Iowa Dive Bar Guide

Iowa is an amazing place, which is a sentiment not often repeated by folks who write things about the state but have never been there. The population centers of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids/Iowa City bookend the state, but the state embodies exactly the kind of connected, look-out-for-each-other appreciation of community that makes for great dive bar hunting. 

This writer has thankfully been to Iowa many times thanks to family roots that include deep connections to the University of Iowa, home to one of the great campus bar scenes in the country. But the dive bar identity of Iowa City extends beyond the university as the city is dotted with a number of down home, corner bars that represent everything good about a dive bar. Deadwood Tavern is one such example, a perfect bar topped with a red awning presiding over equally vibrant red carpet.

Greenwood Lounge, Carl’s Place, the Des Moines dive bar inventory is every bit as stacked as Iowa City and what better road trip could there be then meandering slowly throughout the heartland from one dive bar hotbed to another. As you can tell by the list below, the pleasantly daunting task of traversing the great state of Iowa lies ahead of us, the recommendations below generated by what we’ve heard from other dive bar fans.