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Saloon crawling

by Pete Genovese, Star-Ledger Staff
Thursday November 29, 2007, 10:00 PM

SAED HINDASH/THE STAR-LEDGERThe Journal Square Pub in Jersey City is a convenient watering hole for commuters passing through the PATH station.
Forget neighborhood bars, restaurant bars, hotel bars, yupie bars, fancy faux fern bars.

Give me a dive bar anytime. Shot-and-beer joints with tattered red stools, ancient jukeboxes, and a clientele that does not include mortgage bankers.

No craft brews on tap, no potted plants in the corner, and no real food, unless you count Slim Jims. Decor? How about the jaw-dropping assortment of stuffed animals at Mountain Rest in West Milford?

Wallpaper? How about the flattened six-pack cartons at McCormick's in New Brunswick, where owner Jack Schobert painted the carpet instead of installing a new floor. Saved him $12,000.

Dives defy description, but you know one when you see one.

What follows is one writer's journey into the heart of divedom, a field trip populated with $1.50 beers; a cast of entertaining if somewhat eccentric characters; a bag of just-made zeppoles; a woman named Chickie and a guy named Vinnie.

Journal Square Pub
50 Journal Square, Jersey City; (201) 216-9632.
It is 3 p.m., and there are seven men, all drinking beer, at the 50-foot-long mahogany bar at the Journal Square Pub. It's nice and dark inside. Not cave-dark, but dark enough where you can drink, and sit, in shadowy silence.

This bar is the ultimate in thirsty-commuter convenience; it's across the street from the Journal Square PATH station. Not to mention next to Boulevard Drinks, New Jersey's most atmospheric hot dog hole-in-the-wall.

The striking pink neon clock halfway up the impossibly high ceiling came from the Tube Bar, once across the street. On tap: Yuengling (the biggest seller), plus Bud, Bud Light, Genny Cream and Bass. Upstairs is a room with a pool table; downstairs is the Parmigiana House, a casual Italian restaurant popular with local office workers.

"At night, we get a good crowd," said owner Tony Barone, a World War II vet.

"Middle-aged, no young kids. We don't want that kind of stuff. It's a mature crowd."

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