In my experience, most dive bars (and some “small town” bars) that I’ve been to, aren’t as popular with Gen Z and Millennials, unless if it’s located in a college town or surrounded by other bars & clubs.
It also depends on who enjoys dive bars and small town bars, when compared to regular bars and clubs, where you’ll find more Gen Z and Millennials.
Even though I personally enjoy all types of nightlife, I wish they would consider trying out different bars than what they’re used to, just to see what they’re missing out on:
Cheaper drinks, various food options, karaoke, pool tables, darts, etc.
One reason may be that, on the whole, younger people are less likely to drink alcohol, compared to prior generations. That may impact which bars (if any) and similar establishments they go to, as (IMO) the primary reason to go to a dive bar is to drink, and probably to drink a lot.
Also, if the “dive bars” and “townie bars” that you go to are largely populated by older patrons, that may not be attractive for younger people, especially those who go to bars and clubs to mingle socially, and preferably with people closer to their own age. Many 20-somethings may not find a bar full of people who are old enough to be their parents to be where they want to hang out.
I think the answer lies in this post. I think of the places I go to now (I’m in my 60s), and the youngest people in them are in their 40s. There is no jukebox, but the radio is tuned to the local 1960s-1970s-1980s station. Everybody gets along, conversations, are easy, and typically involve one’s golf game, the weather, current sports, and grandchildren. In other words, there is next to nothing in any of them that would appeal to a 20-something.
I recall being about 20 or 21, and needing cigarettes in an unfamiliar part of town. No stores handy, but there was a dive bar. They’d have a cigarette machine, right? Of course they did. My first impression, walking in, was, “This is where old people go to die.” I got my cigarettes, and got out. But in the process of getting change from the barman for the cigarette machine, I noticed something: these people were happily chatting over drinks, enjoying the radio, and having a good time.
See, the thing is, that the “old people” in that dive bar back in those days are what my contemporaries and I are now: in our sixties, and happy with a place where we can get a beer, and music we like at a reasonable volume that does not preclude a good conversation without having to shout it. Just as that “old peoples’ place” didn’t appeal to me when I was 20 or 21, my “old peoples’ place” today, though a dive bar, would have no appeal to today’s 20-somethings.
Not sure what reneration I am, the generations are largely a US invention.
Born in 1976. Proud dive bar frequenter.
The best, just by aesthetics, was the one where in the gent’s toilet, there was a blue toothbrush.
Back to the bar: ask. Oh the owners live here. That’s their daughters toothbrush. She was around 9 years old. Her room was directly adjacent to the bar. Fucking weird place. Someone converted the lounge to a bar, and still lived in the house.
The best bar I have frequented (by style; it’s not going to win by absolutely every other standard)
I agree that this is almost entirely about a perception by younger patrons that these sorts of places are targeted at older customers and are not “for them.”
Similarly, compare how the older, established fast-casual places like Applebee’s and Olive Garden are struggling to attract younger clientele, and their business is suffering as a result. From the perspective of a 20-to-30-something, Red Lobster and Ruby Tuesday are where their parents and grandparents want to eat, and that’s a turnoff. Instead, this generation is choosing the newer options in the category, places like Saladworks (only 70-odd locations, but growing fast), which offer organic ingredients, mobile ordering, and other modern perks.
It doesn’t matter how much that younger individual person might like their dad’s older brother, they don’t want to go drinking with them.
It’s just the swing of the pendulum. In thirty years, Saladworks will have given way to something else.
I associate “dive bar” with working class folks. The joint just outside the plant where Archie Bunker got a beer on the way home after payday when he was 25.
I bet those places are doing OK. At least the few outside plants that still have employees. And employees under age 50. If the OP isn’t in a neighborhood with young working class workers they’re not going to see the natural patrons for dive bars.
My supposition is you could find plenty of “dive” bars in rural small towns. Just look for the place with all the pickup trucks outside. But the folks in there won’t think of it as a dive bar. It’ll just be a country/western (the only kind) of bar.
Bigger picture:
The current situation in America is kinda weird as to SES & age. There are lots of well-educated young people who legitimately think they’re beyond working class, yet are in non-career low end jobs and saddled with college debt. Meanwhile the eldest boomers & the last of the pre-war crowd often did very well for themselves on nothing more than a HS education. Those folks have working class sensibilities but hefty entertainment budgets. And they prize frugality in a way the kids they raised do not.
Could it be the haze of smoke in most dive bars? Fewer and fewer people smoke now, and it seems likely they don’t want to come home with their clothes reeking.
My co-workers have an annual pool tournament at a local dive bar. I quit going because I grew tired of my clothes and car smelling of cigarettes afterward. I’d bet a lot of younger folk are turned off by this too.
I think it’s just a different sort of aesthetic that younger people don’t go for.
I mean, there are all sorts of cocktail and tiki bars around these days that haven’t been around for 60 or 70 years.
Going to some hole in the wall for cheap beer, shuffleboard, darts, and football on TV isn’t their thing. It was sort of a Gen-X thing, but more in a wink & nod kind of way; like so uncool that it was cool.
And for college age kids, they seem less social in a lot of ways versus how we were in the 90s. They just don’t go out as much, don’t binge drink as much, and so on. Dive bars don’t really lend themselves to that way of socializing as much.
Plus, there are dive bars that are local, low-cost places full of older people, and then there are “dive bars”, which are places that are aimed at a younger crowd, but have a lot of the same stuff. I doubt either is popular.
If you were born in ‘76, you’d be classified as Generation X in the U.S. The two generations the OP describes are younger: Millennials (born roughly 1981-1996) and Generation Z (1997-2012) — so, mostly, people in their 20s and 30s.
Aa a younger person I searched for these places. So sure, my friends and I were in the minority, but we’ve seen some beautiful dodgy dive bars. Great conversations with the bar flies. Now I am at bar fly age, have a beard and a drinking habit, it’s quite hard to find a dive bar.
The one I do know, I am boycotting because they treated a friend really badly, even by dive bar standards.
I like the Stag’s Head. I am referring to a place in Paarden Eiland, whose name I have forgotten.
I mean, a bar has to be really shit for me to boycott it, but managemnent beat up a friend so I refuse to go there.
I used to love the Standard Hotel in Maitland, but it got bought out by Nigerians who commited the sin of repainting. In a few years it will be back to the nicotine yellow, but until then, I won’t be back.
Another great (for a limited value of “great”) one is O’Kennedies in Diep Rivier, a dive so dive-like, I swore I would never go back. Needless to say, I have, several times.
In my neck of the woods, the Locomotive Hotel in Salt River is worth a gentle dop.
