50 States: Restaurants & Bars Worth the Stop
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ALABAMA

Restaurants

🕰️ The Bright Star (Est. 1907) — Bessemer — Alabama's oldest restaurant and famous for its unusual marriage of Greek and Southern cooking.

★ Big Spring Cafe — Huntsville — An unassuming longtime local burger joint known for old-fashioned hamburgers.

🎪👀  Rattlesnake Saloon — Tuscumbia — Eat beneath a massive natural rock overhang beside a waterfall at one of Alabama's quirkiest dining destinations.

🎪  Supper Heroes — Huntsville — Family restaurant built around superheroes, with comic-book tables, wall collectibles, and a comic-book-style menu. 
 

Bars

★ The Collins Bar — Birmingham — A respected downtown cocktail bar where bartenders are known for making drinks around what guests actually like.
★ Callaghan's Irish Social Club — Mobile — A beloved neighborhood watering hole mixing cold beer, burgers and surprisingly great live music.

​🎪  House of Found Objects — Birmingham — A cocktail bar crossed with an interactive art installation, packed with strange objects, costumes, games and visual surprises.
​🕰️  Flora-Bama (Est. 1964) — Perdido — Nicknamed “the Bama,” this wildly popular dive beach bar, oyster bar, honky-tonk roadhouse, and package store sits directly on the Florida–Alabama state line. At one time, the sprawling complex had more than twenty bars with several bands playing at once. The Bushwacker is its signature drink, and annual events include: Super Bowl Chili Cook-Off, Interstate Mullet Toss, Bulls on the Beach, and Polar Bear Dip. The Flora-Bama has even been mentioned in songs by more than seven country artists, including Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, and Blake Shelton.

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★  LOCAL FAVORITE = Under-the-radar neighborhood pick.
🕰️  HISTORIC = If these walls could talk, kinda place.
🎪  THEMED = Fun/Quirky/Spectacle/Weird/Unusual

🏆  AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT or BAR
👀  HAS A VIEW
🚐 RV = It’s RV-themed, an RV is on property, or overnight RV parking is allowed.

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ALASKA

Restaurants

👀  The Saltry — Halibut Cove — A seasonal, boat-access-only restaurant where fresh Alaska seafood comes with spectacular wilderness and water views.
★🚐  Talkeetna Spinach Bread — Talkeetna —  Seasonal. Housed in a shiny 1956 vintage Airstream trailer on Main Street. Famous for its piping-hot, made-to-order spent grain bread loaded with melted cheese, garlic, and spinach.
👀🚐  Alpenglow Restaurant — Denali — Upscale Alaska fare served with sweeping views across the landscape surrounding Denali National Park. There are several RV parks nearby.
★ Oscar's Taco Grande — Anchorage — A tucked-away Mexican breakfast-and-lunch favorite with an unusually loyal local following.
 

Bars

🕰️ Red Onion Saloon (Est. 1898) ​— Skagway — A former Gold Rush-era brothel turned saloon, museum and delightfully bawdy piece of Alaska history.

​🕰️ B&B Bar (Est. 1908) — Kodiak — Considered Alaska’s oldest bar—and displays its original liquor license as proof.
🎪 Chilkoot Charlie's (Koot's) (Est. 1908) — Anchorage — A sprawling complex with multiple themed rooms, including an ice bar, Russian Room, arcade, and saloon. 

​Whisky & Ramen — Anchorage — Japanese-inspired cocktails, whiskey and ramen turn this three-level downtown hideaway into one of Alaska's standout modern bars.
★ Salty Dawg Saloon (Est. 1964) — Homer — An old wooden saloon on the Homer Spit whose walls are famously plastered with signed dollar bills.
 

Key Guide
★  LOCAL FAVORITE = Under-the-radar neighborhood pick.
🕰️  HISTORIC = If these walls could talk, kinda place.
🎪  THEMED = Fun/Quirky/Spectacle/Weird/Unusual

🏆  AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT or BAR
👀  HAS A VIEW
🚐 RV = It’s RV-themed, an RV is on property, or overnight RV parking is allowed.

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ARIZONA

Restaurants

🚐🎪 Dot’s Diner & Dashes Airstream Bar at The Shady Dell

— Bisbee  — Step back into the 1950s at a restored 1957 Valentine diner surrounded by The Shady Dell’s collection of vintage travel trailers—then grab a cocktail from Dashes, a beautifully restored 1955 Airstream Trailer Bar just steps away.

🕰️ Jake’s Corner Bar & Grill — Payson — A rustic Old West roadside bar and grill with roots dating to a 1916 stagecoach stop between Payson and Globe. The tiny community and bar inspired the 2008 movie Jake’s Corner, starring Diane Ladd, Danny Trejo, Richard Tyson and B.J. Thomas, with the bar serving as its primary setting. Today it’s a popular stop for bikers, fishermen and road-trippers heading toward Roosevelt Lake.
🎪 Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament — Scottsdale — Step inside an 11th-century-style castle for a four-course feast while knights battle before you with live jousting, sword fights and hand-to-hand combat. 
🎪 Organ Stop Pizza — Mesa — Dinner comes with a show at this wonderfully quirky pizza restaurant, where the world’s largest Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ rises 10 feet above the 700-seat dining room on a rotating hydraulic elevator. Its 6,000+ pipes are joined by xylophones, glockenspiels, gongs and cymbals, while disco balls, light shows and dancing marionette cats turn pizza night into a full-blown musical spectacle.
🕰️  Durant's (Est. 1950) — Phoenix — Enter through the kitchen into this red-leather, old-school steakhouse, a Phoenix institution for decades.

​🕰️ 👀  El Tovar Dining Room (Est. 1905) — Grand Canyon Village — Historic dining inside the landmark El Tovar Hotel just steps from one of the greatest views in America.
★ Kiss Pollos Estilo Sinaloa  — Phoenix — A side-street spot locals seek out for Sinaloa-style grilled chicken and Mexican fare.
🕰️  Palace Restaurant & Saloon (Est. 1877)  — Prescott — A Whiskey Row legend steeped in Old West history.

​🕰️  The Crystal Palace Saloon (Est. 1879) — Tombstone — Originally built in 1879, burned down in 1881, was immediately rebuilt, burned down again in 1882, and was rebuilt a second time. Doc Holliday was its most famous patron.

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Bars

🕰️  Drift Inn Saloon (Est. 1902) — Globe — The Drift Inn Saloon is said to be haunted by the ghosts of ladies of the night because its second floor was once used as a brothel. Today, it’s known as a popular biker bar. So depending on the evening, you may be sharing the bar with bikers, ghosts, or both.
🏆🎪 Platform 18 at Century Grand — Phoenix — Board a glamorous 1920s Pullman-style train car where moving scenery outside the windows creates the illusion that you're traveling while you drink. Reservation recommended. I went there!  🎬  ROLL THE CLIP →  
🏆🎪 UnderTow at Century Grand — Phoenix —  An intensely immersive nautical/tiki bar designed like the belly of an old-world sailing ship, complete with portholes, sound and atmospheric effects.  I went there!  🎬  ROLL THE CLIP →  
🎪 Tropic Thunder — Phoenix — A darker punk-rock interpretation of tiki filled with skulls, lanterns and gritty tropical décor.
🏆👀  Little Rituals — Phoenix — An award-winning fourth-floor cocktail bar combining sophisticated technique with an unusually relaxed atmosphere with a view.
★ Yucca Tap Room (Est. 1974} — Tempe — A dark strip-mall institution loved for live music, pinball, inexpensive drinks and zero pretension.

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Key Guide

★  LOCAL FAVORITE = Under-the-radar neighborhood pick.
🕰️  HISTORIC = If these walls could talk, kinda place.
🎪  THEMED = Fun/Quirky/Spectacle/Weird/Unusual

🏆  AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT or BAR
👀  HAS A VIEW
🚐 RV = It’s RV-themed, an RV is on property, or overnight RV parking is allowed.

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ARKANSAS

Restaurants

🕰️★ McClard's Bar-B-Q (Est. 1924) — Hot Springs — A century-old Arkansas barbecue institution with generations of history attached to its ribs and tamales.
👀 Eleven at Crystal Bridges — Bentonville — Modern regional food served amid the architecture, ponds and Ozark landscape of Crystal Bridges Museum.
★ Oark General Store (Est. 1890) — Oark — A tiny historic country store where burgers and homemade pie make the winding mountain drive worthwhile.
🏆🕰️★ Jones Bar-B-Q Diner (Est. 1910s) — Marianna — A tiny, no-frills Arkansas Delta barbecue landmark serving essentially one thing: chopped smoked pork, by the pound or piled onto white bread with or without slaw and its tangy vinegar-based sauce (my favorite). Dating to at least the 1910s, it is believed to be one of America’s oldest continuously operating Black-owned restaurants and became Arkansas’s first James Beard Award winner in 2012. Get there early—they close when the barbecue sells out, often before noon. 
 

Bars

🕰️  Ohio Club (Est. 1905) — Hot Springs — A historic Bathhouse Row watering hole associated with gangsters, gamblers, baseball players and Prohibition-era Hot Springs.
★ White Water Tavern (Est. 1976) — Little Rock — A weathered little music bar that has survived fires and become a genuine Little Rock community gathering place. I actually saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers (before they were famous) in this small dive bar in the early 1980s. 🤣
🕰️  Maxine's Tap Room (Est. 1950) — Fayetteville — Opened by Maxine Miller and still one of Fayetteville's most character-filled drinking institutions.
🎪 Pinpoint — Fayetteville  — A pinball bar that becomes especially outrageous during the holidays, transforming areas into elaborate Christmas and pop-culture environments.
🎪 Callisto Cocktail Bar — Bentonville — A hidden tropical speakeasy tucked behind a painting inside the Midnight Gallery—walk through the secret entrance and suddenly you're in a lush, modern tiki escape with island-inspired bites and theatrical craft cocktails, including shareable punch bowls and drinks presented with smoke and other surprises
🎪 Undercroft — Bentonville — A hidden, dimly lit speakeasy beneath a restored 1898 church, home to The Preacher’s Son restaurant upstairs. Slip through a side archway marked simply “BAR” or a basement door marked “COATROOM” to find an intimate underground lounge with craft cocktails, small plates and live music—especially jazz.

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Key Guide

★  LOCAL FAVORITE = Under-the-radar neighborhood pick.
🕰️  HISTORIC = If these walls could talk, kinda place.
🎪  THEMED = Fun/Quirky/Spectacle/Weird/Unusual

🏆  AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT or BAR
👀  HAS A VIEW
🚐 RV = It’s RV-themed, an RV is on property, or overnight RV parking is allowed.

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CALIFORNIA

Restaurants

👀 Shadowbrook Restaurant — Capitola — A romantic creekside restaurant hidden at the bottom of a lush hillside, where getting there is half the fun—ride the restaurant’s vintage hillside cable car down or wander through gardens, waterfalls and winding pathways. Open since 1947, Shadowbrook feels like a storybook hideaway with redwood, stone, fireplaces, multiple atmospheric dining rooms and the Rock Room Lounge & Patio for cocktails and casual bites.

​🕰️  Old Ship Saloon (Est. 1851) — San Francisco — Sits atop a Gold Rush-era ship graveyard. In 1849, the Arkansas sailed from New York to San Francisco, ran aground near Alcatraz, and was eventually brought ashore and converted into a store. In 1851, part of the ship became a saloon, complete with a plank entrance. The vessel was later dismantled and built over, and after the 1906 earthquake, a brick building was erected on the site.

​🕰️  Iron Door Saloon & Grill (Est. 1852) — Groveland —  Believed to be California’s oldest continuously operating saloon. Its name comes from the massive swinging cast-iron doors shipped from England. Located just miles from Yosemite, the saloon has wadded-up dollar bills covering the ceiling, elk heads hanging on the walls, and even a few old gunshot holes.

You know a bar is old when the bullet holes qualify as décor.

​🕰️  Balboa Café (Est. 1913) — San Francisco —  It’s also a longtime favorite for American fare and people-watching, and much of its historic interior has been preserved.

​🕰️  Musso & Frank Grill (Est. 1919) — Los Angeles — Hollywood's classic old-school dining room, serving steaks and martinis amid more than a century of movie-industry history. 
🕰️🎪  Madonna Inn (Est. 1958) — San Luis Obispo — A gloriously over-the-top pink palace of kitsch that’s as much roadside attraction as hotel, with 110 individually themed rooms plus plenty for day visitors: the wildly ornate Gold Rush Steak House and stained-glass-and-carved-wood Silver Bar Cocktail Lounge, bakery famous for its Pink Champagne Cake, and live music and dancing. 

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🕰️ 🎪  Magic Castle (Est. 1963) — Hollywood — The world-famous Magic Castle is the private clubhouse of the Academy of Magical Arts and one of Hollywood’s most unusual destinations. It started with a group of drinkers with a magic problem. 🤣  You can’t simply walk in; admission generally requires an invitation or other approved access. Luckily, I  knew a Magic Castle award-winning friend, Doc Eason, who put friends and me on a list. 🙂  I went there!  🎬  ROLL THE CLIP →  
Good to know: No photos or video allowed past the lobby.

 

​🏆  The French Laundry — Yountville — Has carried three Michelin stars every year since 2007. The kitchen also holds a Michelin Green Star, awarded alongside its three culinary stars in 2025 for sourcing much of its produce and herbs from an adjacent kitchen garden. 
👀🏆  Sierra Mar — Big Sur — Perched on a cliff, this spot boasts floor-to-ceiling windows, dramatic Pacific Ocean views & fine Californian cuisine. This celebrated restaurant at Post Ranch Inn.

​🎪  Mothership — San Diego — Crash-land on a mysterious tropical planet at this wildly immersive sci-fi-meets-tiki bar and restaurant, designed as the wreckage of a stranded starship. 

★ Las Cuatro Milpas — San Diego — A no-frills Barrio Logan institution where handmade tortillas and Mexican comfort food inspire long lines.

 

Bars

🕰️  Elixir (Est. 1858) —  San Francisco — One of San Francisco’s oldest continuously operating saloons, Elixir has survived more than a century and a half of the city’s colorful drinking history. H. Joseph Ehrmann became its eleventh proprietor and restored its Victorian bones in 2003, helping the bar gain international recognition during the early-2000s cocktail revival. Today, Elixir is known for its extensive whiskey collection and its dedication to preserving the saloon’s history.

🕰️  The Saloon (Est. 1861) — San Francisco — One of California’s oldest bars and has survived earthquakes and fires. Back in the day, the upstairs was a brothel; today, it's a legendary blues dive. Too many famous patrons have passed through to name them all, but one of the owner’s favorite stories involves Johnny Depp taking over door duty while the doorman took a restroom break. Imagine getting carded by Johnny Depp and thinking, “Well, this evening took a turn.”

🕰️  Buena Vista Café (Est. 1912) —  San Francisco — Best known for introducing Irish Coffee to America in 1952. Today, the café reportedly serves thousands of them a day.  I went there!  🎬  ROLL THE CLIP →  

​🏆🎪  Smuggler's Cove — San Francisco  — A multiple award-winning tiki bar. They even have a best-selling book!

🕰️🎪 Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar — San Francisco  — A Fairmont Hotel legendary tiki room centered around an indoor lagoon where a floating bandstand performs while artificial thunderstorms erupt overhead.

🏆  Trick Dog — San Francisco  — Award-winning bar known for creative menus. Trendy hangout in a converted warehouse with an array of craft cocktails & eclectic small plates.

🕰️ 🎪 Tonga Hut (Est. 1958) — North Hollywood — California’s oldest surviving tiki bar. Tiki culture boomed from the 1930s through the 1960s, fell out of fashion for several decades, then came roaring back. Tonga Hut held on through it all. 

​🎪🕰️. Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar — Anaheim —  Located in the Disneyland Hotel. Disney Imagineering meets happy hour—ordering certain cocktails can trigger thunderstorms, erupting volcanoes and other effects.
Good to know: You do not need a Disneyland theme-park ticket to visit. The indoor bar welcomes all ages until 8 PM; after 8 PM it’s 21+

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🎪  Strong Water — Anaheim — An incredibly detailed shipwreck-themed tiki bar that feels more like a movie set than a drinking establishment.
🎪  Scum and Villainy Cantina — Los Angeles — An immersive sci-fi/fantasy cantina designed to feel like you've wandered into an intergalactic watering hole.
🎪🕰️  Clifton’s Republic — Downtown Los Angeles — A historic, multi-level fantasyland of themed bars and rooms built around a towering faux redwood tree, indoor waterfall, forest scenery and quirky curiosities. 
Thunderbolt — Los Angeles — A nationally acclaimed cocktail bar combining Southern hospitality with California experimentation.
🎪★  Tiki-Ti — Los Angeles — Tiny, family-run and wonderfully eccentric, this Sunset Boulevard tiki bar has barely enough room for a couple dozen customers.
🎪  False Idol — San Diego — A hidden entrance leads into an elaborately decorated Polynesian hideaway.
🚐🎪  Trailer Park After Dark — San Diego — An underground trailer-park fantasy filled with full-size vintage trailers and wonderfully tacky furnishings.

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Key Guide

★  LOCAL FAVORITE = Under-the-radar neighborhood pick.
🕰️  HISTORIC = If these walls could talk, kinda place.
🎪  THEMED = Fun/Quirky/Spectacle/Weird/Unusual

🏆  AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT or BAR
👀  HAS A VIEW
🚐 RV = It’s RV-themed, an RV is on property, or overnight RV parking is allowed.

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COLORADO

Restaurants

🎪🚐  Happy Camper Pizza — Denver— A wildly photogenic camping-themed pizza bar where camper culture meets a disco party, with neon signs, twinkling lights, disco balls, fire pits, a huge patio and a 360-degree bar. The restaurant even calls one of its spaces “The Campground,” and the overall concept features campers, cocktails, pizza and an adult-summer-camp atmosphere.
Good to know: There's also a Happy Camper Pizza in Chicago.

🕰️  The Mint Steakhouse (Est. 1862) —  Silverthorne — One of Colorado’s oldest continuously operating bars, still occupying its historic building and using its original name. Features grill-it-yourself steaks, seafood & a full bar.
 

🎪🕰️  Casa Bonita (Est.1974) — Lakewood —A pink Mexican fantasy palace containing an indoor lagoon, waterfalls, caves, entertainment and live cliff divers. My favorite childhood restaurant.

 

​🏆  The Wolf’s Tailor — Denver— 2 Michelin Star Winner. Innovative restaurant serving wild game, seasonal food & tasting menus amid industrial surrounds.

​🎪 F1 Arcade — Denver — Drink, eat and compete in sophisticated Formula 1 racing simulators.

​🎪  The Airplane Restaurant — Colorado Springs — Dine inside a real, fully intact 1953 Boeing tanker at this aviation-themed restaurant.
Good to know: Reservations are recommended if you want to eat inside the airplane rather than the adjoining dining room.

🎪  The Rabbit Hole — Colorado Springs —  Follow a glass subway-style entrance underground into a former city morgue, now transformed into a dark, whimsical Alice in Wonderland-inspired restaurant and cocktail bar. 

🕰️ Buckhorn Exchange (Est. 1893) — Denver — Denver's historic steakhouse is packed with Old West memorabilia and famed for game meats.

Flagstaff House — Boulder — Fine dining high above Boulder with huge windows overlooking the city and surrounding mountains.

★ George's Drive Inn — Walsenburg — An old-fashioned roadside diner where locals come for hearty breakfasts and classic comfort food.

​🎪  Carw Gwyn — Denver — A medieval/Celtic-inspired mead hall with inspired food.

 

Bars

​​🕰️  Silver Dollar Saloon  (Est. 1879) —  Leadville — One of Colorado’s oldest continuously operating bars, still occupying its historic building and using its original name. Great cocktails · Live music · Bar games.

🎪  Adrift Tiki Bar — Denver —Escape landlocked Colorado at this immersive Polynesian-inspired tiki hideaway.

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🎪  Williams & Graham — Denver —  Step into what looks like an old-fashioned bookstore, then pass through a hidden bookcase into an intimate 1920s Prohibition-style speakeasy filled with dark wood, leather booths and low lighting. Known for its exceptional craft cocktails, the bar offers original creations alongside 60+ classic cocktails, some dating back centuries.

Good to know: Reservations are recommended, and the original location is in Denver’s LoHi neighborhood—there’s now also a Williams & Graham hidden behind a bookstore facade at Denver International Airport near Gate A38.

🎪  Retrograde — Denver — Enter through an ice-cream shop and discover a hidden retro sci-fi cocktail bar through a secret passage.

🎪  Adventure Time — Denver — An immersive cocktail experience that transforms itself with elaborate changing themes, games and interactive elements.

🎪  Hell or High Water Tiki — Denver — Haunted tiki combines tropical escapism with wonderfully strange horror imagery. Outside food allowed.

🎪  Beacon — Denver — A 21+ immersive-art bar composed of multiple artist-designed environments.

🎪🕰️  The Cruise Room (Est. 1933) — Denver — A sultry Art Deco cocktail room modeled after a lounge aboard the Queen Mary at The Oxford Hotel. They have quarterly burlesque performances and special year round holiday celebrations.

★ Yacht Club — Denver — An acclaimed neighborhood cocktail bar gleefully mixing serious drinks with hot dogs, High Life and lowbrow fun.

 

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Key Guide

★  LOCAL FAVORITE = Under-the-radar neighborhood pick.
🕰️  HISTORIC = If these walls could talk, kinda place.
🎪  THEMED = Fun/Quirky/Spectacle/Weird/Unusual

🏆  AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT or BAR
👀  HAS A VIEW
🚐 RV = It’s RV-themed, an RV is on property, or overnight RV parking is allowed.

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CONNECTICUT

Restaurants

The Griswold Inn Tap Room (Est. 1776) — Essex — The Griswold Inn sits along the Connecticut River and has welcomed travelers since the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. It flourished during the golden age of steamboat travel, and its long history includes famous visitors such as George Washington, Mark Twain, Katharine Hepburn, and Albert Einstein. Since the 1960s, the Griswold has also appeared as a backdrop in television shows and films.

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🕰️  Louis' Lunch (Est. 1895)  — New Haven — This tiny historic lunch counter famously claims to have served the first hamburger sandwich.
👀  S&P Oyster Restaurant & Bar — Mystic — Seafood accompanied by views of the Mystic River and its 1922 drawbridge.

​🏆  The Shipwright's Daughter — Mystic — Award-winning and has a James Beard Award-Winning Chef.

​🎪  Transilvania Restaurant and Bar — East Haven —  A playful Dracula-and-vampire-themed restaurant and bar serving Romanian cuisine inside a historic old mill, with spooky décor, themed cocktails and plenty of Transylvanian atmosphere.
🎪  Blondie’s Travelers Diner — Union — A quirky roadside diner where bookshelves surround the tables and every diner can take home up to three free books with their meal. Formerly the longtime Traveler Restaurant, Blondie’s took over in 2026 and kept its beloved food-and-books tradition alive.
🎪  East Side Restaurant (Est.1934) — New Britain  — A lively old-world German beer hall serving schnitzel, wurst and giant biers amid Bavarian décor, communal cheer and live accordion music. 

​★ Little Goose — Fairfield — An easy-to-miss neighborhood cafe tucked near car dealerships that locals crowd for brunch.
 

Bars

🎪👀  Tiki Bar Cruises — Mystic/Noank — Take happy hour onto the water aboard a floating tiki bar cruising the scenic Mystic River. The approximately 90-minute tropical party comes with a captain, bartender, island-style music and three drinks per passenger, with room to dance, relax and enjoy the scenery as your tiki bar slowly cruises along at about 5 knots.

Good to know: The tiki boat holds up to 20 passengers and even has a real flushing bathroom—which seems like particularly valuable information when your boat comes with three drinks.

🎪  Fable Underworld — Southington — By day, Fable is a whimsical tea house and magical gift shop; at night, it transforms into Underworld, a 21+ mythology-and-folklore-themed 
🎪👀  Port of Call — Mystic — A polished maritime-themed cocktail destination overlooking the historic seaport town.
★ The Elm Cafe — Branford — Cheap drinks, occasional music and a genuinely friendly neighborhood crowd make this a Connecticut local favorite.

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Key Guide

★  LOCAL FAVORITE = Under-the-radar neighborhood pick.
🕰️  HISTORIC = If these walls could talk, kinda place.
🎪  THEMED = Fun/Quirky/Spectacle/Weird/Unusual

🏆  AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT or BAR
👀  HAS A VIEW
🚐 RV = It’s RV-themed, an RV is on property, or overnight RV parking is allowed.

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DELAWARE

Restaurants

🕰️  Jessop's Tavern — New Castle — Casual pub in a circa-1724 building with Colonial fare; features servers in period costumes.

​🎪  Ali Baba Mid Eastern Restaurant — Newark — A colorful Middle Eastern hideaway serving Lebanese and Moroccan favorites amid tapestries, traditional décor, and hookah, with belly dancers performing on special occasions.

​👀  Grain on the Rocks — Lewes — Waterside dining at the Cape May–Lewes Ferry terminal overlooking Delaware Bay.

​★ Patty's Deli — Lewes — An unlikely little deli tucked into a gas station and loved for generously built sandwiches.

​🕰️   Deer Park Tavern — Newark — A landmark tavern whose long history includes plenty of college-town lore.

​★ Murph's Irish Pub​ — Wilmington — Pool tables, neon beer signs and an uncomplicated neighborhood-bar spirit keep regulars returning.

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Bars

​​🎪  Simmer Down — Wilmington — A sexy subterranean cocktail bar beneath The Quoin with brick vaults, velvet seating and serious drinks.

​​​Big Chill Surf Cantina — Rehoboth Beach — A laid-back 1970s surf-shack-themed bar filled with surfboards and beachy décor, plus a large outdoor patio and stage for live music and events. A fun slice of Southern California surf culture on the Delaware coast.

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Key Guide

★  LOCAL FAVORITE = Under-the-radar neighborhood pick.
🕰️  HISTORIC = If these walls could talk, kinda place.
🎪  THEMED = Fun/Quirky/Spectacle/Weird/Unusual

🏆  AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT or BAR
👀  HAS A VIEW
🚐 RV = It’s RV-themed, an RV is on property, or overnight RV parking is allowed.
 

FLORIDA

Restaurants

🚐  Airstream Row — Seaside / Santa Rosa Beach — A colorful lineup of vintage Airstream trailers turned walk-up eateries along scenic Highway 30A, serving everything from gourmet grilled cheese and Wagyu hot dogs to crêpes, smoothies and beachy treats. It’s become one of Seaside’s signature roadside dining experiences.
Good to know: Several RV parks are nearby.

​🚐   Hullabaloo — West Palm Beach — A lively Brooklyn-meets-Little-Italy gastropub with cocktails, pizza and a secret-garden-style patio featuring a vintage Airstream camper you can dine inside.

​🕰️★  Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish (Est. 1947) — South Pasadena — Rustic, cash-only, known for its smoked mullet and hearty German potato salad. They smoke fresh fish like mackerel and mullet for 4 to 6 hours over native Florida Red Oak. 

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🎪  Disney Springs — Lake Buena Vista — On Disney property, but you don't need to buy a park ticket. Disney Springs has more than 60 places to eat and drink, plenty of themed experiences, shopping and even Cirque du Soleil. And lots of RV parking lot room. There are far too many places for me to cover here—and I worked at Disney for years and still haven’t seen everything! Do a little research before your visit and find the experiences that sound best to you.
🚐 Good to know: If you didn't know, Disney's Campsite RV park, Fort Wilderness, is a bucket list stay. You normally need to reserve 6 months to a year ahead. Tip: If you're a newbie and do reserve a campsite, also reserve a dinner spot at their Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue.

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🎪  Universal CityWalk — Orlando — Universal CityWalk features over 20 to 30+ dining and beverage options (combining full-service,

quick-service, and drink/snack carts) and a concentrated collection of specialty retail shops.
Good to know: Universal has parking garages, not sprawling parking lots like Disney World. RV parking is available in the main multi-story parking garages at 6000 Universal Blvd, Orlando, FL 32819.  RV / Camper parking rate is $42.00 for regular daytime parking.
Free evening parking: General self-parking becomes free after 6:00 PM (except during select special event nights like Halloween Horror Nights), which applies to RVs if you arrive during the complimentary window.

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🕰️★  Lee & Rick’s Oyster Bar (Est. 1950) — Orlando — Mom-and-pop joint that locals are reluctant to tell you about for fear the restaurant’s long 80-foot oyster bar will get too crowded. 

​🎪  Café Tu Tu Tango — Orlando — A colorful artist’s-loft-themed restaurant where local artists create while you dine and spontaneous entertainment can include belly, flamenco and salsa dancers, musicians and other performers. Global small plates, creative cocktails and art covering the walls make the whole place feel like a party.

​🎪  Ford's Garage — Orlando — A 1920s service-station-themed restaurant filled with automobile memorabilia and vintage cars.

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🎪🕰️   Mai-Kai Restaurant & Polynesian Show (Est. 1956) — Fort Lauderdale — A legendary Polynesian fantasy filled with tiki, waterfalls, tropical gardens, elaborate themed rooms, and a live Polynesian show.

​🎪🕰️  The Wreck Bar (Est. 1956)  — Fort Lauderdale — A 1950s shipwreck-themed bar with underwater portholes behind the bar where live mermaids swim past during performances. This backdrop has been seen in many films.

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🕰️★  Versailles Restaurant Cuban Cuisine Est. 1971) — Miami — The sign reads: The World's Most Famous Cuban Restaurant®. 

Versailles is the meeting place of Miami’s Cuban community. In Little Havana, this iconic spot serves authentic Cuban treats like ropa vieja, Cuban sandwiches, and house-made Cuban pastries. For decades, politicians have sipped Cafecito at the famous coffee-counter window, La Ventanita, meeting there to talk with Miami’s Hispanic community.

Good to know: Why the name Versailles? The dining room is covered in mirrors, much like the French chateau’s Hall of Mirrors. Bustling with locals for more than a half-century, this restaurant has solidified itself as a Miami legend.

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🎪🕰️  The Bubble Room Restaurant (Est. 1979)  — Captiva Island — A wonderfully kitschy year-round Christmas wonderland packed across three floors with moving toy trains, Bubble Lights, Old Hollywood memorabilia and thousands of vintage antiques. 

​🎪  Barton G. The Restaurant — Miami Beach — An over-the-top “fun-dining” experience where dinner becomes theater, with gigantic props, outrageous food presentations, liquid-nitrogen cocktails and spectacular desserts designed to shock, surprise and be photographed. 
🏆👀 Latitudes — Key West — A short boat ride leads to beachside tables and sunset views on Sunset Key. Award-winning.

​👀  The Turtle Club — Naples — Located on the powder-soft sands of Vanderbilt Beach, the family-owned Turtle Club is a community hub where you can dine with your toes in sugar-like sand while enjoying upscale dining. While many seafront seafood joints keep things casual, this venue fuses “Olde Florida and New Florida,” combining relaxed beachy vibes with sophisticated modern cuisine featuring fresh catch straight from the Gulf.

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★  Star Fish Company — Cortez — A wonderfully basic seafood counter in an old fishing village where the day's catch is the attraction.

​🕰️  Columbia Restaurant — Tampa — The enormous Ybor City landmark has been serving Spanish-Cuban food since 1905.

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Bars

🕰️  Palace Saloon (Est. 1903) — Fernandina Beach — Fernandina Beach was a bustling rail and seaport when the Palace Saloon opened in 1903. Adolphus Busch, co-founder of Anheuser-Busch, served as a design consultant, and many original features remain, including the embossed tin ceiling, mosaic floors, hand-carved mahogany, a forty-foot bar once illuminated by gas lamps, and six commissioned murals.

​🎪  Bahi Hut (Est. 1954)  — Sarasota — Step back into 1950s tiki culture at Florida’s oldest tiki bar, open since 1954 and still filled with vintage Polynesian décor. It’s famous for its legendary Mai Tai—so potent there’s a two-per-person limit.

🕰️  Captain Tony’s Saloon (Est. 1958) — Key West — The building housing Captain Tony’s dates to 1852 and has served as a city morgue, icehouse, telegraph station, brothel, cigar factory, and speakeasy. After Prohibition, it became the original Sloppy Joe’s before that bar moved down the street in 1937. Jimmy Buffett got an early start here, Ernest Hemingway was among its famous patrons, and even presidents have visited.

​★ Mac's Club Deuce — Miami Beach — Neon, cheap drinks and genuine old-Miami grit survive amid glamorous South Beach.

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🎪  Kaona Room — Miami — Hidden inside an Irish pub, this intimate “speaky-tiki” is secretly accessed through an unmarked door disguised as “Caribbean Water Supply.” Inside, carved tikis, bamboo, 50+ rums and theatrical cocktails create a hidden Polynesian escape.

Red Phone Booth — Brickell, Miami — Enter a restored red London phone booth, dial a secret nightly code, and a hidden door opens into an elegant 1920s Prohibition-style speakeasy with craft cocktails, rare spirits and vintage glamour.

​🎪  Broken Shaker — Miami Beach — A lush tropical backyard oasis tucked inside the Freehand Miami, with a poolside courtyard, twinkling lights, garden-grown ingredients and inventive handcrafted cocktails.

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🎪  Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto — Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, Orlando — Often called one of the best bars on Disney property, this immersive tiki hideaway comes alive when certain cocktails trigger erupting volcanoes, glowing effects, sounds and bartender antics. No park ticket or hotel stay is required—join the walk-up waitlist when you arrive, and come early because this tiny, wildly popular bar fills quickly.

After 8 PM, it’s 21+. You may need to show your reservation at the gate.

Good to know: You’re welcome to explore Walt Disney World Resort hotels even if you’re not staying at one—and you can enjoy tons of themed bars and restaurants without a park ticket. If a resort has a security gate, you may need a dining reservation to park or enter by car.
And if you didn't know, Disney's RV park, Fort Wilderness, is a bucket list stay. You normally need to reserve 6 months to a year ahead.
TIP: If you're a newbie and do reserve a campsite, also reserve a dinner spot at their Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue.

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🎪  ICEBAR Orlando — Orlando — A frozen drinking environment filled with hand-carved ice.

​🎪  Permanent Vacation — Maitland — A theatrical and highly immersive tropical escape.

​🎪  SpookEasy Lounge — Tampa — A gothic/horror experience with spooky props and a downstairs Catacombs area.

​🎪  Joy Bar — Tampa — Christmas all year long, complete with tinsel, lights and holiday-themed drinks.​​​​