have a name: 4141, it's address at 4141 El Camino Real in Palo Alto. Maybe you know it by it's previous names, Dan Browns or even better The Island Food & Grog :-)
It's been remodeled on the inside and is comfy "dive." No food sold, but the owners allow you to bring in any food you want. Pool tables, shuffle board, darts, and great drinks. What more do you need?