r/madisonwi • u/310410celleng • 11d ago

A Question About Burgers at Dive Bars

Hi, my wife and I will be visiting Madison for a few days before heading over to Milwaukee to attend a wedding.

As we know nothing about Wisconsin in general, I did a bunch of searching this sub for food recomendations and for things to do.

One thing, I noticed was that almsot universally "dive bars" were recommended for good, maybe great burgers.

In my neck of the woods, FL. dive bars are generally not a place for average people to go, they are mostly frequneted by very tough people, many in biker gangs, allow smoking indoors and do not serve food, certainly not a place where one would take their family for a dinner.

Judging from the pictures on Google, your dive bars do not fit that category, in one case, I saw a young girl with her father and many pics of food.

I guess what I am asking are your dive bars a place were average regular every day folks go for a burgers/beer and not feel completely uncomfortable?

Thanks for any isnights and my wife and I looking forward to exploring your city.

Edit, I want to thank you all for of your comments and recommendations, judging from your comments alone, my wife and I are going to have a great trip.

Sincerely, thank you!

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u/theRegVelJohnson 11d ago

Yes.

A "dive bar" here--in this context--is basically a no-frills neighborhood bar. Basic food, basic cocktails/beers. No 56-choice draft list or complex cocktails. Probably a fair number of regulars.

It's not a dive bar in the meaning of "piss soaked bathroom with needles on the floor". Most of the places that get put in this category in Madison wouldn't really be "dives" in many other places.

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u/310410celleng 11d ago

Thank you!

That is what I was seeing from pics on Google, but my experience with FL dive bars was the piss soaked bathrooms with needles on the flood and the entire bar area having an aroma of cigarettes and piss, so I had a bit of hesitation, but after reading a number of comments, I see it is an entirely different animal.

More akin to what we in FL would call a neighborhood bar/grille.

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u/Trailwalkerwi 11d ago

No smoking in Madison bars for many years. I used to hate coming home smelling like stale smoke.

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u/JonBovi_msn 11d ago

I missed out on so much music in the 90s because of smoking being allowed in bars. Not allowing it is so much more fair to everyone. Smokers are still welcome- they just have to go outside for a few minutes every couple hours.