Noteworthy Dive Bars of the East Side Bicycle Tour

[Google Maps.]

A little known fact: East Side dives are not just on Payne Avenue and Arcade Street. To adopt such a worldview would reduce the city’s complexity to cliché, to blind oneself to the rich neighborhood tapestry that is the East Side.

Instead, seek out the unexpected. Find the hidden dive bar on the forgotten corner, the row of nearly-bulldozed buildings, or the odd hole in the wall crouching at the periphery as you drive past at 40 miles per hour.

It turns out that, once you venture forth into the vast lands of the Greater East Side, adventure awaits. These sometimes mysterious streets house some of the finest dives in all the land, chock full of taxidermy, camaraderie, jello shots, entrepreneurial dreams, crock pots, and papered-over Zima advertisements.

[Until recently, Zima was on the menu at the Bee Hive, a 3.2 bar.]

(True!)

These are no ordinary dives, friend. This is the East Side of the East Side, some of the only places where I’ve seen people in pajamas, where I’ve witnessed the mailman deliver the mail and drink a beer. Bars that defy the supposed logic of time, some slowly wasting away, others brimming over.

We will be bicycling, a total of five (5) miles through the October evening air. A good time will be had. Some people will be happy to see us, others oblivious. What strange times are these! Trust me.

[The Sherwood Lounge: What is the Robin Hood connection?]

What: Guided bicycle tour of four (4) East Side dive bars
When: Next Thursday, October 13th, departing at 6:30pm
Where: Leaving from the Bee Hive, on 3rd and Forest
Why: Because it’s there
Who: Anyone. Free. Consider throwing a tip my way or supporting this blog on Patreon.

[Facebook invite here.]