Clipper Mill Lounge

I love a good dive bar, as you know, and the Clipper Mill Lounge definitely qualifies as a dive bar, but it’s much more than that. It’s got the traditional spotty history, fights and colourful clientele that any good dive bar has, but it’s also a neighbourhood bar. It may be somewhat hard to spot for the uninitiated from the outside (don’t look for a sign, there isn’t one), but once inside it wears its colours well, plenty of bar neon, football and NASCAR posters and even a decent pool table with appropriately stained felt. But it’s the clientele that rise above the average dive bar patrons. Everyone has a story and is willing to tell it to you, it’s probably the happiest group of day drinkers I’ve met in a dive bar. I met the current owner, Rob, when he offered me his stool at the bar. He explained a little of the bar’s history to me (yes, it got the name, «The Bloody Bucket» unofficially due to the number of fights the establishment endured before his tenure). He seemed like a genuinely nice guy who liked the bar biz (hard to find in dive bar owners) and more importantly, his clientele. It’s got the standard dive bar menu; strong drinks, cheap prices, but I really can’t over emphasize the neighbourhood feel of the bar. It took me back to the days when bars were meeting places for the locals and where the great inventions/​ideas of the day were thought up over a tasty beverage. So whether you call it The Bloody Bucket, The Bottom (because it’s at the bottom of a hill) or the Clipper Lounge, it’s a great little dive bar that deserves a visit from anyone who likes a cheap drink and a good story.

The Clipper Mill Inn, known to locals as «The Bloody Bucket» is easy to miss. From the street it’s just an unassuming gray block building with a red door and no permanent sign. It’s not unusual to just see a plastic banner advertising NASCAR and Budweiser beer prices hanging above the door to let you know there’s a bar inside. This bar also had a sketchy reputation when it originally opened because it looked more like a bar that was built inside someone’s garage. It was dirty, had a dingy drop tile ceiling, and was lit only by harsh neon lighting inside.
But Clipper Mill has since been remodeled and actually has a cozy little neighborhood bar feel inside now with painted drop tin ceilings, normal lighting, along with the requisite dive bar elements of a pool table, jukebox, keno machine, video poker machine, a few flat screens to watch the game, and a carry out fridges on the wall. They’ve also got 6 draft beers on tap, cold Natty Boh in a can, and strongly poured cheap drinks.
Back when Clipper Mill was still a garage bar, Charm City’s own John Water’s was spotted here on more than one occasion for their Karaōke Saturday nights. Not sure if he’s still stopping by since Clipper Mill got its interior face lift. But the regular crowd here are pretty much ALL regulars, and they seem friendly enough. So don’t let the «Bloody Bucket» nickname make you shy away. Stop in, have a cold beer or two, and enjoy another stop on your tour of Balmer dive bars.