Portland, ME
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In season through February 15part of Game Day in Portland
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Be the first local to put Dive Bars in Portland, ME on the map. Your Top 5 anchors the City Consensus for everyone who comes next.
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 Portland Press Herald. Updated August 2026.
Room for Improvement · Old Port
Co-owners Nick Coffin and Arvid Brown undersell what is actually an inventive cocktail list behind dive-bar trappings on Wharf Street. The Press Herald has described the pair's own online copy calling the place halfway decent, a tongue-in-cheek label for a bar that also turns up in the paper's hot dog and bar guides.
Howie's Pub · East Deering
A neighborhood institution in East Deering, pouring inexpensive drinks and turning out solid bar food for a friendly, no-frills crowd. The Press Herald's bar guide has described it as a genuine neighborhood dive with a welcoming atmosphere, the kind of spot regulars return to rather than a destination bar.
Bubba's Sulky Lounge · Downtown
A decades-old retro lounge on Portland Street with two dance floors and a full disco fit-out, a look it has kept for years. The Daily Meal singled it out among a national list of twenty-five dive bars in America, a nod the Press Herald covered when it reached the local bar.