PALMER'S BAR

Minneapolis

You're having: Bourbon neat, beer back

There are dives and dives in this world. There's the type Guy Fieri calls out, old joints that might not feel like they need to get their hair done before seeing company but are nonetheless fundamentally clean and comfortable and unchallenging. Then there's Palmer's. Consider, for example, the "Wall of Shame" behind the bar: 30 or 40 slips of paper tacked to a bulletin board, all saying things like "Jose 'Joe' 86'd for being a fool," or "86'd … gutter punk for showing me his dick when he was cut off." Or the clientele, which does not exclude street people and the sort of untidy old men and women who drink bottom-shelf blended whiskey and make M.B.A.'s shudder. The urinal is a trough. There are punks at the tables and there's punk art on the wall. The drinks are cheap (make sure to get a beer back with your shots, which are poured double), and the garden pleasant, at least in those three months of the year when you can stand to be outdoors in central Minnesota.

500 Cedar Avenue; 612-333-7625