Beautiful scenery meets beautiful people. Deep, crystal clear blue waters meet deep pockets full of green. What more can you ask of a very colorful resort bar?

The Lone Eagle Grille in Incline Village, Nevada just two miles from the antiquated and dilapidated Stateline that separates California and Nevada on the North Shore offers both. The huge windows that face the gorgeous tides of crystal blue Lake Tahoe nearly touch them, save the small area that has an outdoor fire place and difficult-to- score seating area for drinking and smoking.

The bar is located on the right with an equally difficult-to-score 12 bar stool facing. There is plenty of seating at tables and a large lounge area next to the tall, stone-inlaid fireplace. Above the fireplace is a carving of the signature lone eagle.

When you enter the place, a full four-star restaurant is beyond the bar further right, one is enthralled with the 30 foot high ceiling. An antique canvas canoe, topping a multi level bookcase, is hanging from the left. Across the street from the Hyatt Regency Incline Village, charging privileges to your hotel room are allowed.

Once negotiating the two flights of stairs – take your ski boots off – you enter a lively atmosphere. A local artist is typically playing his tunes, and selling his wares, in the left corner. The people are après ski or après outdoors clad, depending of the time of season. The people are tanned and well dressed although no dress code seems to apply. Recently, I saw a man in a Meadowood Cap. If you have to ask, don’t bother.

The bar has a great spirits and wine selection, and appropriately enough, a large selection of Ports. The restaurant menu is available in the bar and lounge area. Bar staff are friendly and attentive, even if they have to deal with a crowded and often demanding patronage that seem more at home on Rodeo Drive than laidback Lake Tahoe. The presentation for a customer that had too much skiing and consequently ordered a hot tea was something to behold.

Expensive, as it should be, have one and enjoy one of the greatest views in the 48 contiguous states. Stay for another, because you will marvel at the beauty of the crowd as well. – DM

Von’s Grand City Cafe is a welcome respite in the land of drive-through espresso and Internet cafes. Next to the Roosevelt Hotel in Seattle, there is a wonderfully refreshing un-fresh joint. Where Microsoft and political correctness remain part of the program, PC this place is not. And proud of it.

Von’s calls itself the “Martini-Manhattan Memorial”. Prices for their many cocktails are listed on a sign under the front door canapé. The dining room walls are filled floor to ceiling with an incredible collection of beer tap handles. The bar scene is lively but not spacious.

At Happy Hour, they spin The Wagering Wheel. A spin of the wheel reveals various specials on Drinks for the Day. They have a great selection of beers on tap, but when at Von’s you’ve got to order something “up”.

They are also renowned for their Roaster BBQ, so why not have a rotisserie roast in the front window? I was told the ribs are outstanding, and are served with a pair of gloves. Not your typical LODO or Bell Town fare. Food is served morning, Noon, and night and Von’s provides room service for the Roosevelt. But to go there just to dine is to miss the point; after all, it’s a Seattle landmark with the “Martini-Manhattan Memorial.” – Matt Macy

Special Contributor Matt Macy is VP of Sales for an environmental company based in Oakland. His frequent business trips have earned him an astute knowledge of the business end of a barstool.

When you think of Monte Carlo, one conjures up images of dinner jackets and martinis, craps tables and spaghetti strap dresses, and fast cars navigating winding roads. Well in this Monte Carlo, the one in Minneapolis, none of that experience is available…save the martinis and spaghetti.

Nonetheless, Monte Carlo is a very cool place and one of the best hangouts in the Twin Cities. Located on the outskirts of downtown in the Minneapolis warehouse district, Monte Carlo claims to be the cities’ oldest bar and the inside of the place would support that claim.

The tin ceiling is high and decor is very retro chic. Sconces and chandeliers highlight the wallpaper and the oversized booths and tables. The copper top bar is backed by a towering bottle collection – over 250 in all and some bottles appear to have been never opened – that is accessible by a ladder folded behind the bar.

Martinis are must have here. They fit in perfectly with the room. The fare is solid – with steaks, burgers, or seafood the choices – and they typically serve late in a city that sometimes goes to bed early. They open everyday at 11:00 (10:00 on Sunday) and have a consistent customer stream from lunch to late night.

The collection of pictures on the walls is impressive. But my favorite shots are autographed photos of Minneapolis Lakers legend George Mikan, fan favorite Minnesota Twin first baseman Kent Hrbek, and if you look across as if you were “following the bouncing ball” you’ll find an signed photograph of the mirth-maker himself, Mitch Miller.

Service is friendly and attentive. Private parties can be accommodated upstairs. There is a valet parking lot on the left side of the narrow brick restaurant and a patio on the right side for al fresco dining, which has a very short season in Minneapolis.

So there is no need to dust off the white coat, practice rolling the dice, and set sail across the Atlantic to get to Monte Carlo. The one in Minneapolis is a very satisfying excursion, and the food, drinks, and service never crap out. D.M.

When stuck in the blazing “Valley of the Sun,” Phoenix locals know to seek out the shade, or in this case, seek out the Shady’s.

Shady’s is located on a nondescript stretch of Indian School Road in Phoenix that is the home of small retail stores, auto shops and insurance firms. In fact, one insurance agent nearby is Bill Hobbs, which was the alias that we used in college, but that is another story for another time. If you get lost, ask a local to direct you to the landmark Tee Pee restaurant (almost everyone knows where that is located) and you are only a mile away.

On the corner of 27th heading toward downtown Phoenix, the olive green outside and smallish sign make for an easy opportunity to miss the place. But once the place is found, and if driving a rather difficult parking space is also found, it is worth the search.

If the Cleaver family (Beaver’s, not Eldridge’s) had a recreation room, it would look like the inside of Shady’s. The motif is early 60’s chic, with great overstuffed leather chairs, linoleum tile floor, a cool s-shaped bar, a pool table, and a juke box and sound system that is serious. Sit back in one of the leather chairs with a cocktail, play Ray Charles’ One Mint Julep, and everything is “Cool, Daddy-o.”

The crowd is younger and skin ink is popular among the patrons, but the place is spotlessly clean and staff very friendly. Chances are sports won’t be on TV; on consecutive visits there were some B-movies on the screen. But that’s alright. The place is so cool, you will want to wear shades at Shady’s. – D.M.

Denver is an active city with a popular bar scene. Microbrews and Martinis are big here, found in the redeveloped areas around Coors Field on Blake Street and in the 16th Street Mall area. But on the outskirts of downtown in a little transition area is a rather nondescript bar that has stood for nearly 60 years.

“I think it is called Dan’s Drinks,” my bartender friend recommended when I told him I was heading to Denver. “I’ll look for it,” I said. A search of the Denver phone book came up with nothing. A look through Westword, the New Times weekly entertainment tabloid, was also futile. Time to take it to the people.

“You mean Don’s Mixed Drinks,” the bartender at the highly acclaimed Sports Column sports bar informs me. “I used to live over there. Every bartender knows that place. It is something else.” For Denver, it is something else, indeed.

New ownership promised not to change a thing after Don died recently. For almost 60 years this little local hangout has served customers young and old with cold beer and solid cocktails.

Don’s Mixed Drinks and Club Tavern – as the decade’s old neon out front proudly, if not a bit weakly, states – looks like your Uncle’s basement bar. Formica is king, both on the bar top and the back bar cooler doors. A single pool table – full of stories people say – on the left is surrounded by years of trophies that pool players representing Don’s have won. Also flanking the table are four pictures of the famous watercolor dogs playing pool. And I thought they only played poker.

A veteran crowd of regulars entertain during the day. The nighttime gets significantly younger. The oldsters return the next day to hear what happened the night before. Drinks are cheap and from what I have seen the staff is an interesting mix of characters.

The back bar itself is an etched translucent mirror featuring the Rocky Mountains. Humor is prevalent throughout the bar, by evidence the sign on the back door of this little hole that opens up to a dirt alley. “Pool” the sign states with a drawing of a swimmer.

One reason that I couldn’t find the bar in the phone book is that it has not been listed for years. But if you want to find a little place that seems so out of place in up-to-date Denver, try Don’s Mixed Drinks. (303) 832-9904. Just don’t tell them how you got the number. – D. M.

The Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Monument. The White House. The Capitol Building. These and other stellar places reside in the District of Columbia. But there is a bar in Washington D.C. that has earned a place among our national treasures – The Brickskeller – that could be the Smithsonian Institute of Beer.

To enter this world, first you must go down under. Not for a Coopers Ale (Australia) but under a small hotel and enter a cellar – or meet a seller – of the largest beer selection in the United States. The Brickskeller is located under ground. A long bar with tables in small rooms on the left flank endless cooler doors with hundreds of rows of lagers, ales, stouts and ciders.

Once you’ve taken a bar stool – which you literally cannot do because they are bolted to the ground – you will be handed a beer list that would make James Michener proud and a proofreader crazy. Over 1,000 beers are listed on the menu. They have every beer and continent represented from Abbaye des Rocs (Belgium) to Zywiec (Poland).

You can have a Gem (England) of a beer, but you might want to be in the Bink (Belgium). You can study a He’Brew (California) or lower a Boon (Belgium) or cherish a Cherish (Belgium).

You can quickly down an Arriba (San Salvador), or pull from a Magic Hat (Vermont), or Hop Back (England) and have a Smuttynose (New Hampshire). But don’t drink too many or you may face a Strongarm (England) which would make you the Black Sheep (England). Then you’ll have to reach for the Hair of the Dog (Oregon).

Once in a Blue Moon (Colorado) – Enough already! – I’ll choose my own beer. But it is best to ask the staff of beer experts behind the bar. They can match a beer to your particular craving, recommend some offerings from a particular region, or offer a continuum from light to heavy depending upon your wants. Plus they seem to know instantly where the beer is located in the beer coolers, which is no small feat.

Guinness (Ireland) Book of World Records sited The Brickskeller as having the most variety of beers commercially available in the world. The number at the time: 1,072.

As one would expect, the Brickskeller is decorated in vintage beer paraphernalia with displays of nostalgic old beer cans. The menu is very beer friendly, with Chicken Wings (New York), Buffalo Stew (South Dakota), Philly Cheese Steaks (Pennsylvania) – Stop it! and a number of Burgers heading up the fare. The bar is open for lunch on Monday though Friday, but does not open on weekends until 6 pm. The kitchen stays open until 1 am on weekdays and 2 am on weekends.

Parking is always tough in D.C. and particularly difficult in this neighborhood so take public transportation or a taxi. You may want to stay a while because when they hand you the beer menu at The Brickskeller, you’ve got the whole world in your hands. – D. M.

Something has been fishy in the Pacific Northwest for over 110 years. And that’s exactly how Oregonians like it.

Since 1892, Jake’s Famous Crawfish has been serving excellent oysters and seafood dishes that can rival any big city restaurant at small town prices. You wonder how they can do it. But that is just how it is in Portland. Without blinking, garages in New York City or San Francisco charge $38 to park for the night. People in downtown Portland apologize for the $4 valet charge.

I remember years ago tipping a bellhop at the wonderful Portland hotel The Benson $5 for doing manual labor. I might as well have given him a winning lottery ticket. I remember on that same trip giving a Portland cab driver a $20 bill and hearing him say “Man, the big money is in town this week!” That’s the charm that is Portland, and it carries over to its famous seafood restaurant.

Jake’s looks old, but has aged well. The pleasantly cluttered wooden bar and professional staff greet you upon entering. Tables are randomly scattered in the bar and on the sidewalk patio. One can eat at the bar but it feels a bit cramped. A table is a better choice. The back rooms are filled with tables and booths for dining. The veteran servers are friendly and efficient.

Shrimp, crawfish, clams, oysters and fresh fish are the staples. For around a hundred dollars or the price to park two cars in the big city, two people can have a pre-meal cocktail, share a dozen oysters, enjoy entrée’s like salmon or tuna, split an excellent Oregon Pinot Noir, and finish the night with an Irish coffee. A hundred bucks gets one person laughed right out of San Francisco’s Aqua or New York’s Balthazar.

While GreatJoints tends to shun chains, one dependable restaurant group is McCormick and Schmick’s. They always offer an excellent bar experience and solid if not spectacular shellfish and seafood. Something tells me that when McCormick and Schmick’s set out to build a group of restaurants over 30 years ago, Jake’s was the prototype. And alas, the over century old Jake’s is now part of McCormick and Schmick’s yet the prices are more reasonable than at their other properties.

One may start across the street at Henry’s 12th Street Tavern for some great people watching and to sample one of their 100 beers on tap. Oregon is the tap beer capital of the US because, well, tap beer is cheap. Henry’s will tempt you with an appetizer menu at happy hour that ranges from – get this – $1.95 to $3.95. But save your appetite for Jake’s. This is one place that you can afford not to miss. – D.M.

There is a wonderful home base for sports in the heart of baseball’s Cactus League play that leads off every time with two strikes against it. But this place never strikes out.

If that sounds puzzling, it is. The Blue Moose in Scottsdale may be the best sports bar in the Valley of the Sun. It is an airy place with nice patio, roomy interior, great food and very friendly staff. Tons of TV’s for sports viewing are conveniently situated, and a few bar games like Golden Tee are available to the right of the main bar. It is a perfect oasis from the hot Phoenix sun, if you can find the place.

While located in the virtual geographic center of Scottsdale (until the city annexes another 20 square miles) and next to the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, the complex where the bar sits is a concrete labyrinth. The Blue Goose is impossible to find through these 21 acres of park unless you are looking for it. Strike one.

City officials call the plaza Scottsdale Mall. But tourists (and many locals) think that when you refer to Scottsdale Mall, you’re talking about the huge Scottsdale Fashion Square with Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom and Macy’s and PF Chang’s and the like. No Blue Moose there. Strike two.

But once you find the Blue Moose, it is a home run. The typical sports bar fare is atypical: it is very well prepared and thought out. Daily specials are typically a unique turn on a sandwich and very satisfying. The salads are great. If the maze-like walk to find the bar has you longing for a piece of cheese, let me suggest that it go on one of the Blue Moose’s stout burgers. And after your search reaches pay dirt, you will want to quench your thirst with a beer from the excellent tap and bottle selections.

In my dozens of visits to the Phoenix–Scottsdale area, I have fallen for the typography, the variety of places to go, the golf, the sports venues, and of course the weather. But I have found the people a bit standoffish in an L.A. wannabe way. That is not true at the Blue Moose. The people that run and work at the place are without question some of the nicest people I have met in the bar business. Maybe they treat you that way because they are so happy to see you. – D.M.

Breaking from the mission statement, GreatJoints.com will occasionally recommend a place that is already popular because, frankly, it is a great joint. Such is the case of Frank and Teressa’s Anchor Bar, the original home of Buffalo Chicken Wings and reason enough to venture up to the vastly underrated city of Buffalo, New York.

Although the restaurant has been open since 1934, the Buffalo Chicken Wing has only been around since 1964. Teressa Bellissimo had to feed a bunch of her son’s friends late one night after they had been out on the town. Facing a kitchen barren of fare from a Friday night busy with paying customers, Teressa improvised. Out came two platters of chicken wings that had been held back to be used later for soup stock. She deep fried them and spread across a special homemade sauce. The wings were an instant hit and the rest is history.

People from all around North America visit Frank and Teressa’s for their famous wings. The license plates in the parking lot confirm that fact. Ironically, license plates are also part of the interior décor.

On weekends, the doors don’t open at the legendary bar until the church bells across the street strike 12 Noon. Weekdays the place opens at 11. While there are tables in the back and side rooms, most people gravitate toward the large rectangular bar or one of the tables that surround it.

The Anchor Bar is always packed, and one could only guess how many chickens have given up their wings to feed the masses. The guess would be low. Wings are sold in increments of 10, 20 or 50, and sauces are Mild, Medium, Hot, Spicy Bar-B-Que, or Suicidal. By the way, since chickens can’t fly they aren’t using their wings anyway. At least that will be my argument to PETA.

Lesser known but not to be missed is that the Anchor Bar makes a mean Beef on Weck, a Buffalo staple that has been shadowed by the more famous dressed-up chicken parts. A thinly sliced roast beef sandwich served on a salty kimmelweck roll found only in Western New York, the Beef on Weck just screams to be painted with horseradish which, after consumption, will require another bartender visit to the cooler for an ice cold beer. Pizzas, pasta’s and chicken dishes add to a surprisingly extensive menu.

The place is full of character as much as it is full of characters. Sitting at the bar one day eating wings and drinking a Labatt Blue Light – my beer of choice at Frank and Teressa’s although Genny Cream Ale is available on tap – I struck up a conversation with a guy making a pit stop. Every Saturday when the Steelers play in Pittsburgh, he drives from Toronto to the game. The Anchor Bar is about the halfway point. He orders a bucket of 50 suicide wings and eats them on the way to Pittsburgh. This guy belongs in Pittsburgh; he must have the constitution of an I-beam. And what does his steering wheel look like?

One Saturday at the Anchor Bar, I sat next to Oakland Raider defenders DeLawrence Grant and Anthony Dorsett (son of Tony) who were enjoying wings the day before a game against the Bills. Not sure if the delicious wings or my strategic pointers helped them, but they did make it to the Super Bowl a few weeks later, even if they got their wings clipped by Tampa Bay.

If shuffling off to Buffalo is not in future travel plans, The Anchor Bar will send a first class vacuum-sealed bag of any flavor wings via FedEx. We have enjoyed them many times from thousand of miles away. Just heat them up and they are as good as ordering them at the restaurant. Not as much can be said for the celery and blue cheese which unfortunately travel coach. – D.M.

Through the winding streets of the Mt. Adams district of Cincinnati sets a Shining Star of bar that has a spectacular view of downtown, a terrific hamburger called the Big Ted, some of the best wurst in town, and funky ways of doing business that make it one of the more unique bars in the country. It also possesses a jukebox that features classic 70’s disco music that is sure to make you Shake Your Groove Thing.

Here is the Dirty Lowdown. City View Tavern is a spotless dive in a predominantly residential neighborhood. A small covered deck to the left of the bar provides a panoramic view of the downtown skyline and Kentucky in the distance. No Hustle here however. Bartenders double as cooks, and they painstakingly go back to the kitchen on the right for anything from hamburgers to sausages to a secret Bloody Mary recipe.

Pay as you go is the way they do business here. That’s The Way, uh, uh, They Like It, uh, uh. No tabs. Don’t be in a hurry either. Much like the city it looks down upon, the pace is decidedly Southern. But they will Turn the Beat Around on a drink order, with Cincinnati’s own Christian Morlein and Barrelhouse Brewery representing.

The chairs and tables of this small place are retro diner, as if acquired with S&H green stamps. But Take This to the Bank: the place is charming and addictive. After my first visit I had to return the next day to see if the bar was really that good. It was. Could It Be I’m falling In Love With You Baby?

Get Up Offa’ That Thing and get to the City View where Young Hearts Run Free. End of set. – D.M.