Roach & O'brien

Dive bar.

Smoking permitted.

PBR on tap.

Cool bartenders.

I like this joint.

I only went to this bar once, and it was to drive my neighbor to the airport. he told me to be ready at 4am, and his flight was at 7am. i checked the math, and it made sense, so I said OK.  it turns out his airline had not accounted  for some type of cloud formation, you know like stratus or nimbus or some shit like that. so when got to the airport, his flight was shutdown.

Instead of going home, he said he had to stop by somewhere. well it turns out Roaches was the place we had to stop by. its an elegant little joint, sprightly perched on the troves of Lancaster ave. i figured my neighbor had been here before, because everyone there knew him.

the beer was cold and served quickly. it was actually bustling, as Roaches opens at 6am or so to serve the night crew workers. i had a great conversation about one guy who is saving up to buy the internet. he said he heard being online was awesome, and I got going about Yelp, and it was just pretty awesome.

you may want to keep an eye on your wallet, as a few less-then-savory characters were present. this was about 10 years ago when I went. i remember because it was around the same time as Y2K bug. that was a bad time in my life.

I like roaches mostly because i can get a cheap beer and their bacon cheeseburgers are pretty damn good. Now if your looking for something other then a dive bar you can smoke cigarettes in then keep on walking.

Its the kind of place that still has the softball trophies from the early 80's hanging out all over with some antique radios and a god damn phone booth in the middle of the bar. i shit you not...a freaking phone booth with one of those big phones you put change in. Who has change anymore? Its probably the only stand alone phone booth on the whole main line. Get this...I come to find out that it is the bar phone too. Hello Roaches!!!!.....payphone. haha.

Old school dart board with real sharp darts. Fun. Now onto important things

The jukebox. This is the most technology that has entered this bar in 20 years. The still have tube TV's...no flat screens...and the 2 TV's aren't even in front of the bar. You have sit with your head turned sideways...anyway, back to the crazy future music box.  

The jukebox has a decent selection and if their is an artist you like but the song you want isn't on the list...you can download it right there. Cool. So I put my money in, choose a song and blammm!!! The music starts screaming out of the sides of the Jukebox. Yep....not a single speaker through out the bar. All the sound and power is flying out of the box. Now try having a conversation while sitting next to that. It was difficult and comical at the same time.

Roaches is about cheap beer and experiences....and every-time I've been there I've had some kind of experience. Either from 1980 or the FUTURE!!!!