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This article was originally written as a presentation for the 2019 Nightclub and Bar Show in Las Vegas - and it got a pretty good response so we decided to post it here too. We made this piece for people who own bars and want to know how to make their bars more successful. We hope some of the ideas and strategies here bring you lots of success!

Eight years ago we decided that what this world needs is a travel guide to the oldest bars in this country, and so since then we’ve been on the road quite a bit trying to find those historic bars still left in the US. Sadly, there aren’t many left – all the old, neighborhood bars seem to be closing at a pretty fast clip, but we’ve been lucky enough to find some real classics that are still serving throughout the US. It hasn’t all been easy (at least that’s what we told our wives), but it’s certainly been worth it. As a result we wrote our book, Bucket List Bars: Historic Saloons, Pubs, and Dives of America.

The upshot is that we’ve been able to document over 170 of the oldest bars in America in 25 major cities. These are places that arguably built this country, and we think that they should be recognized for the treasures that they are.

 

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Man we loved this trip - Motor City was a destination we both wanted to see since we were little. Both of us are gear heads, and so the history of motorsports and cars coming from this region was legendary, and traveling here was like going to Mecca. At the same time, the place has had a pretty rough life. It never recovered from the riots in the 1960's, then the mass exodus by the residents as one car plant after another shut down.

But lately there's been a renaissance, especially downtown, and cool small bars, breweries and restaurants have been popping up all over town. The new stadiums have been built, and the city is starting to come back alive. So we thought we needed to go find the oldest bars in the city and report on them for you. So here they are, the 5 oldest bars in Detroit, all vouched for by us!

 

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snake n jakes

The term “dive bar” used to be quite disparaging. There was a time when to be found in a “dive” was a bad thing, but that sentiment has mostly gone away. Today, people seek out a good dive bar. They represent a warm crowd, low drink prices, friendly staff and some good stories.

These are places you feel comfortable in. Sure, there might be a hint of danger to them, but that only makes them that much more fun. Spending an evening in any dive bar is a great time, but for National Dive Bar Day, we wanted to give you a list of the dive bars we’ve grown to love since we started writing our Bucket List Bars guide back in 2011.

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Soon you're going to be attending holiday parties, or maybe throwing one yourself, when you do, you'll want to make sure that you're serving the best drinks of the holidays. Sure, you can make a cranberry-tini if you want, but for us it has to be something traditional. We put together a roundup of some of the best recipes out there for making delicious traditional holiday drinks. Make them for a party, or just for yourelf on a chilly night - they're gauranteed to keep you warm!

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It might be for Saint Patrick’s Day, or it might just be a day of the week that ends in “Y”, whatever the reason, there’s never a bad time to visit an authentic Irish Pub. We’re going to run through five of the oldest and most historic in the United States, right now!

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