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I just recently discovered this place, and I really really like it! I know the Bronx Bar has been reviewed ad infinitum, but what the hell, I'll throw in my 2 cents!
Like others have said, total dive bar, but dive bars are generally the best! Yes yes, nice crispy, squeaky clean bars have their place, but dive bars have so much more character! And guess what, I'm a character, too (or so I have been told), and that means that me and the Bronx Bar are, in the words of Anne of Green Gables, "kindred spirits."
I really like the decor...really weird lamps and heads(?!) and kind of creepy. This is especially true when they turn the lights down real low...it kind of reminds of a bar I went to in the French Quarter in New Orleans a while ago...kind of spooky!
Also, great mix of people--didn't observe any douchebaggery, which is a total bonus, for me. Also, no "fuck-yea-guys" in sight. While the aforementioned "douchebag" and "fuck-yea-guy" can sometimes provide a plethora of entertainment, as well make for a good "cultural study," it's quite refreshing to go to a place where they are either in the minority, or not present at all.
Totally my kinda place, man... I thought that the Torch in Flint was cool, but this place is awesome.
The good:
1) Awesome burger-- not much different from how I would make it myself! High quality beef with a huge helping of blue cheese.
2) Sierra Nevada on tap! Old Mill for $2!
3) Sinatra on the jukebox!
The bad (I don't really care, but may be an issue for others):
1) The fries were obviously the frozen stuff--- still was crispy though.
2) Sketchy neighborhood, but who really cares if you're looking for a dive bar...
The Bronx is listed under "dive bar" in the dictionary. It's smoky, very dark, full of hipsters, and has an awesome pool table. Check out the pacman game in the back!
The food is always good. I love the fish sandwhich; the veggie is good as well. The bread is what takes the sandwhich from very good to fabulous.
The daytime bartender, Shar, is great. The more she likes you the worse she treats you. Shar is also a notary public, for those who want to conduct business over a beer.
As a service to the community, the Bronx supplies an air pump outside for bike riders who need a little air in their tires.
Great bar, jukebox and the dill soup amazing!
I like the Bronx a lot. Great burgers and good food overall. Really tasty. Though one day I was in there in the summer at lunchtime and the lady cooking was literally sweating into the food. It was dripping into the food. Seriously, dripping. It made me queasy.
But it's a very cool place overall. Had some good times there over the years since it was renovated. One little bit of trivia - I lived at Wayne State for 3 years back in 89-92 and never once stepped foot in the Bronx. I thought for some really weird reason I would die if I went in there. Not that I'd be killed because it was tough or anything (though it was a serious bum dive bar in those days - not a "yuppie Royal Oak dive, but serious bar fly dive with guys in the corner sleeping in their pee and stuff), I just thought I would die if I ever went in and never did for the entire time I lived down there. Then it was bought by the current owners, cleaned up and turned into the cool place it is today. Urban revival and renewal, D style. Good price Guinness, by the way.
I think for a dive bar this one is tops. Decent selection of beers and food. I'm not sure it's the cleanliest place ever, but they have awesome burgers. If you want a decent burger and don't mind hanging out with some hipsters of the D come here and grab one. They are huge. Chances are you will take the other half home. It's pretty dimly lit and most people keep to themselves. They have one pool table if you feel the need to be recreational. I have passed by this place, but I finally went in a couple summers ago. From the outside this does not seem like a place I would go into by myself. Sometimes there's homeless people hanging outside of the entrance and/or random drunk people. That's always fun. =)
Still... I love the burgers.
Great Burgers
served on
Great Bread (ciabatta roll? )
washed down with
Great Beer
Word to Tony C. re: the Bronx Bar Burger Chef de Cuisine...
"The burgers are first-rate if you can get past the woman ashing out her cigarettes on the grill while she cooks your burger." LOL
Dark, smokey, juke box is unmatched, pinball machine in the corner, table lamp on the bar, bathroom smaller than a hallway closet, barber chairs, cooking range is behind the bar out in the open....
just go....get a group of friends and go dammit
Great place in Midtown to get together with friends for drinks. Easy, fun, quick and walkable. Can't wait to find an excuse to go back.
Detroit has got this dive-bar shit down to an art, and The Bronx Bar is Picasso's Le Rêve. This judgment has everything to do with beer selection, rickety tables, pizza-hut decor circa 1984, a stocked jukebox, and a local crowd just absolutely enthralled to be there, but in a subtle sense.
The neighborhood setting makes this place as authentic as public houses can ever get.
Great dive bar, I am not a fan of the new renovations but they serve Blatz, it is cheap, and the burgers are real good.
Standard favorite for two reasons- 1 It's very dark and 2- the best music selection on a double-juke box set-up. No bands at this place and they got a pool table and a sit down-dual Pacman/ Galaga game. Make your own Bloody Mary's on Saturdays and Sundays. Oh, and my brother's favorite- free Bacon on Sundays. He calls it the "Bacon Bar". Good Sandwiches on good bread. Charlene is the bomb day bartender and Joe is awesome at night.
Bottom line is, this is the place to hang out any night of the week in the Wayne State Area. I have lost many a great night at that place. A fav of Jack and Meg White too.
I can't bare to think of how much cash I've dropped at this local dive bar through my years both as a student and graduate at Wayne State. Yet with ridiculously cheap drinks, I may not have spent as much as I think.
Located on 2nd Avenue and Prentis in Midtown, the Bronx is your ultimate dive bar. No frou frou drinks, no bands, drinks as strong as they are cheap, eerily dim lights and an army of regulars. In addition, the Bronx serves up some food and has a jukebox to satisfy your need for some tunes.
The Bronx is your kinda place if casual is what you're looking for. I have literally rolled out of the bed for a mid afternoon snooze and then headed to the Bronx with no worried of feeling outcasted with my bedhead. The Bronx is a great local bar, plagued with college students and neighborhood career folks alike. It's on one of those bars that good drinks and good people are a guarantee.
I'm a fan. What everyone else says is true.
Saturday and Sunday mornings you can take advantage of an impressive DIY Bloody Mary bar with lots of fixin's. The food menu is short, but all you really need are the burgers (served on fresh foccacia rolls) and the veggie sandwich. Sometimes they have breakfast and it's just pancakes and bacon. But that's good, too. And that reminds me, bacon is an item on the menu, and it's free on Sundays!
The double jukebox covers any genre you can think of (well...maybe not zydeco), although on some mornings, the bartenders just play their own music. Either way, the selections are always appropriate.
And yes, they dim the lights as it gets later each night.
I'll never forget the second day of the big blackout in 2003. I ended up at the Bronx with a friend and suddenly realized that was where everyone else was going. I got there around one in the afternoon and didn't leave until around one in the morning. The owner was telling friends to pull all of their frozen stuff out of their freezers and bring it down to the bar so it would get used before it went bad.
I remember sitting on the curb, drinking a Heineken and watching Paul standing at the grill that he set up out on the sidewalk. He was grilling steaks and burgers and hot dogs and all kinds of stuff. Random people walking around in the area didn't really know what to do when he offered them free food.
But it was all in good spirits. The Bronx is a bar of the people, for the people.
UPDATE: Apparently they no longer do the free bacon on Sundays.
I've spent so much time here it was becoming a second home...The staff were always nice and helpful, no matter what you were asking for. Open late and dark as fu*k, I'm glad I lived across the street for so long.
Pacman!
Yes, they have those old tables with the video games built in to them. I seriously felt like I was 6. It was genius.
Beer = cheap and good; decent selection, too - for a dive bar.
Food = good bar fare - I'm not sure what else they had (we had onion rings).
Great place to go before a concert at the Magic Stick.
Oh my, how I love this place. I miss the hell out of it, too. It has cheap beer and a great jukebox, and there's a great mix of people up in this place. It can get so dark in there that you have to resort to stumbling around half-blind, hoping you don't fall and bust your face. That can get kind of a annoying especially if you're getting shit-faced, which is the best thing to do at the Bronx! But other than that, I loved going out to the Bronx to hang out with friends. It's the perfect dive bar! Be careful, though, if some lady at the bar grabs your ass, don't feel flattered--she's probably trying to steal your wallet.
All I want, I mean ALL I want, is to amble into the Bronx on a sunny Sunday morning so I can drink bloody marys, eat veggie sandwiches, and read the paper and listen to some sweet, sweet jamz. Is that so much to ask?
I remember the first time I ever walked into the place... I walked into someone because I couldn't see them. Whenever I go home I always make sure that I see my friends here. It is one of the places I miss the most. The staff is great and the jukebox seems to always play what I want to hear.
If I were a Detroit resident, this would be "the spot". Definitely a classic dark dive bar, with a good soundtrack of what might be best defined as college rock to boot.
We came for Sunday brunch, which was complete with brunch selections under five bucks, and a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar. Though I'm no fan of said drink, the selection of hot sauces came in handy with my plate of eggs, home fries, and sausage, and butter dipped miny pieces of toast - incredible. Not a huge plate, but the perfect size, for sure.
I wasn't quite in the drinking mood, believe it or not - consider it the morning after two nights of partying, along with long days of conference panels. But there was a great selection of beers which appeared to be all under $5.
Dark. Scrubby hipsters conflated with young professionals pretending to be hip. Double fisting scotches and bottles of Old E generates no odd looks. A nonpareil jukebox. The staff's seen any outre thing you can fathom. A great place to bring your sorority girlfriend and watch her jaw drop. Surprisingly easy to get laid. Belligerent old drunks seated at the bar discussing a foregone past while leering at women---it's like looking into the future.
In summary, a loser bar for losers. Naturally, I love it. I'm gonna go there right now.
Best dive bar ever! We used to live down the street from this bar and stumbled home many a night! As mentioned by others, best juke box selection ever, good prices, pool table and free plate-o-bacon Sundays.... Plus it's dark as night in there...it takes your eyes about 5 minutes to adjust when you walk in at night, what more could you want from a dive bar?
Gotta love it! I stopped in for the first time today and had a great time. The Bloody-Mary buffet was a pleasant surprise. We split a BLT and we each had plenty of food. We visited on a Sunday afternoon - so it wasn't crowded. But the experience was great - makes me want to plan a trip for Happy Hour, or some Saturday evening.
Pretty awesome bar.
Double juke box? A row of seats while you pick your songs? Superb.
I like how there are different sections to the bar. Everything is broken up perfectly from an environmental standpoint. The furniture, the wall behind the kitchen, the pictures on the wall, it was all positive feedback from me all night.
Go here if your in the D.
Awesome. Gnarly. Don't watch Dave make a bloody mary, he mixes them so it looks like something drained out of a corpse. terrible. smoking, drinking, ms pac man, good grilling. four stars.
How do I even start about the Bronx? First of all, you have to brave some seedy neighborhoods to get to this fine establishment. The surrounding areas (and the bar itself) are quintessentially Detroit, so if you can't stomach the condemed houses and the need to step over crackheads to get where you're going, then I wouldn't recommend going to the Bronx.
Now, the Bronx has turned into a VERY interesting place over the last few years. It's a great mixture of drunk locals, drunk hipsters, and all around drunks all together. This is a grungy dive bar, but a few things make it a five-star establishment.
On a recent visit over a weekend evening, I walk in and it was packed with locals, Wayne State grad students, hipsters, etc. With the jukebox blaring some 80's grunge rock that I barely recognized, there was a young man in the corner getting his hair cut. Now, whether the woman worked there, or whether she was a hair stylist who happened to bring her scissors, I still don't know. Although they carried several beers, everyone seemed to be enjoying a frosty Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Another item to note: The food at this establishment is actually fantastic. The burgers are first-rate if you can get past the woman ashing out her cigarettes on the grill while she cooks your burger. Still, it doesn't stop me from eating here. I'd put it up against a Red Coat burger any day of the week. The onion rings are done right too. And, although the people who work there are as seedy as the patrons, they are surprisingly affectionate and friendly.
All in all, if you've got a stomach (both the cajones and the appetite) to eat and drink here, it's a great place to hang out with some old friends. I strongly recommend it.
Excellent Detroit bar with the best juke box in the city.
The neghboorhood around it actually ISN'T that bad - I used to live around there and never had any problems.
So dark I could barely make my way from the bar to the table.
So smokey I could barely breathe.
So seemingly hipster it competes with any Wicker Park "dive" (you know - that insanely, nauseatingly hip neighborhood in Chicago).
But I liked it. Just the place I was looking for as an out-of-towner.
Oh the Bronx.
It was a treat for us to shun our local Wayne dive and seek out other avenues. This was a good choice.
Their prices beat out any other place on or near campus. You can get Old Mils super cheap - cheaper than Black Labels at Circa!
I really dig that it's as grimy as it is. After the Gold Dollar... where would all the hip go?
Apparently they go to the Bronx.
There's not much else I can say, except that it's sort of off the beaten path. That only adds to the flavor of the place. Don't get lost trying to find it!
Great dive bar! Dark and comfortable. Cheap drinks!
The crowd is mostly a mix of hipsters some young professionals.
One of those hard to find places in Detroit.
If you like Bab's in Ann Arbor then you will like this place.
Great bar staff, damn cheap drinks and as an Irishman they win tons having Powers Irish Whiskey. And I must say the best Burger in the D. I was told the bread is (which makes this burger so damn good) is Iraqi? Maybe it was drunk talk but shit is good and mad cheap like $5. Go to see the hipsters, go there to see the students of WSU from other countries, go there for the pinball, go there for the deep jukebox and occasional haircut. Yeap, haircut.
Ive had more than a few good drunk times here..
Ive stumbled more than a few times out this door & into the cold empty arms of this detroit sidewalk..
..they have ms. pacman & a pretty good juke box
..they have a naked lady painting over the bar
..they have cheap drinks & they used to cut hair here.. not sure if they still do that..
oh & its nice & dark
This is one of my favorite dive bars in the city! There is a mix of students, hipsters, and your grandpa all there having drinks. They have a pool table, friendly staff, cheap beers, and the best jukebox ever!
Just be careful walking around in there, it's so dark that you can't see your hand in front of your face!
This is my favorite bar ever! Since moving to Chicago about a year ago, I think about the Bronx whenever I try to find a good dive bar here.
The place is insanely dark, but in the best way - drinks are good and cheap, bartenders are always on point. Pool tables, jukebox, etc...
Don't miss out on the blueberry pancakes Saturday mornings (I think they start at 1pm)- homemade from Grandma's recipe, real butter, and only 4 bucks. Best chill out breakfast on a weekend (accompanied by a screwdriver, perhaps?)
Everything you want a bar to be - I miss you!
i once lived just two doors down from the bronx and spent many nights there. now i long for its darkness. i always loved their vegi sandwiches too. a dive bar, local joint that rocks.
Great ol' hang-out. Good beer selection, good food, pool, video games, and a really great jukebox.
love the Bronx.
Great tunes, hipster central, and cheap drinks. what can I say? I am a sucker for great tunes and cheap drinks... luckily I've conquered my vice of seemingly hipster boys due to how trite their so-called personal abandonment of vanity is, but it doesn't hurt to be surrounded by pretty people. Plus, it is also entertaining guesstimating how long it took them to create that "effortless look."
It is a very dimly lit joint located in the Cass Corridor. Unfortunately the haircuts that Sarah mentioned no longer exist. You can still sit in the old fashioned salon chair located parallel to the pool table, but you won't be getting your "hair did."
Truly an enjoyable place on any occasion regardless whether the bar be completely empty or bustling with american apparel poster children.
The first word that came to my mind was Dark... but I see others have beat me to the punch. The Bronx Bar is one of those I would hardly ever frequent, but I landed into by mistake. Definitely a hipster crowd and they have plenty of beers for those who...drink lots of beer. I noticed this place is like "Cheers"..where everybody knows your name. No one knew my name tho.. so I kind of felt out of place. I would recommend it tho...especially if you are a cheap college student who had a long exam earlier that day.
Dark, dingy, very chill. Cheap beer. Great when I was in college. Not great for people watching cause you can't see 10 ft in front of you! haha!
Neighborhood: Cass Corridor
Category: Pubs
Neighborhood: Cass Corridor
Category: Dive Bars
Neighborhood: Cass Corridor
Category: Nightlife
Neighborhood: Midtown
Category: Dive Bars
Neighborhood: Midtown
Category: Burgers
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