Dive Bar

This place is owned by the same people who own Armsby Abbey and this essentially a more relaxed, casual version of it. Say goodbye to the wooden accents and instead say hello to a cash-​only, spot with a giant outdoor patio.
The craft beer selection is still absolutely amazing and they have four or five permanent Hill Farmstead beers available on draft. They frequently rotate their beers and often have some highly sought after ones, again, much like Armsby Abbey. Overall, it’s all solid and they also have a full bar in case you want a mixed drink.
The staff is friendly and while the indoor area gets cramped due to its limited size, there’s still plenty of space outside. They actually are incredibly smart and make great use of that space. During the warmer months, they’ll project movies out there which is neat.
Overall, there is nothing divey about this spot and the craft beer selection is nearly unrivaled. It’s one of the best tap lists in the state! The owners are fantastic individuals who make great use of their space and it’s definitely a great spot to hit up during the warmer months.
That being said, the cash-​only thing really stinks, especially in this day and age and the food options are non-​existent as well. I personally much prefer Armsby Abbey but this is a nice alternative as well and very laid back which is nice.

I like chill low-​key drinking establishments, «dive bars» if you will and what better than a literal dive bar, It is another establishment owned by the individuals responsible for that beacon of libations, armsby abbey.
Their selection is phenomenal and the atmosphere is exactly what I was looking for.
The first time I went it was by chance, a group of us (rather large, perhaps 10 – 13 people) had planned to go elsewhere but due to waits ended up here. This was a bit of a problem because it was late January (2014 if that’s relevant) and as such the outside patio (which at the time I didn’t know existed) was closed, so the lot of us sat side by side down the bar as the sitting is generally for roughly four people. Despite this it was very pleasant and that is a testament to the dive bar.
I returned in the summer and «discovered» the outdoor patio which was lovely, very large, and would have been perfect had our large group been there that day. They also show outdoor movies.

Best place to chill out, grab a great craft beer and listen to live local music on the patio on a hot summer night. No food served, but usually Chris’s food truck is parked outside with better bar food than you’d get anywhere else (get the Tweed River named after fond memories of the music festival. Add some sriracha and I guarantee you will not be disappointed).
Just stay home if you’re looking for Budweiser or the like because you’ll get kicked out of you ask for that here.

Perfection. I have been searching for a true neighborhood dive bar with an awesome craft beer selection. It seemed like I was chasing a unicorn… until I found this place! Straight up dive bar with an unbelievable beer selection and a fabulous outdoor chill area. Do not miss this gem. If I lived here, this would be my spot but since I don’t, I’ll just visit this place whenever I’m in town

Killer craft drafts. Awesome bar tenders. Nice outdoor area to hang. Only place I’ve been where I’ve seen Dragons Milk & Old Rasputin. They seem to burn thru em the night they get them. My buddy told me they had em in last night so I shot right down.

A pleasant place to sit down and hang out with your friends. Some of the bartenders are not the friendliest. They are more likely to serve someone they’re friends with and know.
Had the worse experience Thursday night with my group of friends went to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The bar was busy itself, took a while to get any of their attention. Once I did, I ordered 4 beers and one was just straight up half foam. I asked her to scoop half of the foam out and she’s like what? I’m like this beer is all foam. She replied back with «I gave you the other beers for a dollar off.» My opinion is that isn’t an appropriate anything. I don’t care if you have me a dollar off or not. It’s a matter of how to pour a beer and half cup of foam is not a pleasant taste.
After that conversation, I paid and realized in fact she didn’t take a dollar off them. She actually ripped me off and gave me incorrect change. She gave me 10 $ less. I must say she was really incompetent for the busyness of the dive bar and rude for the mean being. I won’t forget that interaction with the short haired, brunette/​brown haired «bartender.»

Well, the name says it all — you don’t really go here for the ambiance factor. That aside, Dive Bar has a great tap list with beers from Tree House, Maine Beer Co and tons of other fantastic breweries. It is cash only though which is pretty annoying but luckily I had a few bucks on hand for a pint. Despite the crowded bar, service was quick and prices were reasonable. This is the perfect spot for a casual night out — we ventured over after dinner and drinks at sister restaurant Armsby Abbey; given the incredible drink selection at Armsby, I had no doubts that Dive Bar would deliver on quality.

Great craft beer selection & the outdoor area is perfect during the warmer weather.

Great beers. Love the diving helmets on display. Cash only. But there is an ATM on the inside. The beer list is always changing and is always fresh.

Good beer. Pricey. No soap or paper towels in crappy bathroom… $ 8 beer. No way… Go to Boynton plus food. That’s a pretty thing

It’s cash only and they only have high quality (high cost) beers, but if you’re up for that this place is hard to beat. Diving paraphernalia lines the walls and they have a beer garden out back with hop trellises lining the fence, which happen to have drink shelves.

Excellent beer selection! Love the atmosphere, good music and the back patio is a fun place! Definitely a hidden gem!

I love this bar! It’s definitely a dive bar – tiny, not the best bathrooms – but the craft beer is fantastic and is constantly changing. They update their chalkboards with what’s on tap, along with alcohol content and price, so you know what you’re getting, and if you’re unsure, the staff will gladly recommend something for you.
I go here about once a week with the guys. In the summer they open up a huge beer garden and have live bands and fish tacos. In the winter they have candle-​lit tables inside and play old-​school Batman on the TVs above the bar. Friendly staff, chill atmosphere, great craft beer. Five stars for me.

I live in a hip neighborhood on the Somerville/​Cambridge line and have gained a certain affinity for cool joints with a good beer selection around here. So, when I started dating a guy from Worcester, I thought I was doomed to hang out in sports bars all the time because I didn’t know that anything else existed.
Enter: The Dive.
Cool vibe, knowledgeable bar staff, and the crowd makes me feel like I’m hanging out in Inman Square (hipsters, brainiacs, not college-​y). Love love love.
I would give a 5^th star if they had food options on more than just Friday and Saturday (although I love me some food truck grub!). You can bring food in any day, so there’s that.
I wish I had found this place sooner… the back patio is pretty amazing and summer is too damn short!

I understand what they’re going for but it doesn’t work for me.
They have a large selection of drinks and a very dive look, but considering it averages 7 or 8 bucks a beer (and cash only) you’ll be disappointed if you’re looking for an actual dive bar.
I haven’t seen it be terribly crowded, and they have a nice patio out back.

Huge out door patio/​hop garden, great selection of craft beers… need I say more. Very laid back atmosphere, friendly bar staff. Great live bands. Only «downfall» is some people complain its cash only, but there is an ATM inside. Large parking lot across street.

I remember coming to the Dive Bar back in the day when there was bearly any space at all … they had 3 beers on tap and 2 of them were Pabst Blue Ribbon … and the crowd typically vomitted and/​or picked fights with other patrons more than just about any other bar I went to. I remember one time watching a fight end in someone being hit in the face with a glass beer pitcher. Those days are over, thankfully! Depsite this, for some reason this bar used to make Esquire Magazine’s ‘Best Dive Bar in the Country’ list often.
A friend of mine wanted to take me here and I was a bit hesitant given its past reputation. I remembered an elevator sized bar where you literally left covered in beer, vomit and sweat as people bumped into you from every direction. He told me that it was completely changed … from layout to concept … and it was! This is not the disgusting, smelly packed bar of old.
When I first walked in, the first thing I noticed was that they had opened up the space incredibly. I was there on a Wednesday night and there were about 5 other people in there, so it looked even bigger. There wasn’t a single strand of colored Christmas lights in the joint … and they had taken down all the cheesy starfish covered fishing nets. The bar is long and narrow and everything looked neat and orderly. In the old days, it was such a disaster, it was commonplace for one of the overworked bartenders to ask you to switch your drink from Whiskey to Vodka because she couldn’t find the Whiskey bottle.
There was an 8 foot long string of candles burning along the back of the bar and there was a blackboard with about 20 craft beers. They have Allagash White on tap … and it’s only $ 5! Cheapest I’ve ever seen it on draft. They also do a good job of selecting some unique spirits for their drinks … many types of Rye Whiskey. The brands of alchohol you see at the grocery store in fancy bottles and don’t buy. Every mixed drink here is $ 8. Which is a pretty good price, I think.
The vibe is low key and almost hipster. It reminds me of one of my favorite beachside dive bars, Chez Jay in Santamonica, CA mixed with some of the trendier bars in West Hollywood. Where college students used to throw up on the bar now sit hipsters in their J Crew t-​shirts and ironically manscaped beards. And late 20 to 30 year olds who are beginning to realize they can’t drink like they used to.
This bar has a very LA feel to it … which is odd given that Worcester is one of the worst cities I’ve ever been in. A couple sucky things …
Only street parking, which there wss plenty of next to the bar on a Wednesday. There are paid lots sort of nearby … but its risky to attempt to park on any side street or vacant lot due to Pat’s Towing which run around Worcester towing cars ²⁴⁄₇. If their owner isn’t a millionare yet … I’d be surprised. Leeches.
CASH ONLY. Ugh … What fun is going to a bar if you have to hit an ATM machine everytime you want to drink more than you should? I can’t believe this place doesn’t take credit cards … especially given that drinks are $ 8 and beers can range up into the $ 8 range as well. Cash only bars are usually reserved for TRUE dive bars where beers are $ 2 and the bartenders are too busy to swipe. They have an ATM machine here, but there is a hefty fee to use it and it doesn’t look like the safest thing in the world.

As «dive bars» go… this one isn’t too bad. Our bachelorette herum rolled up Saturday evening and I was pleased to find: no cover charge, the floors weren’t sticky, and there wasn’t an overpowering damp/​stale smell. There was a significant amount of space at the long bar, at high-​tops across the aisle, as well as their sprawling patio. «Promising,» I thought to myself as I strolled up to the bar. …o.no.
*It takes for-​evah to get a drink (even for a gal with a «bachelorette-​approved» top on)
*The brew list is mighty: I heard many… many times «this is the place to go for beer!» Loads of options, many of which I had never heard of before, and pricing around $ 5 a pint. …but I don’t WANT beer (if you serve mostly beer, call yourselves a «pub», not a «bar», as «bar» implies that you also have a FULL one in addition to taps).
*The bar is only half-​full: dive bar classics (the cheapest of the cheap) are available. There is no drink list, nor do the bartenders know what goes into classic mix drinks (…how do you not know how to blend up a Hurricane?!). That being said I was giant-​muppet-​eyeball-​surprised when:
*CHA-​CHING! 10-​ounces of «if you don’t know how to mix it then surprise me» land you an $ 8 charge! Even more surprising:
*CASH — ONLY! [it was at this point that my giant-​muppet eyeballs completed full orbit] «-but there’s an ATM right there in the corner.» …fine. I hobble to the ATM (was on crutches) and attempted archaic «do you agree to the charge» dance only to be notified that the machine was also thirst: «NO FUNDS AVAILABLE». …are​.you​.kid​ding​.me? I hobbled back to the bar and the guy cut my drink in half so that I could afford a $ 5 drink (rocks glass) instead of a the full-​sized version (which only has about a Barbie-​sized amount of alcohol anyway).
I took my sippy cup and returned to the smoke-​filled patio to chat the night away with friends (fortunately with this bunch alcohol isn’t a main requirement for an enjoyable evening). Staff came around and collected empty glasses, and a reminder call around 2am that they were closing (at least they’re open late). My experience could have been better, but I probably (with any hope) won’t return.

Super chill place to relax and hang out. Plenty of interesting beer options. Bartenders are really easy going and do well with drink suggestions (which I like because I am new to beer and never know what to try next).
Atmosphere is nice. inside is dimly lit with tea lights and make for a nice calm environment. The courtyard is nice as well and is bigger than inside. While they do not have a second bar outside, it is a big space and has a good feel to it. It’s not fancy, but it doesn’t need to be. Good place to hang out.

Don’t treat The Dive, a bar that specializes in domestic craft beer, like a bar you would normally attend. Two reasons, an empty wallet, and a ripping hangover.
Those aside, use your time at The Dive to immerse yourself in a burgeoning world of hand-​crafted, much sought after beers. The bartenders aren’t simply there to attend to your drink orders, they actually want you to interact with the expansive list of mind-​bending, tongue torquing brews. Ask a question, and they retort with a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm. No idea what a Dopplebock is? They have a sample in front of you.
Flipped (somewhat) from an actual old, sketchy Worcester haunt, most of the décor rings true to the name. Simpsons pinball, jukebox, B-​movies on the tiny televisions, and a back patio that always calls for «just one more.»
Bottoms Up.