Pearl River Hotel

Was pleasantly surprised when I stopped in here on a recent trip back East. They’ve expanded the place adding more pool tables and have upgraded the bathrooms, which used to be disgusting. Sure, the drink selection still isn’t great (Coors, PBR, etc) but at least there is more room now to avoid the throngs of 21-​year-​olds on their winter breaks.

Now one step up from a true dive bar. Game room and good prices.
My number 1 in PR.
No food.

I haven’t been here in quite a while (let’s say years, actually) but I am going to go out on a limb and assume it hasn’t changed much. The Pearl River Hotel is a fantastic dive bar and would probably fit in well on the Lower East Side or parts of Brooklyn in my opinion. They don’t try very hard and that’s part of their charm. Also, it has a bit of a punk rock feel to it which attracts a younger and edgier crowed than the other bars on the block.

Look up «dive» in the Dictionary, you;ll see a picture of the Pearl River Hotel.. Plenty of choice in Pearl River, you don’t have to settle for this.

If you are looking to just get cheap drinks with some of your buddies, the Pearl River Hotel is a good place to meet. They have pool tables, darts, golden tee on a flat screen and big buck hunter. I would give it 4 stars for a dive bar. The only negative is that there’s an area in the back for smokers but the door is normally open and all the smoke comes into the bar, mainly by the pool area.

My kind of dive bar. Rickety floors, dark lighting, old wooden bar. Beer and shots. That’s it, don’t get fancy. Don’t dress fancy. I love this place

Apparently this place has a reputation among Pearl River locals as an establishment of ill repute. Not hard to see why, from the rickety floor to the strange, indescribable, yet definitively unfavorable smell hanging over the room.
It does, of course, have its own charms; when I was there an older down-​on-​his-​luck guy started playing hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s on a guitar while he was sitting at the bar. Certainly entertaining. And the bar wall itself is pretty fun, with all sorts of possibly classic elements, from a plaster head with magic marker goatee to an old library ladder for accessing the top shelves.
In fact, since I tend to enjoy dive bars like this, I would’ve given it a better rating if the drinks were more reasonably priced. They have the local brew, Defiant, which I’m told is made a few hundred feet down the street, which is alright.