Corner Pub

DJ Besto used to DJ here every Friday night. He is one of the best in Cleveland. The bathroom here is worth the visit alone and some of the stall wall art rivals the collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The toilet will provoke thought and bewilderment. Corner Pub is one of the best bars in the Cleveland area.

Here’s the thing: before you can discuss dive bars, you must define a dive bar. Someone recently listed the ABC tavern as a dive bar, and let me tell you, if I ever meet that person we will get into a fight because any place that serves a pork belly BLT is about as far removed from a dive bar as I am from Christi Brinkley.
A dive bar is a portal into a sad world of Regulars. Not regulars like «the bartenders know my name because I overtip them» but Regulars as in «I go to this bar every day after work because I hate going home, and if I find myself unemployed then I’m here during the day too. And get the F off my stool.»
If you are not an alcoholic, then a real dive bar is an extremely uncomfortable place. It’s like stepping into a pool of urine. It’s so gross at first, and then slowly you warm up to it, until you too are playing Garth Brooks on the jukebox and the bartender knows your name because you actually leave a tip in something besides quarters.
I first discovered the Corner Pub when I was living on Madison above another bar, the kind of bar which sold martinis that weren’t martinis. My boyfriend and I quickly became once a weekers, because not only was it cheap, but it had jello shots behind the bar and the bartender Jodi was a sweet older woman who loved that we never got into fights. Whenever we went in there, the same five old dirty depressing looking guys were there. Sometimes really trashy young folk would come in and sometimes there would be fights, and sometimes you would catch someone smoking crack in the bathroom. My boyfriend at the time was over 6ft and looked exactly like a cop stereotype. Otherwise I probably would have never gone in there. No, for sure i would have never gone in there.
We stopped going when poor Jodi got cancer and had to stop working. We bought her a very expensive bottle of champagne for her going away party. That woman was a gem.
Now some friends of mine run a comedy open mic there on Monday nights. The place is crowded with newbie young comics who think comedy is making clever dick jokes, and then also some very funny comedy veterans. The blue haired bartender and I are facebook friends. You can buy a pitcher of Sex on the Beach for 12 dollars. There are still plenty of Regulars who come around, and it’s disturbing how quickly you lose track of who’s a native, and who’s a comedian. Technically, the two lifestyles are not that far removed.
I don’t know about the other nights, but Mondays nights are the time to go here. It’s cheap, and while sometimes the attempts at comedy will make you doubt the inherent goodness of Man, other times everyone’s on a roll, we’re all drunk, we’re all happy, and it’s the best dive bar ever.
Cash only. We will know the hipsters have ruined it when they start taking cards.

Everyone knows your name kinda bar… in all the bad ways. I’m surprised places like this get by at all. Is it the neighborhood?

My opinion of the Corner Pub has changed in the last few months. I’ve noticed some things that are unsavory. Now, I know that I said I like dive bars, and certain activities go along with hanging out in said establishments. However, pot smoking in FRONT of the bar is just unacceptable to me. The staff has changed quite a bit, and they’re not quite as friendly. I’ll only go in on a Monday, when my friend is working, and that’s about it. If I need a quick drink, I’ll head in, but it’s gone down quite a few stars.