firebrawl | ROGUES GALLERY

Awful lot of swanky places around these days, lots of chances to find out what new and exciting things people are doing with sriracha-infused ginger mojitos.

The Rogues Gallery is not one of those places. There's no glass of fresh mint on the bar, no muddling sticks, no books of sticky layered cocktails. The only mojito ingredient in the Rogues Gallery is the rum, and you're gonna want that on the rocks or straight up, right? Maybe with a chunk (yeah, a chunk) of lime if you're feeling fancy.

Wherever the rougher side of the city is, that's where you'll find it. If this place had a name before it was bought out and reopened virtually unchanged (and definitely uncleaned) the neighborhood has forgotten it. Walk down five steps from street level and don't be surprised if everyone turns to see who's coming through the door. They'll ignore you again once they've sized you up. The Gallery has its array of native regulars perched on stools, largely motionless like statues, who are just happy to see their watering hole continuing on under new management. It's not the kind of place that gets included in pub crawls unless you're the type to walk on the broken-glass-on-the-floor side.

A little natural light crawls its way in through the grime on the half-windows, but apart from the beer signs on the walls and the lights behind the rows of bottles, every table and booth and corner is draped in shadows. Perfect for everything from hunching solo over a glass and pondering the meaning of life and love to planning your newest heist—in theory, of course. But there's no harm in just talking.

There's nothing sophisticated about the drinks here, you're better off with the liquor than the tap beers. Prices are low and cash-only, no tabs unless they know you. The oak bar is scarred up and unpolished, stools unpadded wood, mismatched chairs at the tables, and any surface in the place might or might not be a little unsettlingly sticky. It's a dive, in every sense of the word, the owners live upstairs, and if you start a fight, you better finish it without smashing up too many of the furnishings or the owners might get a little hot under the collar and it'll be a golden opportunity for an ice-cold ejection from the premises.