Duffy’s Place

I don’t mind hanging out, but I don’t like us in the bathroom or eating there? Its so dirty.

The bartenders are fun, music is good, tequila is chilled and you can smoke here.
Wings are good, wing sauces are too watery, need to be thicker. Their hottest wing sauce makes a better taco salsa. (Excellent tacos btw).
And our bartender, Mathew, reminds me of John Belushi as the Samurai Chef. He knows his stuff and serves with style.
I suggest the visit to see for yourself.

I will try my best to keep this review in the present and not overly influenced by my experiences as a Valpo college student a decade ago. I came here for a VU «Young Alumni» homecoming event over the weekend, and mused on how little has changed since I graduated college. It’s still a divey college bar, where the cheap American lagers flow free. Since I was at the private event on the back patio, I can’t speak to the service at the bar as an individual patron. But, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by the music when the DJ started. I mean, it’s good for what it is: a bar where locals and students can hang out, throw some darts, and drink cheap beer. It’s not a hip lounge, or a classy bar, or charming, but it’s not a dump, either.

Great place. Friendly staff, nice drink specials daily and always has entertainment. The manager Matt is always working his bar and is a very nice guy. Oh yeah… the wings are grilled pieces of chicken from heaven. Saying they are good is an understatement… they are incredible! Cajun and honey bbq… try it.

Definitely not the best bar in town! Poor food and a beat down bar that could definitely use some improvements! Will probably stick to more bars in town. Sorry!

If I could give this place no stars I would. I waited 40 minutes to just get a beer. Then they tried to kick me out for possible argument about how long it took to get my drink. This place is the worst! Don’t even give business. #screwduffys

I really did like this place, it could be described as the more approachable, maybe less loud & crowded older brother to Franklin House. I loved that there was plently of space outside on the covered deck, bonus! Would definitely go back.

give me all of the cajun garlic wings!
delicious wings! seriously the best in town! awesome perogies!
dollar beers mon, tue, & wed
chill, relaxed place, cool servers. and duffy is there a good amount of the time. they have a big awesome outside area & new big side porch. great summer spot. trivia on tuesdays. and I think live music every tues & wed, I think tues is kind of open mic & wed is 1 guy doing acoustic…
the bathroom situation sucks, but meh.
monday night football is awesome here. the game is actually played through the speakers, and tvs are at a good height. if they had good deals on sundays this would be my bears den.
gets busy on fridays & Saturdays. & can be hard to get service. friday there a different live band every week. Saturday its like a totally different place. it suddenly turns into a club… I like electronic music, but I do not like what the dj plays. I have to be very drunk to enjoy a Saturday night here.
occasionally people get overcharged, so pay attention to your tab… a lot of the time, people get undercharged too though ;)

Terrible service. Food took forever. Zero beer selection. Food was awful and not what we ordered. No drink menus. Never coming back.

The wings here are a little different, but I love them. I am not sure but I think they fry them and then grill them afterwards? Regardless of how they do it, they are really very good, but don’t expect the typical orange buffalo sauce. They come out much darker and have a little bit of a smokey flavor. Fries are typical. I go here quite often but I always order the wings and fries, so i can’t comment on anything else.
There is usually very cheap beer/​drinks of some sort. Great outdoor area to play bags, horseshoes, or sit outside. In addition to the patio with bags/​horseshoes, there is also now a huge outdoor deck in back. My only gripe is that there are no TVs outside (first world problems).
Duffy is a cordial guy, hangs out at the end of the bar near the backdoor. Manager and waitstaff aren’t the fastest but they are usually very accommodating and kind.
You can still smoke in here, and it seems like everyone does. -
It’s a very typical dive bar, you have to expect to leave smelling like smoke, unless its warm and you can sit outside. If you want cheap beer and good bar food in valparaiso this is your place. There really aren’t any other bars like this in Valpo (Franklin House, maybe). Everything else is a little more upscale or commercialized (Pikks, BWW).
Ceteris paribus, this place is a 3/​5, but in the Dive Bar Category it’s probably a 4.5÷5
Check out more of my reviews at:

Well, well, well. Unless they’ve changed the rules in this 20 X 20 foot dive bar, you’ll walk out of the place smelling like you just smoked 32 cigarettes.
Plan on being around 20 or so students and the other 20 people in the room being local «townies.» The prices are dirt cheap and the food, well, I don’t know if I’d eat anything there unless I was in a state of mind where it was hard to say my own name. That being said, I have been known to eat there and the Cheese Fries are a local favorite.
As for drinks, they have their own drink called a «vacation» which I never figured out how to make. I couldn’t tell you how many vacations I took at Duffy’s, but I’ll tell you what: Duffy (who is usually always in the bar) knows how to throw one hell of a party.
You can throw Shoes or Bags in the back and they usually have some sort of live music. If you go, stay off the train tracks if you plan on walking home.

Love their hot wings!
It’s not that bad of a dive bar, they had a pretty
good band playing when we went.
The drinks were really good and so were the
prices.
I really went for the wings, they have this
delish cajun rub spice one. Yum!!!
I’ll probably go back just for the wings.
Nice and friendly staff too!

I wish that I got to do the first review, curse you Dan K. But I did get to save Duffy’s as my 300^th review.
Duffy’s will always hold as special place in my heart, as I have nothing but great memories of this place. I lived in Valpo for 3 years during law school and on average went to Duffy’s 1.3 times per week during that time.
I got hooked my first year with their crab races. Yes, they put a bunch of crabs on a table and sprayed them with water until they crossed the finish line. You could place money down on your crab, they had some crazy old man calling the race, and the crabs all had grossly inappropriate names. Thank you PETA for ruining this for us all.
This is the diviest, shittiest, cheapest, funnest bar in Valpo. Every time we went out to celebrate, be it for finals, first year to graduation, we always started at Duffy’s.
The bar sponsored our softball teams and hosted several SBA parties. Watch out for the horse shoe’s out back. People can get drunk and crazy with those things. I’m surprised there hasn’t been any damage yet.

I heard they got rid of mug night, but this was one of the best places to get hammered in college.
Funny story:
Got caught in the dorms with 2 cubes of beer, so I had to go to alcohol training class. Most of them were underagers. That night, I went to Duffy’s and saw the group leader and 2 of the underagers lol. What a great time, brings back memories.