(Michigan-Martin, Detroit, MI)
Scooter’s 1598th bar, first visited in 2022.
Now THIS is what looking for good neighborhood dive bars is all about. Easily in my top 5 of all time!
After learning we were visiting from out of town the bartender decided to give us a tour and tell us about the history. She began by taking us through a door labeled “barber Shop”, revealing a back room lounge area packed with artifacts.
This long-time neighborhood staple has been a hangout for police and firefighters for decades, and patrons have donated all sorts of items related to their professions. As a result, the back room of this bar is essentially a museum of nearly a century’s worth of items relating to both lines of work.
After returning to the main bar the bartender asked if we’d noticed the smooth marble front side of the bar counter. “Do you want to know why it’s marble?” she asked. So of course we wanted to know.
When the bar first opened men and women drank separately, with men in the front room and women in the back room aka the Barber Shop). According to the lore, there was a trough installed along the front of the marble side of the bar so that the men could urinate without needing to leave their spots.
The current men’s restroom is a lot less dramatic, but the women’s restroom was a clear toilet seat with razor blades and barbed wire embedded (completely and safely) within.
I had a Molson Canadian.
The marble bar front. If the legend is true, numerous urine streams used to splash here long ago. 
Women’s toilet: 
3500 Gilbert St
Detroit, MI 48210
United States
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+13138949329
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