The Most Influential Failed Bar
With its molecular leanings and misfit chef-bartender duo, New York’s Tailor was daring, eccentric and 10 years too early.
- story: Joshua David Stein
- illustration: Nick Hensley
Friends in Low Places
The original Foxz Tavern was a home base for the queers, punks, rednecks and redneck queers of Normaltown.
- story: André Gallant
- illustration: Nick Hensley-Wagner
A Ghost of Portland’s Gritty Past
Tucked beneath the city’s first Ethiopian restaurant, Langano Lounge was known for its free shows, pickle shots and requisite grit and grime.
- story: Ann-Derrick Gaillot
- photo: Lucas DeShazer
McHale’s Was a Real New York Bar
The Theater District bar, which closed in 2006, was the sort of working class place that no longer exists in Times Square, or in the city as a whole.
- story: Robert Simonson
- illustration: Lauren Cierzan
The Last True New York Newspaper Bar
Bull Moose Saloon was a hangout for the staff of the Observer in an era where everything seemed to matter both more and less.
- story: M.H. Miller
- illustration: Nick Hensley-Wagner
Everything Felt Cursed After Carrie Nation Closed
Before it became Ginger’s, the Brooklyn gay bar was its very own neighborhood opera.
- story: Alexander Chee
- illustration: Lydia Ortiz
Mermaid Lounge Was a Total Circus
The New Orleans music venue was a bastion of consequence-free chaos and eccentricity.
- story: Franz Nicolay
- photo: Nancy Laskowski Maas
Tell Me Your Double Door Story
In its prime, the Chicago rock club meant something different to everyone.
- story: Megan Stielstra
- photo: Double Door
The Paris Dive That Vanished Without a Trace
During its idiosyncratic reign, Le Fitzcarraldo adopted a chameleon-like existence, changing forms every other month. Then one day, it disappeared all together.
- story: Toby Cecchini
- illustration: Nick Hensley-Wagner
Where Have All the Tortured Punks Gone?
Grimy, dark and relentlessly unapologetic, Mars Bar was among the final bastions of a bygone New York.
- story: Rosie Schaap
- photo: Dennis Crowley
