I just learned of a unique bar in Great Falls, MT named the Sip 'n Dip: Sip ‘N Dip – O’Haire Motor Inn
I learned about it because their singing piano gal, Piano Pat, just died after playing at the Sip 'n Dip for 50 years:
Beyond the live music, the bar features a see-through swimming pool with mermaids. This is the type of classy joint I hope to visit some day. Their drinks are large enough to fit my entire bucket list.
I’m working on it! 
By the time I went there (in the late '90s, to see acts like James Brown and Doug & The Slugs), it had been split into (at least) two smaller-but-still-very-long bars.
Pre-pandemic my gf’s favorite place for an after-work drink was Papa J’s Centro, which is now closed.
It was located on The Boulevard of the Allies in downtown Pittsburgh and was originally a brothel! My gf’s ad agency got into some hot water over a gratis ad campaign they produced, making light (some said) of prostitution. The building had a tunnel that went under the road, allowing (back in the day) easy unseen ingress and egress for the city’s movers and shakers.
Please tell me Panther Hallow Inn (in Oakland across from CMUs main campus) is still around…
Gone for a while now, sadly.
When I was a kid we used to ride bikes from home (Squirrel Hill) down Forbes Avenue and into Oakland. In Oakland we’d buy fifteen cent burgers at Winkys, absolutely devastating the fixings bar, then ride down the trail to Panther Hollow where we’d sit by the “Lake” and eat.
The Phipp’s Conservatory allowed us to walk through with our bikes, and there was no charge. We would also lock our bikes outside the Carnegie Museum and go in (free, again) to see the dinosaurs.
Those were the days!
It wasn’t remarkable back in the day but nowadays I’m very excited when I see a Bar Billiards table in a pub when I’m in the UK:
My old local in Berkshire also used to have a traditional skittle alley in the back room, though that has long since been converted into hotel rooms.
There’s a place by me with a bar, live music and indoor sand volleyball.
The Glasshouse Stores near Piccadilly Circus has one of these. Great pub - one of my favourites in London.
Not so much an addition however there’s an excellent basement bar in London called Reverend J W Simpson which occupies a former brothel and they haven’t redecorated.
Another place in London is called Pong near Holborn and it’s a bar filled with dozens of table tennis tables all of which you can (and are encouraged to) play on. There are a few like this with different games such as darts, where you play a sport and they serve you drinks as you do it. The particularly interesting thing about this venue is that they opened it and then only later discovered that the same building happens to be the site in which the game of table tennis was invented. A blue plaque proudly explains the building’s significance above the entrance.
There’s a chain of “bars” in California that are basically a giant arcade/pinball room with a couple of bar tables on the side (picture linked here because it may be too large to fit in the post). Sadly, the location nearest to me has been permanently shuttered due to the pandemic lockdowns.
It turns out, throwing axes and alcohol mix better than expected.
In Chicago, there’s a couple that are similar but focus mostly on classic video games. Supposedly classic pinball machines are very expensive to repair and get parts for.
Giger Bar. I’ve been to the one in Gruyères, very atmospheric. More bars should have Harkonnen Chairs. More comfortable than they look
There’s one of those in Brooklyn, not far from where I live. I had no idea that it was a chain.
Eulogy was (it sadly closed a few years ago) a tavern dedicated to mostly beer. They also had mushroom sandwiches (most places serve sliced regular-size mushrooms. Eulogy served a single giant mushroom cap in this fantastic sauce. The fries also came with Belgian sauce) and fries. Upstairs, they had a ‘coffin room’. The whole room was decorated with death and the tables were coffins with plexiglass lids.
There’s a place in Albuquerque, called ‘Vernon’s Steakhouse’ with the same setup. It’s a fully functional mob-styled speakeasy, with a fantastic restaurant, all with a nondescript exterior, in a semi-industrial part of town. I took my folks to it and they had a blast!
FIrst time I went to it with my SIGO, I was circling the block for twenty minutes. Thank Og I knew the password.
Tripler
No, I will not tell you where it is, lest some mook visit me in the near future to ‘moitalize’ me.
Even though I have relatives in Wisconsin, I never got to experience that monument to late 1960s kitsch that is The Gobbler. But the place had a rotating bar. I don’t know if having a rotating bar offers any real advantages. I assume it’s just a gimmick. Actually, as I understand the theater that occupies the space now still utilizes the rotating bar.
But can you tell us WTF SIGO is?
I’ve been to a number of these ‘barcades,’ and pinball always commands a premium price to play. Where video games are free or maybe a quarter, pinball (and skeeball (sp?)) are a dollar. One that I’ve been to, I think Replay on Clark, had tape of American Gladiator on the screens (no sound) which was surprisingly more entertaining than the games.
I’m guessing SIGnificant Other.
