# Songs with actual bars and restaurants in the lyrics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301 "2016-02-16T22:50:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/21 "2016-02-17T01:26:10Z")
I was down at the New Amsterdam staring at this yellow-haired girl. Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation with this black- haired flamenco dancer. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/22 "2016-02-17T01:26:38Z")
There was a bar located at a levee in Don McLean’s hometown. No way to know if that’s what he was thinking of though. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/23 "2016-02-17T01:27:35Z")
The 21 Club gets a shoutout in both “This Could Be the Start of Something Big” and Cole Porter’s “Down in the Depths (on the 90th Floor)” ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/24 "2016-02-17T01:34:22Z")
The song Looking For Love by Johnny Lee was about Gilley’s Bar in Pasadena, TX. As a matter a fact, the whole movie Urban Cowboy that used it in its soundtrack was based on it. Damn, Debra Winger was pretty hot back in the day. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/FAyDmJvjxbg/hqdefault.jpg "JOHNNY LEE ~ LOOKING FOR LOVE [LYRICS]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAyDmJvjxbg) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/25 "2016-02-17T02:05:53Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > [The Whiffenpoof Song](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Whiffenpoof_Song) is an old standard that qualifies. Cornell’s fight song, “Give my regards to Davy” also qualifies: \*Give my regards to Davy, Remember me to Teefy Crane, Tell all the pikers on the Hill That I’ll be back again. Tell them of how I busted Lapping up the high, high ball We’ll all have drinks at **Theodore Zinck’s** When I get back next fall. \* ---
**Author:** ![Zeke\_N.Destroi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/4af34b/32.png) [@Zeke\_N.Destroi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeke_N.Destroi)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/26 "2016-02-17T02:10:00Z")
“I took myself down to the Tally-Ho Tavern…” - Silver-Tongued Devil - Kris Kristofferson “I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel…” - Chelsea Hotel #2 - Leonard Cohen ← I fugre if a bar that only came into existence 8 years after the song (Margarittaville) counts then I can use a hotel 😉 Zeke ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/27 "2016-02-17T02:13:35Z")
“Put On Your Sunday Clothes” from “Hello Dolly!” has: We’ll see the shows at Delmonico’s And we’ll close the town in a whirl And we won’t come home until we’ve kissed a girl! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/28 "2016-02-17T02:25:59Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > _I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic’s._ ^ ^ ^ ^ Mentioned in the OP. Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)”: Mama Leone’s. “Mama Leone left a note on the door. She said, ‘Sonny, move out to the country.’” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/29 "2016-02-17T02:29:27Z")
“We’ll eat dinner at your favorite Schrafft’s” from London Wainwright III’s “Uptown.”. Schrafft’s was a chain of restaurants in NYC for many years. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/30 "2016-02-17T02:31:12Z")
The song “Come Up To My Place” from “On The Town” mentions: - Lindy’s - Lüchow’s - Reuben’s - Roxy’s ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/31 "2016-02-17T02:37:20Z")
The [_Live at the Sands_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uziv5cnjKLs) version of “My Kind of Town” by Frank Sinatra mentions “the jumpin’ Pump Room” in it (at 2:14), which was a famous celebrity-spotting restaurant in the old Ambassador East Hotel (now the Public Chicago Hotel.) It’s also the restaurant that inspired the name of Phil Collins’ _No Jacket Required_ (after Phil was refused entry for not having a proper enough jacket to dine there.) ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/32 "2016-02-17T02:41:54Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > ^ ^ ^ ^ > Mentioned in the OP. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/33 "2016-02-17T02:43:33Z")
“University Boulevard/New Hampshire Avenue/Tick Tock Liquor/Thunderbird!” - [Worm Drink](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shYtEOUHB9E) by Clutch “Tick Tock” is a liquor store near the University of Maryland (where the band went to college) that is notorious for their, um, less-than-rigorous carding policy. Not that that is a rarity for liquor stores in the vicinity of colleges, but I believe Tick Tock’s signature feature is the off-duty cops standing guard who couldn’t care less. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/34 "2016-02-17T02:45:02Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)”: Mama Leone’s. > > “Mama Leone left a note on the door. She said, ‘Sonny, move out to the country.’” A bar left a note on the door? ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/35 "2016-02-17T02:46:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I thought it was Luna, on Mulberry. Nah, Billy Joel stated in an interview [that it was Fontana di Trevi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_from_an_Italian_Restaurant): > [@good-enough-for-SDMB-work-wiki-cite](#): > > After years of speculation about exactly which restaurant inspired the song, Joel stated in an interview included on 2008’s The Stranger 30th Anniversary Edition DVD that the song was written about Fontana di Trevi, a restaurant across from Carnegie Hall, which he frequented during a series of June 1977 concerts. Didn’t stop Christiano’s of Syosset, Long Island from claiming this distinction for years. BTW Superdude, better get your X-Ray Vision checked, I mentioned Elaine’s in Post #4… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/36 "2016-02-17T02:59:41Z")
The Old 97’s song [Barrier Reef](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_8cSljATH4) starts off in a Chicago bar called The Empty Bottle. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/37 "2016-02-17T03:33:50Z")
Lynrd Skynyrd ran into the gun wielding boyfriend at a place called the Jug which refers to The Little Brown Jug ( now called The Jug Saloon ) a bar in their hometown of Jacksonville, FL. Oops, the song was Gimme Three Steps ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/38 "2016-02-17T03:41:10Z")
_I’m going down to the Dew Drop Inn See if I can drink enough._ “Play it All Night Long” by Warren Zevon I’m not sure if this refers to a specific place but there was a Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans. > **[Dew Drop Inn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_Drop_Inn)** > > Dew Drop Inn may refer to: ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/39 "2016-02-17T03:46:54Z")
- I was working on a steak the other day I saw Waddy in the Rattlesnake Cafe Dressed in black, tossing back a shot of rye Finding things to do in Denver when you die \* “Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead” by Warren Zevon I’m pretty sure the Rattlesnake Cafe was an actual place in Denver. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301/40 "2016-02-17T03:58:51Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > 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 “Psycho Killer” specifically mention CBGB. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-actual-bars-and-restaurants-in-the-lyrics/746301.md?page=3)