Songs with actual bars and restaurants in the lyrics?

Cafe Society
1

So I was listening to Guy Clark’s “Dublin Blues” (I wish I was in Austin, mmm-mmm, in the Chili Parlor bar, drinkin’ mad margaritas and not carin’ where you are) and I got to thinking that I might like to take a drive to Austin one day and visit that bar. And drink a mad dog margarita, of course.

Are there any other songs that have actual bar or restaurants names in the lyrics? I thought it would be easy, but all I could think of is Warren Zevon’s "Werewolves of London that has two (Lee Ho Fook’s, which is closed now I think, and Trader Vic’s.)

James McMurty’s “Choctaw bingo” almost counts, but I think the pop, knife and gun place moved from from Tushka to Joplin. And I don’t think they had a bar.

Generic restaurants without the specific locations don’t count, like sucking on chili dogs outside the Tasty Freeze.

Where else can I visit and play a song?

2

Talking Heads:The single “Life During Wartime” produced the catchphrase, “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco.” The song refers to the Mudd Club and CBGB, two popular New York nightclubs of the time

3

How about “Girls, Girls, Girls” by Mötley Crüe. which references several actual strip clubs that were then in existence?

4

Less stripperesque: while the “Italian Restaurant” of Billy Joel fame is not explicitly mentioned in the song (Fontana di Trevi on W. 57th in Manhattan, apparently), and which “Parkway Diner” is also not clarified, Elaine’s does get a shout out in his “Big Shot” (I’ve been there, albeit well over a decade ago: not as impressive as you may think).

5

Alice’s Restaurant. There was a recent thread about that.

The Copacabana is still an operating nightclub.

6

Don Henley would like to meet you down at the Sunset Grill (Hollywood, CA)

7

The Commodore Hotel (and bar) in Memphis in “Dixie Chicken” by Little Feet.

8

I thought it was Luna, on Mulberry.

9

The Whiffenpoof Song is an old standard that qualifies.

“To the tables down at Mory’s,
To the place where Louis dwells,
To the dear old Temple Bar
We love so well,”

10

“Fast Food Song” by The Fast Food Rockers mentions McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

11

Suzanne Vega changed the name a little, but “Tom’s Diner” is Tom’s Restaurant in NYC.

12

Joe Maguire’s Pub-Slim Dusty
Joe Maguire’s Pub

13

Ben Folds Five, in “Army,” sings a line that says “grew a mustache and a mullet, got a job at Chik-Fil-A.”

Billy Joel, in “Big Shot,” says “They were all impressed with your Halston dress, and the people that you knew at Elaine’s.”

14

Mikey Houser “She drives me to drink and I drive her to work” references “The Nowhere Bar” in Athens Georgia.

Margaritavilles certainly exist now but were not a real place until 1985 approx. 8 years after the song was written. I think this is common knowledge for most but good JB trivia.

15

Blue Oyster Cult’s Before The Kiss A Redcap is about various happenings in the now-defunct Conry’s Bar, where BOC was the house band for a time.

16

Tipitina’s is a famous New Orleans bar/music hall that has a good song by the same name written about it by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Professor Longhair and covered extensively.

17

Good. Keep them coming.

18

The Rainbow Bar and Grill on the Sunset Strip is a really popular one:

“Somehow I wound up at the Rainbow Bar” - Jimmy Webb, “Crying In My Sleep”

“I met a girl at the Rainbow bar” - Warren Zevon “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”

“At the Rainbow bar and grill, I’ll drink till I get my fill” - "W.A.S.P., “Sunset and Babylon”

“At the Rainbow getting lit” - L.A. Guns, “Vampire”

19

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Beyonce’s singing about Red Lobster in the Super Bowl.

20

I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic’s.