Norfolk Virginia Beach Dive Bar Guide

There’s something about a beach town that makes drinking a beer feel naturally like the right time to grab a burger too. Every city has their fare share of dive bars that offer food, but Virginia Beach’s attraction to tourists and coastal location seems to lend itself well to the type of dive bar that looks more like a mashup of bar and old-school diner.

The most remote of the city’s divey diner options may be Monk’s Place, a roadside discovery south of Virginia Beach proper in Pungo. Operated as a bar of some type since the 1940s, Monk’s Place looks it, the interior covered in surprisingly orderly dollar bills. The burger is the go-to order here, but chicken gizzards and livers provide alternative options.

A bit closer to town, Judy’s Pub & Eatery packs the same dive bar-diner hybrid appeal into a much smaller package, a hole in the wall that looks small enough to have invented the term. Burgers provide a strong option here as well, but the cheesesteaks generate strong reviews as well. Lynnhaven Pub takes a similar approach but with a little more divey appeal, its location almost hidden in a small strip mall set well off the main road. A robust tap and bottle beer selection complements a set of sandwiches to again provide a Virginia Beach dive bar one-two punch.

There are drink-only Virginia Beach dive bars, but for those visiting the area, the joint appeal of a compelling dive bar and great hole-in-the-wall diner is a hard combination to pass up. Dotted throughout the tourist-heavy town, each provides a unique oasis from the more polished (and expensive) options that make up much of the town’s business.