The Lounge

I liked the swamp grass drink.

When you step into The Lounge you are literally walking into the 1970s. Me and my girlfriend came into town for the weekend on business. We stayed at the Hotel Julienne and decided to walk Main st in search for a bar to relax in. We went Started on 2nd and ended up at 12th on main st and then headed back on Locust.  We used Yelp and either the bar no longer existed or wasn't happening. Because we were approaching our hotel we decided it was The Lounge or back to the hotel.

On arrival inside we immediately noticed the large array of coffee cups that adorn the bar ceiling and the Lawrence Welk show playing on tv. We ordered an Old Style on tap and got immediate praise from the 4 locals at the bar for making the correct choice. From then on we had nothing but fun. TC is the son of the owner "Ma" and he bought us at least 10 Old Styles along with a half dozen of Ma's Apple Pie shots made from Everclear. The beers are only $1.75 and shots for $2. You can't go wrong here. We ended up spending only $25 the entire night and had a blast. Get this, you can order 2 chili dogs for $1.50 or according to the menu "ask about our Mexican food".

The atmosphere is classic featuring Hee Haw coffee cups, WC Fields memorabilia, baby blue felt padded liquor cabinets, turn of the century wall pictures including one from 1896, wall barometer...  I challenged myself to find something modern from the last 20 years and only came up with 1 mega touch machine, the napkin dispenser and the tie-die colored duct tape that fresh adorned some tears in the leather bar rest (that all the locals were talking about).

If the patrons in here are as friendly as most in Dubuque then I'm coming back. When you drop in make sure you order an Old Style and buy an Apple Pie shot for TC and you will not pay for the rest of the night. We left at 10 and the party bus had just shown up when we walked out so I can only assume it has it's party crowd later on. If you are under 35 you will not know what half of the stuff is in this bar it is so awesomely dated  Check out my pics as well.

It took me 3.5 years in Dubuque to discover The Longue, and now that I have, I'm quite the fan.  Super cheap drinks, pretty dismal beer selection, and the wine is pretty horrible.  But there is just something pretty uber cool and Loungeish about the place.  Sit at the bar, try to score the Captain's Chairs at the far right.  Its the kind of place that you want to go to, but you don't want *too* many people to go to.  A somewhat unknown, somewhat unpopular cool place.  Give it the old college try.

No credit cards; cash only.