Murray’s Place

I have heard that the bar is to re-​open soon. I wish I knew when. This place is (or was) an awesome «dive» bar with above –average food. This was a bar a bar to get away from «the scene» It was not too showy, not a hipster hell-​hole and, not a place that deemed too cool for school
was that was never over crowded and pretensions. I found always staff (not the owner he was Fn’ prick that looked and like someone melted the GIJOE figure in the sun) courteous and approachable, not to mention, it DID NOT take 20 minutes to get a drink could go there and strike a conversation with other patrons rather easily and enjoy your night. They had the best patty melt in Dayton Ohio. the team of juggalos that ran the kitchen were pretty alright Those cheddar cheese balls were probably from GFS but damn if they were the best thing you ever ate when you had a buzz on. PS WHEN RE-​OPEN YOU NEED A BILLIARDS TABLE !!

Ok, I love Murray’s. It’s not fancy or trendy, but there is ALWAYS someone interesting there. There is usually this eclectic mix of college-​aged kids, old dudes and people in between. Sometimes it’s packed, sometimes it’s not, but we’ve never been bored!
The staff is all very nice, although a little slow to respond. Debbie at the bar will make just about any drink you want.
The menu is typical bar food, but it’s decent fare and they have a good variety of food to keep your stomach from going empty.
Our favorite night is Saturday, for karaōke beginning at 9! All in all, it’s a decent dive bar. Wish they had pool or darts, but you’re going for karaōke or trivia on Thursday, it doesn’t matter.
If you’re a hipster or snooty, this is not the place for you!

I go here primarily (actually, solely) for trivia. It is not crowded, the prizes are legit (I’ll explain in a minute), and the competition is friendly without being cheesy.
We play «five action-​packed rounds of trivia» as the host says, with ten questions, a TV Theme Song, and a Song/​Artist. Each round gets progressively more difficult; each round has a definitive winner; and each round adds to your cumulative total. Here’s the breakdown:
1– $ 5 Murray Bucks
2– $ 5 Murray Bucks
3– Helm (Yea) Distributing Round & $ 5 Murray Bucks (Winners get a smörgåsbord of Pepperidge Farm chips and cookies. The entire room shares the chips while the winners keep the cookies all to the themselves.)
4– $ 25 cash
5– $ 5 Murray Bucks
GRAND WINNER: Gets to select a key which may open a treasure chest of cash money (last week’s jackpot was $ 375!)
Each team can only win an individual round once (except for Round 4, when everyone is back in). Ties are determined by Song-​Off.
Now to the food: the appetizers are what this bar has going for it! Wings are very delicious (I highly recommend the Medium Sauce). They also have breaded mushrooms and mini pretzel bites that frequent my placemat as well. The main dishes are sufficient for bar food (I recommend the Club), but I could make a meal out of the aforementioned starters.
As to the beverages: Limited draft choice with an average selection of bottled. I — not being a beer fellow — generally go for a Corona. However, they do offer wine and have the typical liquor in stock.
So if you are looking for a fun time where the atmosphere is relaxed and the food is more than tolerable, check out Murray’s Place, especially on Thursdays.
And don’t forget to say… HELM YEA!
PS: The host of trivia swears by the weekend breakfast here. He even offers to reimburse you your bill if you are not satisfied completely. If you have tried it, let me know what you think!

I think we must have had the same waitress as Nora C. We went to Murray’s for Trivia Thursday and to celebrate a friend’s birthday and another friend’s engagement. There were going to be eight of us, and obviously we all wanted to sit together. We knew it was going to be tricky since Murray’s is kind of small, so a couple of us got there early to assess the seating situtation.
We initially sat down at a 6 top, hoping we could add two extra chairs. The waitress insisted they didn’t have any extras and acted like it was crazy that we were even asking. We asked if we could drag two of the tall, round tables together and she said we couldn’t, since it would block an entrance. Fair enough. We ended up dragging two square tall tables together and fitting eight chairs around it, even though our waitress told us that only six would fit. We told her we’d make do and she huffily slapped down some placemats. We moved some of them because even though there was enough room for us to all sit around the table, there wasn’t really enough room for eight placemats. We stacked them all in one spot and when the waitress came back, she picked them up and started spreading them around again!
My husband was like, «we don’t need placemats,» and she was all, «oh, are you not eating?» and we were like, «um, yes, we are,» so she started slapping the placemats down again. Yikes.
We all ordered dinner (I mean, we had the placemats after all) and she rushed us through our orders, not asking any follow up questions (I had to ask if I could have a different kind of cheese on my burger and if I could substitute a side… initially she said I couldn’t, which, what?).
Most of us ordered the same kind of burgers but only half of us got pickles, which was odd. The food was good for the price, but not out of this world or anything.
We all tipped adequately because she got less cranky as the evening went on but wtf? Don’t alienate your customers, lady. We’ll probably go back at some point but not if that waitress is working. My husband drew a picture of her cranky face that I wish I could include with this review but oh well.

This was my third visit to Murray’s Place over the last few years, and sadly, the worst (and last ever).
Saturday night is karaōke night, which means they are sort of busy, but by no means packed. My group of 20-​somethings was definitely on the lower end of the age bracket represented, but we didn’t really care. We just wanted to sing and have a few brewskys to celebrate a friend’s bday.
The singing was easily accomplished (the karaōke set up runs smoothly, pretty much the only plus of this venue), the brewskys, not so much.
First, drinks are very expensive with mixed drinks hovering in the $ 8 – 10 range. Makes sense for a Martini bar in an urban setting, but a dive bar in Kettering… not so much.
Our waitress seemed much more concerned with squeezing in as many karaōke songs herself than with taking care of her customers. She snapped at one girl for attemping to order a mojito (we don’t have mint!) and generally spent the rest of the night ignoring or being passive-​aggressive to our group. You know, like the, you catch the waitstaff’s eye and they look you in the eye and then walk directly the other way. What’s up with that?
A couple of the guys from our group were sitting at a different table so they could watch the football game. One guy ordered a single Bud bottle from the waitress, after 20 min he still didn’t have his beer and couldn’t find her, so he walked up to the bar and ordered the same thing. After he got his beer, she came and found him and sarcastically stated «Sorry, I was taking care of your FRIENDS over there!»
One girl gave the waitress a $ 20 for a tab of less than $ 10 (several of us saw this) and the waitress snippily insisted she had been given a $ 10 and walked away after shooting my friend a dirty look. Seriously?
Despite the terrible service, every single member of our 10-​top left a tip. We’re that nice. Apparently the waitress complained about US to her manager and lied and told him that no one left her a tip. So, when one member of our group reported the theft of the $ 10 to the manager on the way out the door, the manager told him that we should have tipped the waitress. What?
There are definitely better places to go for karaōke in Dayton. Milano’s on Brown for example. Go there instead.