In honor of Cinema Sips’ one year anniversary, I’m launching a new feature- Top 5 Lists! Inspired by John Cusack’s “Top 5” picks in High Fidelity, these lists are by no means scientific and totally based on personal opinion.
To kick things off, this week I’m highlighting my Top 5 Movie Bars that are open to the public (we’ll get to private home bars in movies another week).
To all my readers who have found me over the last 12 months, thank you so much for following this blog. I’ll keep drinking, watching, and writing if you keep reading!
1) Hollywood Star Lanes bar, The Big Lebowski
White Russians, Sam Elliott, and the Dude. Bar wisdom: “Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear, well, he eats you.” Wait, what??
2) The Overlook Hotel Bar, The Shining
OK maybe this one skirts the line at being “public” since it’s pretty much just Jack Nicholson and a creepy bartender, but hey- sometimes a man needs solitude. I’m in love with the weird lighting, tin ceilings, and ghosts of guests past.
3) The Park Hyatt Tokyo Bar, Lost in Translation
It looks like they make a mean vodka tonic. And they have a delightful house band called Sausalito. And Bill Murray hangs out there. Does it get any better?
4) The Double Deuce, Roadhouse
Two words: Patrick. Swayze.
5) The Winchester, Shaun of the Dead
While I’m sure a cocktail would be hard to come by in this beer-centric pub, I give major props for pub snacks and Queen on the jukebox. If a zombie apocalypse were to descend on my city, you’d better believe I’d be headed to a bar. Snacks, alcohol, and Freddie Mercury- what more do you need?
*Honorable mention: Rick’s Café Americain in Casablanca. My personal distaste for African desert climates and Nazis kept it out of the top 5, but those cocktails and piano music are swoon-worthy.
Cinema Sips 
Great addition. Plus, you can’t go wrong with a lebowski ref.
The basement home bar in Edward Scissorhands where Edward gets his first taste of “lemonade” holds a special place for me. My first experience with “lemonade” was much the same.
I’m so glad the Top 5 lists are off to a great start! I totally agree about the bar in Edward Scissorhands, and that’s why I had to classify this list as public. There are WAY too many great home bars in films out there, and they deserve their own list. Stay tuned!
This was more recent than your post, but I have to say that the bar in “Paterson” by Jim Jarmusch was one of the most inviting bars I’ve ever seen on film. I’d gladly spend a half an hour there while walking the dog and I don’t even drink!