Types[edit]

Gunpowder Cellar of Tartu, a former 18th-century gunpowder cellar and

current beer restaurant in Tartu, Estonia

Drinking at the bar, Raceland, Louisiana, September 1938

Example of a typical home bar in New York City, USA

A bar's owners and managers choose the bar's name, décor, drink menu, lighting, and other
elements which they think will attract a certain kind of patron. However, they have only limited
influence over who patronizes their establishment. Thus, a bar originally intended for one
demographic profile can become popular with another. For example, a gay or lesbian bar with a
dance or disco floor might, over time, attract an increasingly heterosexual clientele, or a blues bar
may become a biker bar if most its patrons are bikers. Bars can also be an integral part of larger
venues. For example, hotels, casinos and nightclubs are usually home to one or several bars.
A cocktail lounge is an upscale bar that is typically located within a hotel, restaurant or airport.
A full bar serves liquor, cocktails, wine, and beer.
A wine bar is a bar that focuses on wine rather than on beer or liquor. Patrons of these bars
may taste wines before deciding to buy them. Some wine bars also serve small plates of food or
other snacks.
A beer bar focuses on beer, particularly craft beer, rather than on wine or liquor. A brew pub has an
on-site brewery and serves craft beers.
"Fern bar" is an American slang term for an upscale or preppy (or yuppie) bar.
A music bar is a bar that presents live music as an attraction, such as a piano bar.
A dive bar, often referred to simply as a "dive", is a very informal bar which may be considered by
some to be disreputable.
A non-alcoholic bar is a bar that does not serve alcoholic beverages.
A strip club is a bar with nude entertainers.
A bar and grill is also a restaurant.
Some persons may designate either a room or an area of a room as a home bar. Furniture and
arrangements vary from efficient to full bars that could be suited as businesses.

Entertainment[edit]

Many sports bars sell food such as chicken wings.

Bars categorized by the kind of entertainment they offer:

 Arcade bars, in which the bar have video games on cabinets and consoles

 Blues bars, specializing in the live blues style of music
 Comedy bars, specializing in stand-up comedy entertainment
 Dance bars, which have a dance floor where patrons dance to recorded music. Typically, if a
venue has a large dance floor, focuses primarily on dancing rather than seated drinking, and
hires professional DJs, it is considered to be a nightclub or discothèque rather than a bar.
 Karaoke bars, with nightly karaoke as entertainment
 Music bars, specializing in live music (i.e. concerts). Piano bars are one example.
 Drag bars, which specialize in drag performances as entertainment
 Salsa bars, where patrons dance to Latin salsa music
 Sports bars, which are furnished with sports-related memorabilia and theming, and typically
contain a large number of televisions used to broadcast major sporting events for their patrons.
 A tiki bar offers a fully immersive and entertaining environment, including tropical cocktails,
tiki carvings, exotica music, a dark, windowless space with light fixtures lending a soft glow, and
nautical brick-a-brac that hints at romantic travels to exotic lands.
 Topless bars, where topless female employees dance or serve drinks. In India, these bars
are called dance bars, which is distinct from the type of "dance bar" discussed above.
Patrons[edit]
The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, is a designated
U.S. National Historic Landmark and National Monument as the site of the June 1969 Stonewall riots and the
cradle of the modern gay-rights movement.[5][6][7]

Bars can categorized by the kind of patrons who frequent them:

 Bicycle messenger bars, where bike messengers congregate; these are found only in cities
with large bike messenger communities
 Biker bars, which are bars frequented by motorcycle enthusiasts and (in some regions)
motorcycle club members.
 Cop bars, where off-duty law enforcement agents gather.
 College bars, usually located in or near universities, where most of the patrons are students
 Gay bars, where gay men or women dance and socialize
 Hipster bars, where hipsters are the patrons of this bar
 Lesbian bars
 Mixed gay/straight bars, mainly targeting bisexuals[dubious  –  discuss]
 Neighborhood bars, a bar that most of the patrons know each other; it is generally close to
home and is frequented regularly
 "Old man" bars, whose clientele are mainly long-time male patrons who know each other
well; since most patrons are retired, they often begin drinking much earlier in the day, consume
inexpensive beer/whisky and may spend much of the day chatting, reading the newspaper, and
watching TV
 Sailor bars, usually located in waterfront areas near commercial docks or naval bases
 Singles bars where (mostly) unmarried people of both sexes can meet and socialize
 Sports bars, where sports fans gather to cheer on their favorite teams with other like-minded
fans. Sports bars generally have a dozen or more T.V.s, in order to display simultaneous games
or sports
 Women's bars