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Start a Top 5 for Dive BarsEditor’s picks
Press picks, until locals rank their own Top 5s. Sourced from the local food press. As seen in Southwest Contemporary and New Mexico Magazine. Updated July 2026.
Albuquerque Press Club · East Downtown
Perched on a hill in East Downtown, the Press Club fills a log-cabin building older than the state of New Mexico. Southwest Contemporary calls it a labyrinth where you can still light up, grill your own food on the patio, bang out a tune on the piano, and shoot pool or darts in the basement. A private club that welcomes drop-ins for a proper old-Albuquerque dive night.
Silva's Saloon · Bernalillo
Opened in Bernalillo the day after Prohibition ended in 1933 by bootlegger Frank Silva, this saloon is now run by third-generation owner Denise Silva. New Mexico Magazine describes walls and rafters packed with dusty regulars' hats, autographed headshots, license plates and decades of mementos. It sits about half an hour up the road, and it is pure time capsule.
Monte Carlo Liquors & Steak House · Albuquerque
You enter this Route 66 institution through its attached package liquor store, which is exactly the point. Southwest Contemporary frames the Monte Carlo as a dive worth celebrating: dim light, faux-wood paneling, velvet Elvis on the walls and vinyl booths that have not changed since the Katsaros family opened in 1970. Grab a cheap, strong pour and soak up the kitsch.