New York City's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Five Boroughs

by Wendy Mitchell, June Kim (Photographer)

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.

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining read by a lady who really knows her stuff and suds. I love finding travel guides or travel lit that is not the standard fare and authored by a local writer. Highly recommended and make sure to visit some of these bars...a New York experience that you will remember.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Been to most of them...accurate enough descriptions...