Annabell's

The crowd here can best be described as Cheers meets the Star Wars cantina.

Respectable dive bar.

Total "dive bar", and an institution in the Highland Square neighborhood. It's loud, dark, grungy and small (hence a dive) but one you should check out if you're into that kind of scene.

I used to come here a lot when I was living in Akron. As the other reviews have stated, it is the quintessential dive bar. In fact, it could possibly be the most perfect dive bar in Northeast Ohio (it's easily the best dive bar I have ever seen in all of my travels across the country and the world). The beer was cheap ($1 Amber Bocks drafts at the time), the jukebox had all the right albums, and the state of the bathrooms made pissing in your pants sound like an attractive option.

But sitting in there and nursing a beer, you would get to see a colorful cross-section of Highland Square, and Akron in general, blowing through the doors: Students from the university, tattooed artists and hipsters from the Square, office workers from the brownstones up the street, and people who just enjoyed drinking in a dive bar. It was a beautiful place to hang out on a Friday night after work, with the Pixies, Elvis Costello, and the Clash booming over the speakers.

I give this place 5 stars because for what it is, it's the best, but anyone looking for fancy cocktails and upscale gastropub-style food in a clean environment should be forewarned...