Bank Club

Now this is a good god damn dive bar. What a treat. Great people (family owned) running the place and some characters playing pool. Had a great time.

The classic dive. Bank club is a bar for regulars. A bar for new found family. A bar to get drunk at a bar to have fun at. A bar where people remember you, literally there are photos of patrons up on the walls. Pours are like we like them heavy.

A comfortable neighborhood bar with super nice people. I’d visit this place more than a few more times into the future. Remember, the place is cash only.

Bank Club is so fun! It’s a neighborhood family-​owned bar. Everyone is super friendly. The bartenders are all awesome! You actually get alcohol with a splash of juice/​soda compared to the usual splash of alcohol in a mixed drink. Great prices, fun place, friendly people. What more could you want from a bar? And there’s a jukebox! Good times at the Bank Club!

Love this place. The father and daughter are super nice and down-​to-​earth good people! Go to this bar and order food from Wally’s café, attached to the bar! You can’t go wrong with this combo!

3-​generations of pouring well drinks like nobody’s business!
I agree with Mallie M.‘s review!
Anna rocks my world!

Very friendly neighborhood urban version of the cheers bar. Andy, his wife and children own and operate the place. The nicest people you’ll ever meet. It’s connected to Wally’s restaurant serving food. The Banks club has been there all my life and still going strong.

Fine bar, cash only!

The bottles are all labeled with the price per shot. The décor is hipster cool but it’s not hipster, it’s just been there since 1962. Andreas (aka Andy) the owner is gregarious. The jukebox has Dean Martin next to old Soul and R&B and then assorted randomness. It just works.

One of my favorite hole in the walls! Also has Wally’s in the back for delicious Mediterranean food. Anna and her family are some of the best small business owners I know. Always a warn welcome when you come in, even by the patrons! Nice!

This place draws an interesting cross section of different folks. $ 3 draft pilsner. Ummm really?

I’m not generally a bar person, but I would happily have a drink here (and maybe a bite from Wally’s in the back) any time. We’ve been here on numerous occasions and it never fails — everyone has been friendly and welcoming, every time. The drinks are affordable and it is kitsch-​ily decorated, so it’s fun to sit and just look around. People watching is pretty fun, too, especially since everyone seems so happy and like they’re having a great time.
Just an unpretentious, friendly little neighborhood working man’s bar. I love it. If more bars were like this, I’d actually want to go out!

You know it’s a cool spot. I don’t have anything bad to say at all.
It had been a few years since I had been here, a lot of old foggies mingle here, old meaning this guy that went to high school with my mom tried to holler (I confirmed by looking in her c/o’69 yearbook) YUCK!!!
The drinks were cool, granted my first vodka and tonic had to be garnished with lemon cause they ran out of lime, easy fix… pak-​n-​save across the street, and the rest were just right! I was there having drinks celebrating a friends birthday and I thought I’d just ask, if he could have a shot on the house for his birthday, and she was like «Oh YEAH for sure!» and glady poured a double shot damn near over flowing! Wasn’t expecting all of that but that was cool too!
In the past when I passed thru the ‘café’ in the back was closed, well let me first say I didn’t even know it was there, my friend ordered some chicken wings fried with no flour but seasoned with lemon pepper PERFECT! and fries. I saw on the menu they offer some Mediterran items as well, humus, gyros, falafel, baklava etc.
My only down fall is the ladies room…
um the door is a swing door with no lock, then the stall doors are shutters, again with no lock… ladies beware!

Bank club café is actually a bar, located right next to wally’s café. i didn’t see any food here. all the spirits has a price tag on the bottle so both the bartender and patron know the price. ($ 5-​$ 8 for call drinks). 2 draft beer, a mex (4) and stella (3) are available.
patrons here are overwhelmingly older african americans. just took one drink since there’s many patrol cars in this area. (don’t need a chaser). ambience is nice here, bartender and the people here are cool. i wouldn’t mind returning.
bar has nice ambience.

This place has the most unpretentious group of chill ass people I’ve come across since I’ve been around this town.
Every time I come in, it’s harder to leave. Some adorable grandpa-​man damn near convinced me to stay out way past my bedtime tonight– best random bar hug I ever got.
Bonus points for the bartender who doesn’t take any bullshit from anyone but is still nice as shit.
Among many of the things that make me love this place, she has price tags for one drink on every bottle in the bar. Don’t give her any lip!

Let’s get this right out of the way. This is a Greek run bar with mostly older black clientele.
And the place is rockin’ at, say, 1PM on a Tuesday.
The regulars are pretty friendly. I enjoyed striking up a conversation with an older lady who was sipping a Bud over ice. I didn’t so much enjoy talking to the guy who was falling out of his chair and sporting a nasty case of the beer farts.
The old greek guy who runs the lunch shift always looks at me with a sneer, but I’m pretty sure that the «evil eye» is the only expression that he knows. Even though he’s seen me about 20 times, he always checks my ID with the magnifying glass hidden under the bar.
He pours a mean screw-​driver. 90% vodka with a splash of OJ. It’s probably because the vodka they use is cheaper than the juice.
Give it a shot, and definitely grab a gyro at Wally’s in the back.

I have only been here a few times and mostly because I love Wally’s Café in back. I live about a block away but its not a hangout for us. However, everyone in here is very friendly including the patrons. I have noticed the increase of younger people (hipsters?) coming in here and the bar welcomes everyone.
Definitely one of the best dive bars in the east bay but not overrun by people just checking it out for the dive-​factor. The neighborhood is not bad but like any where you should always be aware of your surroundings when leaving…
Oh and the food in back at Wally’s is amazing.

this place is all kinds of ghetto fabulousness! AND they have the best gyro i’ve had yet in the bay area!
tho a bit scary on the outside (haha, ohh the oaks card room opposite doesn’t help.), its all kinds of warm niceness inside. drinks are made right and reasonably priced. there’s a pool table. the jukebox has homemade CDs in the mix. it really feels like all the nice folks in the neighborhood drop in for a drink and a chat :-)
the bonus: if you go all the way back to the café behind the bar you’ll find all kinds of yummy happiness. no, you can’t bring your drinks into the café BUT they will bring your food over to where your drink is at the bar ;-D

How have I passed this place up oh so many times? JP and I were at Wally’s to see what all the buzz was about, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s halfway between work and home and attached to Wally’s.
Emeryville has gentrified, and even The Bank Club has a fancy, earth-​toned new paint job, but inside, you wouldn’t have guessed it wasn’t the ‘80s or ‘90s. Blaring blues music, it felt like we found a little road house on San Pablo. Trying to beat the heat and having just had an amazing lunch at Wally’s, the café portion of the Bank Club, (though a separate business? I think? One of the patrons, a regular if I’ve ever seen one, was trying to yell over the blues music and he had such a harsh, gravelly voice that it actually sounded like part of the song. This is that kind of place.
$ 3 ice cold Trumer Pilsner on tap, and another fancy Michelob brew that was putting on airs. Kitschy art on the walls and hanging above the bar. A few totally tasteless trinkets. And all this is exactly what you want from a dive bar in the middle of the day on Wednesday, which is your Sunday, when a heat wave is on! In the spirit of heeding the water rationing that just went into effect, I had a Trumer.
And then on the way out a guy comes in looking every bit like an old-​style hobo, rumpled hat and all.
If you want a welcome break from the gentrification, give The Bank Club a try. ($ 3 local microbrewed pilsner!) It’s cheap, it’s friendly, it’s what Hank Williams Jr. must have had in mind when he wrote I’ve Got Friends in Low Places. And they have $ 4 shots of Old Grand Dad, my late father’s favorite bourbon. I’ll have to have one on my birthday, which my father and I share. (yep, 1 in 365!)

For the record, this place seems to have changed hands since the last few reviews were written. I can’t speak to how it was when those folks visited, but now, as I said to a friend last night, the place can only be described by two words: hella rad.
The bar’s pretty nice — pool and foosball tables, good juke box, and cheap drinks. My kinda place. The thing that really stands out, though, is the restaurant in the back. They sell some of the best Greek food I’ve had in years. Really top quality stuff. I’m told that the guy cooking all this amazing Greek food is the owner, and he plied us liberally with free humus and pita.
I’m going to start going here on a regular basis, including times when I’m not out to get a drink but rather just want some kickass food. I can’t recommend it highly enough.