Oakland Bars

Geo(rge) Kaye’s

by Tanner November 13, 2010
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I stopped in here to say hello to George and to celebrate the sale of the Warriors. I ordered a tall one and a short one and sat down at the bar in the usual prematurely aging barfly posture. The place is pretty standard dive but they get extra points for the aqua marine color of the paint below the [...]

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Kona Club

by Tanner October 29, 2010

A member of the tiki lounge resistance movement, Kona Club split the head of the Kings X and opened a couple years ago. I held off going for a while out of respect for the fallen king, but the other day I stepped in after drinking a 40 at the Mountain View Cemetery for old [...]

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Merchant’s Saloon

by Tanner July 14, 2010
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Well, boys, I’ve found the bottom. I’ve been in dive bars all over this great expanse and this one is officially, undeniably, almost unbelievably, the lowest. What hits you first is the smell. You don’t see it coming. You step inside from the half artisinal, half Disney confines of Jack London Square and you’re hit [...]

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The Graduate

by Tanner February 2, 2009

I ducked my head in here the other night for the first time in a while for a tall one and a short one. I still can’t get confirmation one way or another on the rumor that was going around a few years ago that it’s a gay bar, but that don’t bother me. I [...]

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