Delaware Dive Bar Guide

Delaware can feel like a bit of an enigma to those who have never visited. It is broken into pieces, it’s on the edge of the country, it’s surrounded by states with bigger PR budgets and yet…dive bars find a way. And in fact the under-the-radar nature of the state lends itself well to fertile dive bar hunting grounds, the age of the first state mixed with a smattering of smaller towns creating peak hole-in-the-wall conditions.

Though we have yet to fully explore Delaware, our early research points to Wilmington as the place to start, with one example Comegy’s Pub, highly regarded both within Delaware and nationwide as a world-class dive. The bar is filled with string lights hanging from ancient rafters and we’re not sure what more needs to be said.

In Dover and elsewhere, the dive bar cultures of Philadelphia and Baltimore converge to create exactly the kind of working-class hubs that come to mind when the term 'northeastern dive bar’ is introduced. Transparently, we have some work to do to do right by the state of Delaware, but our research has led us to recommend the options below as a starting point to explore the state.