White’s Bar

Good music, good staff, reasonable prices, outside deck… what’s not to like?

This place is so cool! It’s a small homey bar with friendly people. It’s a dive, but a good one! Don’t plan on getting any snacks at this bar, just cheap drinks.

This little bar is the Saginaw equivalent of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville. For a tiny neighborhood bar, this may be the best music venue in the entire Saginaw-​Bay City-​Midland part of Michigan. A lot of people have played here, big (Bob Seger, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Tina Turner, etc.) and small. It’s not much to look at, and at the same time, its great to see this place. A tiny stage by the front door, a few tables, a long bar to your left as you enter, a room in the back, a patio for good weather, and music posters everywhere you look. I’ve played there twice at their open mic performances. Each time I’d say one third to one half the patrons were pretty well gone into their drinks. The woman who was serving drinks behind the bar, had a vocabulary a lot of sailors would be embarrassed to use, and the noise level was lively to say the least. But that’s White’s Bar. This place really is what a lot of other places can only pretend to be. You learn to roll with it. Plus, even with the noise, the swearing bartender, and the laughter, people were into the music. Each open mic night had limited attendance from the performers. The two nights I was there, I was the only one playing other than the host, but that may be due to the unusual sub-​zero cold weather going on at that time. I’ve been to White’s Bar in the summer and the place has been packed, so I think attendance had more to do with the weather than anything else. Still, they should publicize these open mic nights more than they do. They have a little gold mine here waiting to be explored.

Go here if you love great live music. The staff is wonderful and the regulars are fun to be around. It’s crowded, loud, and somewhat unsanitary, but… just trust me… you will never regret coming here.

White’s Bar is full of regulars and as divey as they come– just my style. They boast a huge history of famous Mid-​west musicians making their way through the establishment and now play host from everything from great blues bands to DJs.
The bartenders are chatty and memorable (Carrie, I think? is a notable no-​bullshit fave) We went back 3 – 4 times during our visit. The only reason I can’t 5 star the joint is that it tended to get a little gangster late at night– esp near the pool tables in back. Not Ice Cube Gansta, more like «marked» make you feel super uncomfortable white gangta-​types.

Oh, Whites Bar. You’re so divey and it’s hard to jockey through the crowds to get drinks — forget about ever seeing a waitress at your table — but I like you anyway. This is probably my favorite Saginaw bar, just because the vibe is friendly and the bands are usually good. It’s usually not impossible to get a table but if you can’t, there’s adequate standing room. There’s pool in the back room if you feel like playing and in the summer lots of people hang out on the patio outside. This is a pretty good place to just chill, drink and listen to live music; it’s much less of a meat market than the bars in Old Town.

Great music EVERY day/​night of the week.

Historic place where Bob Segar, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Tina Turner have played… A little piece of history!