New York City's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving In the Five Boroughs (Gamble Guides) (Paperback)

by Wendy Mitchell (Author), June Kim (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

With New York City being overrun by cosmo-sipping, trance-listening, couch-sprawling hipsters, we thought it was high time to explore the places where real people settle in for some real drinking. If you think New York’s classic dives are slipping away, have no fear—we’ve rounded up more than ninety places where you’ll be scared to take your parents. Learn which dives have the best jukeboxes, the strongest drinks, and the most fascinating clientele. Want to know where to go to get propositioned for a threesome, meet a guy with a "Thrill Me" tattoo, or hear stories about some guy killing his dog? It’s all inside!

"Mitchell reviews ninety of the city’s skankiest haunts . . . hardly any of these dank dens are reviewed by those wussy Zagot surveyors."—The Village Voice

"New York’s best dives are included and discussed in hilarious (and accurate) detail."—Robert Lanham, author, The Hipster’s Handbook

Brooklyn-based author Wendy Mitchell has written for Glamour, Salon, Paper, Folio, the New York Daily News, Billboard and many other print and online publications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Gamble Guides (December 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970312539
• ISBN-13: 978-0970312532
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #691,779 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Needed Shot in the Arm of the Genre, January 16, 2003

By	J.H. Carroll (Bangor, Maine) - See all my reviews

As a drinker for a good two-thirds of my years, I was heartened to discover this lovely guidebook. It made me want to see my native New York again, to rediscover its sweet old barfly haunts, with their sticky counters and slanted floors--and pour down some potables at a few new watering holes.

Ms. Mitchell has an keen eye for detail and a fine taste for parts of the city that New York-based books and movies rarely depict: its seedy, soused underbelly. Does Woody Allen ever wash up at the Blarney Cove? Could Tom Wolfe trick fellow drinkers at the Sly Fox? Would you rather a Blue & Gold Budweiser or a "Maid in Manhattan"? Answer? A resounding no.

This book in engaging, informative, illuminating, and voluble, a veritable Zagat's for the demimonde. I tip my hat--and raise my glass--to you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding., May 21, 2003

A Kid's Review

A funny read- and a great bar guide. I'd been to a few of the bars in the book before purchasing, and I found the book to be accurate. I also found some hidden gems I'd never heard of- it is now my mission in life to become a regular at a few of the bars.

Highly recommended.

3.0 out of 5 stars Cool book, but out of date., April 23, 2008

By	FishMan (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

I love this book, and am a hardcore dive-bar fan. However, it seems that a variety of the "institution" bars the author talks about (village idiot, siberia, bellevue) are all closed. I seriously hope there is a new edition coming out soon!