Friday, January 11, 2013

the dive, improved

If you've been reading here for a long time, you might recall how much I loves me a good dive bar. TheMostImportantGuy and I seek them out any time we are on the road (which hasn't been much since the purchase of TheNewDiggs, but we still love 'em).

Well, there was a very divey dive bar in the east bay called The Ivy Room.  We didn't go there that often because, honestly...it was almost a little bit too divey, if that is possible. And there were two other cool bars within the same block, so it just didn't make sense to go there. It was very dark and old, and sort of grimy.  It was really two store fronts that had been connected by way of punching a hole through the wall. One side had a bar, the other side had a small stage and a little DJ booth. I'd only every really gone there to see a couple of friend's bands play.

Tonight was Kimberly's birthday, and we'd heard it had been remodeled, so we decided to check it out.





Pretty danged nice!  Some of the updates looked a little HGTV, or they sort of reminded of me Restaurant Impossible (is there a Bar Impossible??), but wow, what a fabulous improvement! Very sleek and fun, with things like old mattress springs or re-bar turned into light fixtures. Cool!  There was a very mixed crowd filing in of all ages, which I thought was great (not sure what the later night drink crew is like...we left by 8pm).  The drink menu was full of interesting things like homemade bitters and muddled thyme, so how can you go wrong with that?!

Definitely the new spot for early evening drinky-poos!

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