Welcome!
Some people collect autographs, some collect antiques, others collect stamps. My hobby is a little different, I collect bars. This site represents my collection, documenting each bar I visit.
This is not a review site, there's plenty of those already. Most posts in this bar diary are slice-of-life recaps of the half hour or so I spent having a beer. I hope you enjoy browsing through my collection!
--ScooterJA Few Random Favorites
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The Bulldog
11 May 2004(Downtown, Kansas City, MO) Scooter’s 17th bar, first visited in 2004. Specializes in prohibition-era and pre-prohibition drinks. One of the few bars in town that serves absinthe. Be sure to...
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Katy O’Ferrell’s Publick House
24 November 2023(Downtown, Cape Girardeau, MO) Scooter’s 1723rd bar, first visited in 2023. I needed to kill about 30 minutes waiting for my net planned stop to open, and I had noticed...
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theChive HQ
26 August 2022(Downtown, Austin, TX) Scooter’s 1560th bar, first visited in 2022. After a long-ish walk from Friends Bar (made longer with a side trip to CVS to buy a forgotten toothbrush)...
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Dive bar Archive
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#1770: Rick’s
Posted on August 2024 | No Comments(Fargo, ND) Scooter’s 1770th bar, first visited in 2024. I have to admit, I was a little nervous getting dropped off here. Not that I was worried about the bar... -
#1769: Dempsey’s Public House
Posted on August 2024 | No Comments(Downtown, Fargo, ND) Scooter’s 1769th bar, first visited in 2024. After striking out at two places that were closed for various reasons, I swapped in another place from my “if... -
#1768: Rooters Bar
Posted on August 2024 | No Comments(Downtown, Fargo, ND) Scooter’s 1768th bar, first visited in 2024. This cash-only expansive sports dive has multiple rooms and multiple bar counters. There’s darts, at least one pool table, and... -
#1767: Fort Noks Bar of Gold
Posted on August 2024 | No Comments(Downtown, Fargo, ND) Scooter’s 1767th bar, first visited in 2024. I’m not going to lie, I visited this bar (located in a historic former bank building) only for its name.... -
#1766: Sports Bar
Posted on August 2024 | No Comments(Downtown, Fargo, ND) Scooter’s 1766th bar, first visited in 2024. Resuming my originally-scheduled programming, my next stop was a sports bar named… Sports Bar. This sports dive is bigger than... -
#1762: Chubs
Posted on August 2024 | No Comments(Downtown, Fargo, ND) Scooter’s 1762nd bar, first visited in 2024. This dive bar wasn’t originally on my radar but while I was finalizing my travel plans I realized it was... -
#1754: Monowi Tavern
Posted on July 2024 | No Comments(Monowi, NE) Scooter’s 1754th bar, first visited in 2024. On the last day of this vacation we took back roads and dropped down into northeastern Nebraska, specifically to visit the... -
#1750: Wagon Wheel Bar
Posted on July 2024 | No Comments(Interior, SD) Scooter’s 1750th bar, first visited in 2024. While driving through Badlands National Park we accidentally exited the park, and we decided “why not drive on to that little... -
#1749: Big Dummy’s
Posted on July 2024 | No Comments(Downtown, Mitchell, SD) Scooter’s 1749th bar, first visited in 2024. My picture is of the back because from the front it look closed, but when we circled back around the... -
#1740: Friendly Valley Tavern
Posted on December 2023 | No Comments(Peoria, IL) Scooter’s 1740th bar, first visited in 2023. Our last dive bar for this trip opened in an old bunker in 1947. The oddly-shaped building features a low and... -
#1739: Tartan Inn
Posted on December 2023 | No Comments(West Peoria, IL) Scooter’s 1739th bar, first visited in 2023. We decided to visit just one other bar in West Peoria, and it was a choice between Owls Nest and... -
#1738: Mike’s Tavern
Posted on December 2023 | No Comments(West Peoria, IL) Scooter’s 1738th bar, first visited in 2023. The town of West Peoria has a cluster of neighborhood dive bars, and we decided to explore a couple of... -
#1737: West Town Tap
Posted on December 2023 | No Comments(West Bluff, Peoria, IL) Scooter’s 1737th bar, first visited in 2023. This dive bar serves breakfast from 6am-2pm daily, so seemed like a good place to start the day. Most... -
#1736: The Basket Case
Posted on December 2023 | No Comments(West Bluff, Peoria, IL) Scooter’s 1736th bar, first visited in 2023. We hadn’t been to a dive bar yet on this trip and my wife wanted to sing, so after... -
#1729: Fat Boyz Grill & Bar
Posted on December 2023 | No Comments(Downtown, Kearney, MO) Scooter’s 1729th bar, first visited in 2023. We came up here for a big cannabis sale at a nearby dispensary, then decided to check out the local... -
#1719: The Sociable Inn
Posted on October 2023 | No Comments(Millard, Omaha, NE) Scooter’s 1719th bar, first visited in 2023. We decided our next bar was close enough to walk to, so we set out on foot passing a new... -
#1718: Piccolo’s Bar
Posted on October 2023 | No Comments(Millard, Omaha, NE) Scooter’s 1718th bar, first visited in 2023. This was an unplanned stop, but it was literally right next door so it would have been dumb to not... -
#1717: Joe’s Duck Inn
Posted on October 2023 | No Comments(Millard, Omaha, NE) Scooter’s 1717th bar, first visited in 2023. After the morning breweries it was time for a dive bar break. If I had realized the route our Uber... -
#1712: Leavenworth Bar
Posted on October 2023 | No Comments(Leavenworth, Omaha, NE) Scooter’s 1712th bar, first visited in 2023. After St. Andrew’s Pub we still had a couple of hours before the other bars we wanted to visit in... -
#1707: Barry O’s
Posted on October 2023 | No Comments(Downtown, Omaha, NE) Scooter’s 1707th bar, first visited in 2023. This is another bar that I tried to visit in August 2009 but it was so busy it was impossible... -
#1704: Harney St. Tavern
Posted on October 2023 | No Comments(Downtown, Omaha, NE) Scooter’s 1704th bar, first visited in 2023. Another basement bar located a few doors over from Dubliner. Originally we weren’t going to stop here, but we were...