How's about the moloko bar from A Clockwork Orange? It always seemed completely surreal to me, as did the rest of the story. Real horrorshow, me droogies.
Looks like strong feelings about the elimination of the White Hart, the Draco Tavern, and Quark's.
I got a t-shirt at Worldcon years ago that says "QUARK'S" in the "Cheers" font, and underneath it says "Sometimes you want to go where every being knows your name."
@phoghat: I love Callahan's too. The stories are so funny and yet touching. I was gonna have to hurt someone if it wasn't listed here. It's the fictional bar I've always wished were real.
Arthur Cover here. This is just off the top of my head, but Lord Dunsany's Jorkens character was always telling stories at a club. Then there's deCamp and Pratt's Tales from Gavagan's Bar. My favorite though is the bar that exists outside the boundaries of time and space in Fritz Leiber's The Big Time. Then there's the bar where the two old geezers tell the tale of whatever in Pel Torro's fascinating, shimmering, brilliant, classic (not) Galaxy 666. All these bars are the ancestors of most of the ones you talk about.
Making your way in the galaxy today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from Uncle Owen, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your droids,
and afraid of your lightsabre skills.
You wanna be where you can see,
Smugglers aren't all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your droids.
I'm glad to see you didn't include Ten Forward. That place was a real snooze-fest. The only thing missing was some guy in a polyester tuxedo, playing a piano & singing half drunk between slinging insults at the patrons for not tipping him sufficiently...
@TonyRockyHorror: That I definitely will do... I really have to find out what happens to Marid--I really felt for the guy at the end of that book; and just kept thinking over and over that he shouldn't have chipped in that last daddy. Oh well...
umm who wouldn't want to hang out at the White Hart after a grueling shift in the salt mines.
It's one of Arthur C. Clark's lesser known short story collections. Every one is told like you're hearing it from that regular retiree at the bar who comes in every day seeking nothing more than a bit of drink and company.
Come now, surely you've forgotten the greatest intergalactic bar of them all. None of these other joints can hold a candle to Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe, where you can comfortable watch the destruction of the entire cosmos while kicking back the greatest drink in the entire universe: The Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster!
@bluehinter: It's more restaurant-ish than bar though. I mean, sure alcoholic beverages are served, but that doesn't really being it into the bar category. My choice for a bar from the hitchhikers' universe would be Stavro Mueller's Beta, although the only thing that can really be said about it is that it's where all the main character briefly congregate before the earth is destroyed.
I'd also like to mention The Winchester. Can you think of a better place to wait out the zombie apocalypse?
@RandomFrequentFlierDent: Stavro Mueller's Beta is widely regarded as the second best bar in the Guide-verse, being vastly inferior to the Old Pink Dog Bar in Han Dold City.
"There are no casual observers in the Old Pink Dog Bar on the lower south side of Han Dold City, because it isn't the sort of place you can afford to do things casually in if you want to stay alive. Any observers in the place are mean, hawklike observers, hevaily armed, with painful throbbings in their heads which cause them to do crazy things when they observe things they don't like.
There is an evil-looking bird perched on a rod in the bar that screeches out the names and addresses of local contract killers, a service the bird provides for free.
The hand and forearm of the original owner of the bar still hangs around- it had been bequeathed to medical science. Medical science decided they didn't like the look of it and bequeathed it right back to the Old Pink Dog Bar. The hand sits on the bar. It takes orders, it serves drinks, it deals murderously with people who behave as if they want to be murdered.
The Old Pink Dog Bar does not accept American Express."
09/21/09
09/21/09
How's about the moloko bar from A Clockwork Orange? It always seemed completely surreal to me, as did the rest of the story. Real horrorshow, me droogies.
09/20/09
For the, um...*ahem* very talented bartender. Yes. _
09/20/09
I got a t-shirt at Worldcon years ago that says "QUARK'S" in the "Cheers" font, and underneath it says "Sometimes you want to go where every being knows your name."
MORN!
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
Always wanted to meet the crowd in there--and not just for Punday nights.
09/20/09
09/20/09
D listers all.
09/20/09
Shouldn't that at least also say, "scum and villany"? (It is a wretched hive of them after all!)
09/20/09
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09/20/09
On a less picky note, glad to see Callahan's made the list. :)
09/20/09
09/20/09
Taking a break from Uncle Owen, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your droids,
and afraid of your lightsabre skills.
You wanna be where you can see,
Smugglers aren't all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your droids.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
He was in the holodeck
09/20/09
Chiri's club from Effinger's Mahrid Audran series.
09/20/09
09/20/09
Do read the next two books as well!
09/20/09
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09/20/09
09/20/09
The Draco is second only to Callahan's
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
It's one of Arthur C. Clark's lesser known short story collections. Every one is told like you're hearing it from that regular retiree at the bar who comes in every day seeking nothing more than a bit of drink and company.
09/20/09
09/20/09
I'd also like to mention The Winchester. Can you think of a better place to wait out the zombie apocalypse?
09/20/09
"There are no casual observers in the Old Pink Dog Bar on the lower south side of Han Dold City, because it isn't the sort of place you can afford to do things casually in if you want to stay alive. Any observers in the place are mean, hawklike observers, hevaily armed, with painful throbbings in their heads which cause them to do crazy things when they observe things they don't like.
There is an evil-looking bird perched on a rod in the bar that screeches out the names and addresses of local contract killers, a service the bird provides for free.
The hand and forearm of the original owner of the bar still hangs around- it had been bequeathed to medical science. Medical science decided they didn't like the look of it and bequeathed it right back to the Old Pink Dog Bar. The hand sits on the bar. It takes orders, it serves drinks, it deals murderously with people who behave as if they want to be murdered.
The Old Pink Dog Bar does not accept American Express."
09/20/09
Oh come on. This is a restaurant not a bar.