Dive Bar Jukebox with Mike Vacheresse
"I was feeling single and seeing double. And wound up in a whole lotta trouble."
Welcome to Dive Bar Jukebox, a LAST CALL paid subscriber exclusive where bartenders, writers, chefs, musicians, and a cast of cool characters answer the question: If we were hanging out together at a bar and I put ten credits on the jukebox, what songs would you punch in and why? Their responses reveal thoughts on their favorite dive bars along with a hand-picked, annotated playlist for your weekend listening pleasure.
Please join me in welcoming today’s special guest…
Mike Vacheresse
Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, where he was the youngest of seven children, longtime bartender and bar owner Mike Vacheresse moved to Portland, Oregon, after college where for 11 years he worked as a bartender and wine assistant at fine dining restaurants across the city. His lifelong love for travel has inspired Mike to take bicycle tours from Portland to Napa, Niagara Falls to Nova Scotia, and touring for five and a half months throughout Europe, as well as backpacking through Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Central America.
Mike settled down in New York City in 2002 where he worked at some of the city’s top restaurants, Including Gotham Bar & Grill, BLT, Bar Masa, and A Voce. He opened his own place, Travel Bar, in 2014, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last month. The vest-pocket-sized bar near the southern end of Court Street in Carroll Gardens, has become a neighborhood institution (and heralded as one of top 101 whisky bars in America by Whisky Advocate magazine) with its deep and diverse selection of spirits, including more than 450 whiskies, as well as hand-crafted and barrel-aged cocktails. Through the award-winning Travel Bar, Mike maintains a growing community of regulars and hosts frequent educational seminars and pop-ups with distillers and producers from all over the world. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and explore that amazing backbar.
Read on for Mike’s philosophy on what makes a dive bar a dive bar, along with his favorite neighborhood example of the form, his go-to karaoke song (hint: it’s a Scottish band’s only major hit), along with an old-school classic country playlist filled with a whole lot of of drinkin’, livin’, achin’, leavin’, and just tryin’ to get by in life. Plus, the recipe for Mike’s George Jones-inspired cocktail, Feeling Single, Seeing Double.
Talking Dives with Mike Vacheresse
Before we even get into the DBJ questionnaire, a word about why dive bars are meaningful to me.
The only bad dive bar is a fake dive bar. I think that you know what I mean.
My brother owns a dive bar in Portland, Oregon. George's Corner Tavern. Tell him Mike sent you.
I celebrated my 50th birthday on the Gap Trail with my wife. On my 50th we were at a dive bar and they only had handles on the back bar with the price written with black Sharpie. It made me happy.
—Mike
What is your favorite dive bar and why do you love it?
Mike: Bar Great Harry in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. It's the kind of bar where I know all of the people involved—the bartenders, the owner, the bouncers, etc. I know their schedules, their regulars, and I know that they give a shit without being uptight. I have been to their weddings; they have dog-sat my dog; they even accept packages for me as I live around the corner from the bar; they have held a key for my houseguest and the owner, Mike (GREAT name) even lets me know when he is at a roulette table and rides along with my bet. It's even my dog's favorite bar (Coco says, "Thanks for the big ice cubes!").