The Brass Rail

The Brass Rail or «The Rail» is the perfect place for live music and jars of PRB. America. Am I right? I’ve never had a bad experience at The Rail regardless of what people say about its location. The bartenders are always quick and helpful and the people are friendly. The only negative is that their restrooms are slightly on the dirty side, but that’s to be expected for a bar that’s often swamped on weekend nights!

If you could turn a Chuck Norris karate chop into an establishment, this is it. A dive bar among all dive bars: old, historic, cool architecture, great live bands, sick jukebox, solid bartenders, respectable beer list, boozey, salty, with hideous bathrooms.

Stopped here for a drink on my sibling-in-law’s 21^st birthday. Good atmosphere, pretty quiet. We all enjoyed ourselves

The stage the music the vibes but of course. After a long day at work it’s one of the best getaways downtown Fort Wayne

We stopped in here briefly, and this was a fun little bar. It reminded me of the sort of place you find in Austin. A lot of 30 somethings or 40 somethings that were once the alternative crowd seem to come here. The bartender was pretty cool who served us.

If you want a dirty martini, do not stop here. If you want a cheap beer served in a dirty glass, this is your spot. Their saving grace is that they showcase some amazing bands, both local and non-​local acts as well as some cool theme nights.

This place is one of the most alternative places in Fort Wayne. Great atmosphere and attracts all sorts of crowds. Live music on many days of the month. They also have a food truck at night for the late-​night munchies.

one of the better rock clubs in Indiana.
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here’s to hoping it stays that way!

If I lived in Fort Wayne this would be my local every night of the week!

I just played down in Indy a few weeks ago and got to talking to the people there and the thing I get from them is how the Indy music scene isn’t that great and they conclude that Fort Wayne has a better scene. That kind of surprised me as Indy is a pretty large ass town. But then I think about The Brass Rail and I can get what they’re talking about. The Rail as most call it living around here, they’ve transformed this tiny hole in the wall to a music highway truck stop for all bands across America. I’m a big ska/​reggae fan, even some punk, and this is their specialty! They enjoy getting the bands of all music out there to stop by the Fort and play for us. Plus the get the local bands in to play with many up and coming bands to the bands that have been around for 20 years such as The Slackers! Yeah, The Slackers. These are the kinds of bands you would have to drive to Chicago or Detroit, or Columbus to see. Some big big city that isn’t close to you. So for that Rail, I thank you for bringing amazing bands to our town for me to see! Plus many of the local bands have their own shows and bring other bands from the area for us to enjoy. Good way to find new music and see it live!
So The Rail. It’s dive barey so that is what you get. They have these massive lumps of bar stools that are square and actually quite comfy! Just hard to move around. So you sit at the bar and they do have quite the selection of beers, which I find great. I’m a hophead and there is always a variety of IPA’s to choose from. So Mark happy. You could also get a mason jar full of PBR dirt cheap, but I’ve awoken to many of those with a massive hangover. PBR and Mark are not a good combination! But as with this bar, the hipster thing is alive and the preferred taste of the hipster is PBR. So much I heard they went thru more PBR than any other bar in Indiana, maybe the Midwest? LOL. They deserve a medal for that, or maybe they can get their own blue ribbon for that one!!!
I just noticed they have 3 different sandwiches they are now selling. Food is key. I’ve always heard people will stay longer if you have food. Plus when the weather is nice, the food trucks will stop by the rail. I’m sure they make crazy money. Tons of PBR need washed down with something!
If you get squirrely, they have a Foosball table back in the corner. Heard they are now doing tournaments there now. But be careful, the locals that hang there will probably crush you like Ivan Drago crushed Apollo Creed in Rocky IV. They are that good! Or you can sit at the bar and watch the TV’s where they have a nonstop of goofy crazy videos for you to watch. Everything from those crazy Russian car videos to watching music videos from the 80’s that should have never belongs on TV in the first place!!! Plus the jukebox, what can I say, it’s not your top 40. It’s actually a good collection of everything else that you don’t hear on the radio, stuff that I like. 4 songs for a dollar. You can’t beat that!
Plus the people there are nice. No one is a jerk there ever. I’ve never even seen a fight break out, everyone is there to have a good time and you never feel like some clown is going to get in a fight because you talked to his girlfriend. You know, that drunk crazy eyed person that is looking to lay into someone! The owners are nice, the bartenders are. Not one mean bone in anyone’s body there. So that is another great reason why I’ll go out of my way to go and have a beer there and chat with anyone sitting around there.
So look up The Brass Rail online and see what bands are coming thru. They’re usually around 3 – 4 bucks sometimes up to 7 bucks for a show, which even at 7 bucks, you’re going to get at least 2 – 3 bands and a full nights showing of live music.

Was in town for like three week, and this was my friends’ spot, so I was up in here a lot.
First off I am not really into the whole punk (or whatever) thing. I am also not huge on drinking piss water PBR. That said I really enjoyed hanging out here and drinking giant mason jars of piss water PBR.
Several evenings… well, afternoons… well, late mornings… well all of the above really… were spent hanging out in the back sitting around the picnic table getting pissed, discussing the typical things you talk about when you’ve just ingested a huge mason jar of diluted liquid poison.
The picnic table was painted over while I was there… I think I drew a cow on it. Keep a look out.
All-​in-​all a damn good place to drink absurdly cheap beer, hang out with some interesting individuals and get your rocks off (or at least drown them) in Fort Wayne.

This place is dirty and saturated with hipsters. If you like grunge rock though then this is the place to go.

My band came through here from Chicago last weekend and we were pleasantly surprised. We immeditately noticed all the band stickers and flyers on the walls and thought «all right this could be cool.»
The place ended up being pretty crowded by the time we played. Since the stage is in a smallish room and the bar side of the place is smallish, the place seemed pretty packed which makes shows fun. The crowd was very receptive.
We were being fed giant mason jars full of PBR all night, and we had a few shots of Jameson as well, which were definitely bigger than regulation sized shots which helped the cause quite a bit.
I would definitely make the drive to play here again and if I happened to be in town for another reason, I’d pop in for some booze.

I went here with a friend the other night not knowing what to expect. I had heard a lot of good things but figured I should check it out for myself. It is definitely a dive bar, but the atmosphere is very relaxed and fun. Everyone there was really nice and just there to have a good time. I will definitely go back. Plus they had Guinness on tap!

Something I miss from year-​round travel is walking into the town’s dive, hipster music hot spot and somehow with their plaid austerity they made me feel right at home (like in Denton, TX or Austin or Portland). As I carried on in my lack of something Pabst and Seattle-​influenced in my life… up turned the Brass Rail. Up turned a night at a bar in Ft. Wayne that was holier than any recent bar experience in Indy.
«Johnny» opened the bar when CBCG’s shut down. It feels like he was the Quasimoto of CBGB’s and replicated it in Ft. Wayne.
Service: Weirdly attentive. As in… you notice the bartender needs to change a keg… and during the keg change he takes your order and hands you your drink during the tapping of the keg and he gives you your change so quick you forgot you paid.
Sometimes a man and a woman feel like a tall boy of PBR. They have it. It reminded me of standing at a local Indy liquor store and a flipped-​cap hipster roams in with all hope-​lost asking for Pabst (but really… there’s a strange paucity of Pabst in Indy, ya feel me?).
Weekday specials of a Dollar Pints.
Everyday stiff well drinks.
Be prepared for loud music. They’re able to draw impressive acts (we drove from Indy to see The Cave Singers). Impressive acts for Indy, and it’s in Ft. Wayne; get it?
If you’ve ever dreamed of feeling like what it felt like to be with Johnny Cash on any old Tuesday in his prime… go to the Brass Rail.
Key note: the bands go on late, typically. Like, 10pm first band, headliner: midnight. According to bar owner… they want the bands to have people there, and people show up late — so there you go.
Locals, transients, the rowdy and the relaxed — all are welcome. Plenty of space to sprawl and find your crowd.
If it’s not cash only… you’ll be compelled to use cash only because it just feels right.

This bar is full of the coolest and nicest people I’ve ever met. The drinks are resonably priced, and the live music is fairly good. A very awesome crowd. Enjoy!

The Brass Rail is my favorite bar in fort wayne.
GREAT GREAT GREAT jukebox. Cheap drinks that are not watered down. It’s one of the few places where you can go listen to good bands play in the city.
It certainly draws more of a rock and roll crowd during the evening.
The staff is nice. The music is excellent. The drinks are quality. What more could you want in a dive bar?

this is pants down the best dive in Fort Wayne! punk rock bands from places like Chicago make an appearance, and its a friendly neighborhood old timers, bar during the day, well I was there during the day… so lets say a nice mix of ages, eh hem, .so yes, moving on to the interior… it has ducked taped vinyl booths, pool table, a sweet selection of songs on the jukebox like Nick Cave, Tom Waits., and alt country selections., a Queers album on the wall, a Johnny Cash poster, plenty of graffiti in the bathrooms
PBR on tap, full liquor bar. and the cutest owner i was chatting up, i mean with.Johnny., and friendly bar tenders! I love this place. wish it was here in Sacramento! This bar will be in heavy rotation when i visit Fort Wayne.

A dive bar that has live bands. Beer selection is average dive bar, but I found the crowd to be super friendly and cool, none of that BS ‘tude that you find in so many ‘rock friendly’ venues. Not much to say… a bunch of booths, a smallish area where the band plays, fast no-​bs bartenders… not much else to say. Ees gute.