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The Anchor
Rating Details »
- Hours:
Mon-Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Fri-Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
- Parking:
- Street
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- Juke Box
- Best Nights:
- Thu
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Coat Check:
- No
20 reviews for The Anchor
If you can't find all 36 things wrong on your placemat just wait till the food comes; it all adds up.
A few friends and I decided to stop in New Haven on our way back from NH to Philly. We circled through the ghetto and Yale and I checked my Yelp* ap on my phone and steered us to THE ANCHOR.
Last time I was in New Haven I was 18, drinking gut rot liquors and making "films". I have a fuzzy recollection of that time, but I think I'd been escorted out of the basement mermaid room back in the day...in fact, I'm not sure I was there last night either.
The place is a dive by most any standard. There are old photos, holes in the seats, interesting paper placemats (see Oscar's in Philadelphia). The food was pathetic but edible. $2 Highlife specials on Monday. Other highlights include: mongoloid bartender, very cute yet mediocre waitress. and a portrait of a black Nicholas Cage between ones of John Lennon and Bob Marley.
I'd make this a regular stop if I lived in New Haven.
I mean, I seem to keep finding myself here, so I must like it a little. There is no beer on tap and that offends me. And yet, the cook always sends me out a little appetizer because me and my friends are in the bar so long (in the afternoon, embarrassed to say). It's a fun place, but again - no beer on tap - oh! but like any decent New Haven place, its not expensive. If you're paying a lot in New Haven, you are in the wrong joint.
Old-timey feel, yet
New-school crowd keeps it lively
And great turkey clubs
I grew up in New Haven and just never got around to coming here. I'm glad last fall that changed. It's got an Old-fashioned aura, something about the smell- maybe from the seats and/or the carpeting, which takes you back a few years. An old juke box sits in the corner and plays a great selection of classic cuts, the bar is secluded in the corner with great staff. It's cheap, it's fun, it's relaxing. I am going to make this place my number one priority on all future visits home.
I've never been to Las Vegas, but this is the kind of funky little dive bar I'd imagine to find somewhere off the main strip. The stiff drinks, the crusty old regulars sitting at the bar, a sprinkling of younger people, the leather booths, etc. Downstairs you'll find the "Mermaid Lounge," which looks like a little TV room. I wouldn't be surprised to see Elvis himself watching TV down there some night. Or, the lounge act from Swingers singing "Stayin' Alive" and playing a cheesy Casio keyboard.
I grew up in the New Haven area and once I reached drinking age really only went out to BAR or Playwright for summers or holidays home - I guess I didn't know any better. This holiday I went in search of some dives in New Haven so I stopped by The Anchor.
I like a bar with character and that's what The Anchor provides. Booths, an old-school feel, and a downstairs that really is like a captain's quarters - run by some dude with a laptop (I posted a picture of said laptop). Although I wish they had a couple of decent brews on tap, I'm not going to complain because it's a good place to head over with your friends, talk and hang out. The jukebox is choice as well. This bar is clearly a step up from places like Blackbear that are corporate bar-in-a-boxes.
I like Anchor. It's across from my house, it's cozy, unpretentious, and the downstairs especially is a great place to have a relaxing drink and catch up with friends.
That said, there are things I do not like:
1. The staff chases you out 30 minutes before the hour, and never politely. The first request always comes out sounding like it's the third or fourth.
2. They have got to do something about the grumpy old guy with the laptop and the Stephen King novel who sits downstairs and grumbles all night every night. I have gotten into one drunken argument with him, and I would not be surprised if it happened again. (He started it!)
3. The waiter once told me the next drink was on him and then totally forgot and charged me. Indian giver.
But things I love:
1. The basement.
2. Cheap drinks, quick service, no hassles.
3. If you stay long enough, you're guaranteed to hear Rudy Can't Fail, Billie Jean, and Under Pressure. Possibly multiple times each.
this is the NH version of SF's Lone Palm. i love this place because
* you can almost always get a table, any time, any night
* staff super nice - e.g., i spllied my drink, next one was on the house
* warm atmosphere, great vibe
great place to spend an evening
Used to hang out In New Haven alot and the Anchor was a regular stop. One time I was at the bar and I realize the guy next to me was none other then "Mr Lawrence Fishburn "
Turns out he was doing a play in town . I said hey (trying to be cool ) He was real down to earth.He was also alot slimmer then. I remember that he had a huge head. I mean his skull was humongous . I tried not to stare but it was hard(funny). I'm glad the place is still there.
It was actually the last place I had a beer with me Best Mate Frankie(RIP)having those beers listening to that great jukebox couldn't have been better.
Read the review by Michael H.
Read it again.
That is the most accurate review (stars included) that one could possibly write about The "Skanker".
So what do I have to add?
Best Juke Box in town, hands down.
The bouncer is a dick. MY group of friends come every week and we bring someone else, who is foreign and does not have a CT drivers licence. He kicks us all out. Please, bouncer, try to lose your bar money.
...And the waitstaff is probably the most ineffectual I have ever seen - Like they intentionally.avoid our orders. If it's going to be this divey, then why doesn't it have ultra divey prices?
I give the Anchor high marks for doing what they do. They are basically a dive bar/diner. The food isn't spectacular, but it's good enough. The service is adequate and genuinely friendly. The bartenders all have great personalities. The jukebox is truly classic. The atmosphere has a certain warmth, charm, and history that cannot be duplicated by a bar-in-a-box (e.g. Black Bear, Hula Hank's, etc.).
Now that they actually serve food past 8 pm, it's also good for getting a little late evening snack as well.
If you often think to yourself, "I always hear people talk about that place... I need to go there one of these days...", it's time to stop thinking about it and do it!
I don't know why but The Anchor and me never became friends. I went there a few times because it was convenient or because friends wanted to meet there, but I always felt it was lacking something. I think I just don't really dig the way the place is set up with the red plastic seats and the sea-theme.
The service is mediocre, the waitresses or waiters tend 'not to see' that your glasses are empty and spend more time chatting with the barkeep than waiting the tables. *If* they notice it, though, they tend to be really nice so it's hard to get all grumpy about it.
Beers are okay and reasonably priced, which is why I still drop by there now and then.
This is one of my sister's favorite spots, and if I lived in New Haven, I'm sure it would be one of my regular spots too. I've only been a couple times, but I had fun seeing what the local scene is like. It has a mellow college town dive bar feel and has comfy booths with a nautical theme. No beers on tap, but they have cheap can and bottle options. I was happily surprised to see that they had the Cal football game on their one TV.
Drinks were a fair deal. Round booths are nice and I like that particular shade of green. We got there just after 9 PM and plenty of folks seemed to be having sandwiches, which came with one of those nice big crunchy-looking piles of coleslaw New Haven seems to be so fond of . . .
We agreed that the decor was somewhere between David Lynch and X-Files, a look that works well for a bar with this kind of history.
I give The Anchor 4 stars only because it's a dive bar and therefore to some degree it SHOULD suck. And that it does.
I had lunch there last week. It was raining, I didn't have an umbrella and I really wanted comfort food. The line was out the door at Clare's so I just wandered in to the Anchor expecting, well... dive bar food. I did pass the "smoking chef" who was having a cigarette in the doorway on the way in. For my comfort food I had a steak sandwhich. It came on a hard roll and was completed with a slice of American cheese and a slice of a cellophane tomato. It was what it was and I ate every morsel and every greasy french fry it came with.
On to the service. Other than "smoking chef" and "the waitress" there was "the guy" at the bar. "The guy" at the bar was such a distraction for the two employees that I had to walk up and get my own menu. I then had to walk back to the bar to place my order. If the conversation they were having about sharks didn't end I might have had to cook my own sandwhich. But alas, after 3-4 minutes of me placing my order with "the waitress" the "smoking chef" went to cook my sandwhich. Suprisingly the waitress responded to the bell immediately and actually delivered my sandwhich to me. However, "the waitress" didn't ever refill my water glass. Ever. I did bring my glass to the bar a couple of times and poured a refill myself from the pitcher there. By the way, I LOVE water. I need a lot of it when I eat so I'm a little OCD about it. It REALLY pisses me off to have an empty water glass for too long.
I think the check was 9 bucks which was pretty fair. I left "the waitress" at this dive bar at least 20% tip because I got exactly what I wanted and what I expected. I mean "the waitress" in fact did not disappoint right? I passed the "smoking chef" who was having another smoke in the doorway on my way out. Neither he, "the waitress" or "the guy" at the bar said good bye. Dive bar fuckers. All of 'em. Oh, I'll be back alright...
By the way, if you cut yourself in shark infested waters, appearantly you're a goner. Just sayin..
When complaining that lighting was too bright, waiter responds, "so, you're saying I'm ugly?" then turns the lights down. Natashka rarely finds this brand of humour on west coast, where waiter would very very caringly explain impossibility of dimming lights. Big round booths are sufficiently comfortable and private enough for long rambling conversations, though not quite private enough to protect from strange, frustrated philosophers' wandering eyes. Jukebox creates disarming feeling of being in a movie scene.
So i read the 3 reviews on this place, and when I arrived in New Haven, i had to make my way here. I have to agree that The Anchor is a nice "Semi Dive" bar. I live in SF and I see dive bars all the time, however, this place was a little too nice to be a real dive bar. The reason it gets 4 stars is because the place, the owner & the bartender (she remembered about the person she dimmed the lights for) were all really cool peeps. The beer we had was a local beer, but I have to say that the beer was not as Ice Cold as it should have been. Great place to chill and have a couple thou!
My internal "best bar in new haven" award alternates between the anchor and rudy's depending on the week, my desired poison (rudy's for jack and well drinks, the anchor for bourbon and cocktails), and my desire for rocknroll. The anchor is comfortable, inexpensive, and totally memorable (especially the sea-themed kitsch and the pleather booths). the jukebox is merely acceptable, but other than that this place is a winner.
Go to the Anchor for the classic cosey dive experience. A great neighborhood bar. Nothing on tap though...all bottles. Staff has personality. Best Juke Box in town.
