Richmond has plenty of dive bars, some on the seedy side, others on the beloved, “clean well-lighted place” side.
According to the Urban Dictionary, a dive bar can be “a well-worn, unglamorous bar, often serving a cheap, simple selection of drinks to a regular clientele. The term can describe anything from a comfortable-but-basic neighborhood pub to the nastiest swill-slinging hole.”
Here’s our list of five favorite dive bars — that run the gamut from clean to gritty — in Richmond and a brief history behind them.
The best 5 dive bars in Richmond
Bamboo Cafe
With its pressed tin ceilings, old fashioned bar, and warm, inviting interior, Bamboo Cafe is the epitome of Ernest Hemingway’s “clean well-lighted place.”
Bamboo Cafe has been a Fan staple since the 1970s with the main mantra of “nothing ever changes,” owner Adrienne LaPrade said with a chuckle. She should know, since she’s been waiting tables and bartending there since the 1980s.
“I’ve done everything except cook in the kitchen, which is the size of a closet,” LaPrade said.
Her late husband, Martin White, took over Bamboo in 1992 and she inherited it after his death in 2004.
With its wood booths, the occasional red-and-white checkered tablecloth and old timey photographs on the wall, Bamboo has a timeless grace, pours strong drinks and serves dependable food from burgers to filet mignon.
“Nothing changes here. It upsets the customers to find someone new working here,” LaPrade said.
Beers are $3 and during happy hour, Monday-Friday from 3 p.m.-6 p.m., it’s $1 off any rail drink.
No-frills brunch is also a big draw with eggs Blackstone (fried egg, English muffin, sliced tomato, Smithfield ham and béarnaise sauce), steak and eggs, omelets and more. Dinner specials change often, but the regulars don’t.
1 S. Mulberry St. Monday-Wednesday noon-midnight, Thursday to Saturday noon-2 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-midnight. https://www.bamboocaferva.com
Town Hall
Town Hall opened during the pandemic at 3123 W. Cary St. in the former Weezie’s Kitchen space in Carytown in 2020. The self-described dive bar is owned by Mike Yavorsky, Culinary Institute of America-trained chef and owner of Belmont Food Shop.
“Here it’s a lot of local people. They get PBR and a shot,” the bartender Justin Humphries said.
For example, you can get Pabst Blue Ribbon for $1.50 during happy hour, or $3 during regular hours.
“The (bar) landscape has changed,” Humphries said. “We’re missing hole in the wall type bars. Places like Cary St. Café and F.W. Sullivan’s have disappeared in the Fan.”
Town Hall is filling that space, catering to regulars with cheap beer and jello shots for $1-3. It is dark and cool inside, with old Virginia license plates decorating the space above the door and flags from all nations draped from the ceiling. On Monday and Tuesday, there’s karaoke and the owner is hoping to bring back live music.
“Our prices are 2010. We’re a great ‘stop in place,’ if you’re waiting for dinner at Can Can or someplace close,” Humphries said.
The menu is simple bar and comfort food such as wings ($8.95), loaded fries, pork BBQ sliders with picnic slaw ($10), as well as smoked brisket or Boston butt.
Monday-Wednesday 2 p.m.-midnight, Thursday noon-midnight, Friday and Saturday noon-2 a.m., Sunday noon-8 p.m. Happy hour is 4 p.m.-7 p.m. https://www.instagram.com/townhallrva/
The Locker Room
Earlier this year, the fate of Richmond’s favorite dive bar south of the river – The Locker Room – was in question. Dodson Development Group bought the building that houses the notorious dive bar in March, as well as two other buildings, for $2.6 million.
But second-generation owner Lisa Ann Peters was able to negotiate a five year lease with the new owner.
“The place is doing better than ever,” Peters said.
The Locker Room has been serving Richmond cheap beer for 42 years. Her uncle bought it in the 1980s – before it was The Locker Room, it was Danny’s Dungeon — and ran it until his death. Peters took over in 2015 and has been running it ever since.
The Locker Room looks pretty much the same as it did when it opened in the 1980s: wood-paneled walls, drop ceilings, a pool table, darts, a jukebox and a large bar.
And the biggest thing: you can still smoke cigarettes in there. The Locker Room’s Instagram bio reads: “A Richmond, VA smoke stain for more than 40 years.” There’s a nonsmoking room, but nobody goes in there.
The Locker Room is home to a rotating cast of regulars. “If you sit there long enough, you’ll see every walk of life come through. We’ve got the senior hour from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m, followed by the laborers, the neighborhood people, hipsters and students. It just keeps changing through the day.”
5035 Forest Hill Ave., 11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily. https://www.instagram.com/lockerroomrva
City Beach
City Beach has been pouring cheap drinks in the Fan since 2016.
From the folks at The Beach House Bar & Grill in Innsbrook and South Beach restaurant in Midlothian, City Beach has a beach-y dive bar vibe with brightly painted green and coral walls, tons of TVs playing sports and a long bar where regulars pull up a stool for Moose Juice (a Canadian term for Pabst Blue Ribbon) and rail drinks.
Happy hour is every day except Sunday football, 3 p.m.-7 p.m., with $3 domestic bottles, $3.50 rail drinks and $4 Fireball.
The menu is huge with bar food such as Kitty Hawk wings ($11.99-$13.99), pretzel sticks with queso dip ($9.99), and buffalo chicken dip ($11.99).
2416 W. Cary St., opens 11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily, https://www.beachhousebar.us/
Poe’s Pub
For almost 30 years, Poe’s Pub has been serving beer, mixed drinks and tasty grub to Church Hill. The long, wraparound wood bar is pretty packed day or night, with a rotating cast of characters from all walks of life looking for a quick beer or a plate of stick-to-your-ribs “Poe’s practically-famous meatloaf” ($15).
Michael Britt has owned the Irish tavern since 1994. His focus is on good food and good drinks. During happy hour, Tuesday-Friday from 4 p.m.-7 p.m., domestic beers are $3.50, well drinks are $4 and drafts are $1 off. The Free Verse IPA is a favorite on draft from The Virginia Beer Company. Poe’s also has Miller Light, Devil’s Backbone, Sierra Nevada, Harp and Guinness on draft.
The atmosphere is well-worn and quirky with a picture of actor Christopher Walken at the door that says “Walkens Welcome,” a deer head over the bar, as well as plenty of Irish sayings and neon shamrocks.
Other favorite dishes include the baby back ribs ($17-$25), fried Rappahannock oysters ($17) and dinner specials such as steaks and seafood.
Occasionally, Poe’s Pub will serve up some truly phenomenal live music, such as local singer/songwriter Landon Elliott who is releasing a collection called “Live at Poe’s” from his recent four-week residency.
2706 E. Main St., Tuesday-Thursday 11 a.m.-midnight, Friday & Saturday 11 a.m.-2 a.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-midnight. www.poespubrva.com
17 photos of Richmond Department Stores from our archives
New chest president – William B. Thalhimer Jr. (right) moved into the driver’s seat yesterday after he was elected 1959 president of the Richmond Area Community Chest at a meeting of Chest trustees. He succeeds W. Stirling King. Thalhimer, president and general manager of Thalhimers, Inc., has been a Chest volunteer since 1934. William B. Thalhimer Jr., shown in 1959 in his role as president of the Richmond Area Community Chest. The man on the left is W. Stirling King, a former mayor of Richmond and Thalhimer’s immediate predecessor as Community Chest president.
This December 1950 image of East Broad Street at Fifth Street in downtown Richmond shows crowds of holiday shoppers visiting such stores as Baker’s, Peoples Drug, Swatty’s Pants, Haverty’s Furniture and Raylass Department Store.
In October 1955, a U.S. mail truck navigated Broad Street downtown across from the Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads department stores.
This February 1953 image shows the old Miller & Rhoads Corner Shop and the adjoining Woolworth’s at Fifth and East Broad streets downtown, just before they were torn down. The replacement building that opened the following year still housed the two retailers but in a different configuration.
In January 1975, shoppers passed by “the clock” at Miller & Rhoads in downtown Richmond. The distinct timepiece with four faces was installed in the department store in the mid-1920s; it can be seen today at the Valentine Richmond History Center.
In May 1936, the Charles Stores Company department store opened on East Broad Street between First and Foushee streets. This store featured 23 departments, and some grand opening specials included women’s dresses and white shoes for $1 and men’s dress shirts for 50 cents. A parking lot now occupies the site. 5-7-1936: New location of the Charles Stores at 13-17 East Broad Street. Lease negotiations were handled by the office of Gordon E. Strause.
In March 1967, Miller & Rhoads opened its new “Collector’s Corner” between the Tea Room and the Ladies Room on the fifth floor of the East Broad Street store downtown. The new department included antiques, reproductions of old furniture, china, silver and curios.
On Dec. 23, 1968, Stanley S. Kidwell Jr. and his three children – from left, 5-year-old Rhanna, 7-year-old Megan and 8-year-old Wendy – watched the stuffed animals prance in the snow in the window display of Miller & Rhoads downtown. Under the direction of Addison Lewis, the Miller & Rhoads Christmas window displays became one of the most anticipated parts of the season in Richmond.
This June 1950 image shows the Harper’s Department Store at 201 E. Broad St. The store opened in 1933 as The Linen Mart. After closing in 2006, the store was sold to developers who found the contents to be a bit like a time capsule, with items dating back decades – including a men’s leather jacket priced at $10 and a boy’s three-piece wool suit with dress shirt for $4.99. The contents were bought by two local collectors. The building still stands unoccupied. Harper’s Inc. 201 E. Broad, T-D Mag.
This May 1957 image shows the Woolworth’s at Fifth and Broad streets in downtown Richmond. The $1 million building opened in September 1954, and it housed several departments for the nearby Miller & Rhoads, which had an earlier store on the site in the late 1800s. An ad for the Woolworth’s Easter sale offered handbags for $1, records for 99 cents, and cowhide and plastic belts for between 39 and 98 cents.
Thalhimers added a new entrance to its downtown store the same year of the 1929 stock market crash.
In August 1954, J. Harold Dunn worked to set up his Dunn Bros. miniature circus – “the biggest little show on Earth,” as it proclaimed itself – at Miller & Rhoads in downtown Richmond. Admission was 25 cents for adults, 15 cents for children 12 and younger. Several years earlier, the newspaper reported that the 475,000-piece circus took five men 48 hours to set up on a 60-by-28 foot-table – and seven hours to break down.
In February 1951, this window display, using Richmond Times-Dispatch and Richmond News-Leader pages for a background, was set up in a Grace Street window of Miller & Rhoads in connection with the approach of Easter and new spring finery. Addison Lewis was director of window displays at the department store for 52 years, a span in which the scenes became extremely popular.
In August 1951, saleswoman Eunice Hester tried to help Robert Matthews select a fragrance for his lady at the Miller & Rhoads department store in Richmond. A caption that accompanied the published photo referred to “the dilemma of the he-man caught in the task of perfume selection.”
In December 1968, the first licenses since 1916 for the legal sale of mixed liquors by the drink in Richmond were issued. Here, Cornelius T. Rogers mixed a drink at the Hotel John Marshall’s Captain’s Grill restaurant while bartender Richard Kelley watched.
In November 1978, African-American women gathered for a beauty clinic at the Thalhimers at Eastgate Mall in Richmond. The clinic, sponsored by Fashion Fair, brought in beauty professionals including Pearl Hester (standing at right) to demonstrate makeup techniques.
In October 1955, famed chef James Beard visited Thalhimer’s new fine foods shop and conducted cooking demonstrations. Beard enjoyed dining on ham on Mondays, but he parted with tradition when carving Virginia’s own Smithfield ham: He preferred the European method of slicing it crosswise in long, thin slices that begin near the shank end and run roughly parallel to the bone. The annual James Beard Foundation Awards will be announced today and on Monday. The foundation, formed after Beard’s death in 1985, issued its first awards in 1991.
Colleen Curran (804) 649-6151
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