My local is about to be bought by a new owner and she wants to change the name. It’s in a working class area of suburban So Cal. Anaheim to be exact. Yeah, I know, Disneyland and all that. The reality is that it is suburban strip mall hell, like so much of So Cal. and a friendly local watering hole can be nice place to stop in and have a few, meet the public, shoot some pool, talk with friends and just generally see and be seen. If the word bar brings up visions of the movie Bar Fly, that’s not the deal. The atmosphere is more like the pubs I’ve been to in England. Friendly, homey. I’m sure a lot of you know what I mean.
The clientele is “ethnically diverse adult contemporary”. The jukebox has everything from The Chronic to Kenny Chesney. Alice in Chains to Britney Spears (how the hell did that get in there?). Chemical Bros, Marylin Manson, Maroon 5, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors. There’s a small dance floor and a DJ or live music on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s at the nice end of the dive bar spectrum. It’s not upscale and it’s not pretentious. It’s music, pool tables, full bar and good times. But it really needs a name. Dopers to the rescue!
One of my favorite watering holes in NYC: “The Village Idiot”.
But then again, if I were to own a bar I’d name it with a pun about it’s location anyway. In Ramsey NJ there’s the “Trackside Inn”. In North Dakota, on a lake there’s the “Water-ing Hole”. Take your pick.
Tripler
Of course for the best business, I’d name it “Beer 4 Free” and come up with some sort of gimmick.
Oh shoot, how could I have forgotten . . . :smack:
Do you know how many bars I’ve seen called “The Office”?
Husband: “Honey, I’m home!”
Wife: “Hi honey! It’s pretty late! Where have you been?”
Husband: “Oh, I had to spend a little extra time at ‘The Office’ today . . .”
::insert cheezy commercial jingle::
Tripler
Or you could call it “The Bookstore” or “Work” or “The Library” etc.
If Larry Niven was not indulging himself in a bit of arcane leg-pulling, there is actually one of those, named after the George Carlin joke, somewhere near his home. He mentions visiting it in passing in the endnotes to one of his stories in a one-person anthology.
It’s my standard entry in “Name Our Band” threads, and it would work for a bar (especially an ethnically diverse one) as well: (The) Social Ramble, from Satchel Paige’s Rules for Living (see post #3 in this thread from another forum).
