Hudson House Bar

How could I be the first Yelper not to give this place 5 stars?  Looks like a bar right out of your grandfathers' era.  Afternoons were dead but was cool, dark,  and quiet inside on a hot, humid, sunny, summer day.  Perfect to watch the Phillies lose yet again...  Much bigger inside than it looks from the outside.  

Surprised to find they have a pretty good tap list, all micros on tap, and if you want budmillercoors, they have bottles of those.  No food served.  

A very nice down-to-earth, non-hip, getaway from all the uber-fanciness on LBI.

This is my kind of bar!  A small, quiet, divey bar sandwiched between houses on the street.  You would drive right past it without thinking twice if you weren't looking for it and although it has a small private lot, a lot of people walk or bike there so it doesn't look like anyone is in there either.

They have darts for free, a pool table, boxing game ($1.00 for two hitS), shuffle bowling ($0.50 for 10 frames), a free shuffleboard, and super shot ($50 per game).  There is also an older jukebox with a solid selection from older No Doubt to Santana to Janis Joplin to Forest Gump soundtrack.  We had a blast at this bar.  So much so, we were there for a couple of hours, left to get food at Cheg, and then came back because we were enjoying ourselves so much.

There is no kitchen, just some chips and pretzels.  

There was some confusion about drink prices.  When we were first there, all of our mixed drinks (Captain and coke, Jameson and ginger, and Jack and diet) were all $5 - later that night, the other bar tender said it was $7 per drink but only charged us $5 after we told him we were paying differently before.  Beer was about $4.50-6.

Small crowd, not too empty, not too loud.  Bartenders were all younger, cool guys who were fun to talk to and joke with.  Another young guy posted out front to check IDs was also fun to talk to while people stole a smoke.

I've been hanging in LBI for the past 13 years, and I rarely venture out into the night life. Most of the bars on the island just aren't my scene, and it seems kind of pointless to spend money out in an overpriced club when you can drink microbrews on your deck in the ocean breeze.

However, I was bringing a handful of friends to our family beach house and wanted to see if I could find a fun place we could hit on a Saturday night. I logged into Yelp and searched.....  lo and behold, a bar listed as a "dive" in LBI? With all 5-star ratings? I had to check it out.

The bartenders were as friendly and awesome as could be, the beers were relatively cheap, and the ambiance was fun. Very mixed crowd, from 21 year olds to couples in their 50's and 60's. We didn't stay very long, but we had a great time.

I'll definitely be back next time I'm in LBI for the weekend.