Harrisburg Hardware Bar

3.5 stars.

We stopped in on a Friday night. The skanky pseudo hot girls outside reeled us in with the promise of 25 cent drinks--until 11p. Figuring we could down as many shots as possible then move on to the next place, we walked in ready to throw DOWN some alcohol (not up..get it? Yea awful, I get that a lot.)

On this particular night, the main stage was inhabited by writhing drunk beings, a side stage (inhabited by a stipper-esque bartender/dancer), and a huge bar top where the bartenders/shot girls climb up for a performance every 15-30 mins? For a bonus performance, one lucky male customer was selected for a little S&M sketch unbeknownst to him.

We were also treated to frequent impromptu bar top performances by drunk girls with seemingly low self-esteem. Between scheduled and unscheduled dances, this basically means, after 11, there is always someone up on the bar, writhing. AWESOME!

Things got A LITTLE tense when they began throwing goodies into the crowd. I legit caught a T-shirt, only to have it grabbed viciously out of my hands by a "bride to be" surrounded by her (f*ckin scary) bachelorette party entourage. We eventually smoothed things out when she agreed to trade a balloon animal for my T-shirt. How I thought that was a fair trade? I don't know.

Test tube shot cheesiness aside, I thought it was a pretty fun place with an energetic, yet eclectic crowd. We ended up staying much, much longer than planned! That's pretty cool.

I hate coming here on the weekends.  One of the promoters seems to always offer the ladies and me free admission, so we'll go in and check it out and it's always the same scene.  Lameness.

They have local bands playing often, which I'm not really into.  They have the dancers on the bar, who aren't exactly Coyote Uglyesque - to say the absolute least.  (read:  they're busted).  

So three stars yeah... 25 cent drinks on Wednesdays.  How can you beat that?  Yeah, the crowd is a bit trashy, even by Central PA standards, but hey, 25 cent drinks - what do you expect.  Get your buzz on and then head over to Ceoltas for the Wednesday night dance party!