Ed
November 18, 2010, 9:04 pm

I'm really digging the woodwork in that bar! Pure class all the way! It's awesomely-executed classic bar styling, stag head included. It's kind of a shame there are so few remaining.

As for the spittoon troughs, I'm suddenly finding that I definitely won't be drinking any really dark beer anytime soon. :P (blech) Heh!

Daron
November 18, 2010, 9:12 pm

The Black Pearl re-opened with new owners as the previous name of the bar. Dicky's
https://rocwiki.org/Dicky's
I enjoy the blog. Cheers.

Knile
November 18, 2010, 10:31 pm

I went to Dicky's a few times after it re-opened. They've done a pretty nice job design-wise with the place. Good beer selection & decent food too. Service has been an interesting mix. Check it out, Liz!

Knile
November 18, 2010, 10:32 pm

Also, the story I'd heard was that it was a urinal, not a spittoon!!

Peg
January 27, 2016, 7:02 pm

Joe's Bar in Boulder Creek, California also has a metal trough spittoon.

Bill Gibson
November 1, 2016, 7:04 pm

We were recently at BENDERS a bar since 1902 and restaurant in Canton Ohio. It has pictures [postcards] of the trough + bar that used to be there before renovation. It was a urinal. Women were to use a different entrance to avoid this scene. I had snapping turtle soup that was great!!!

Dave
January 30, 2017, 12:37 am

Bay Horse Cafe was one of the oldest bars in Cincinnati when I moved to town in 1980. I remember seeing an old photo on the wall there, showing men standing at the original bar, which had a urinal through across the front.

Matt
February 2, 2017, 2:29 pm

The Cherry Street Tavern in Philadelphia (Cherry and 23rd Street) has a trough the length of the bar. Non working of course.

Stanley Wolf
February 7, 2017, 2:43 am

A friend just texted me a photo of a trough in the Star Hotel bar in Elko, NV

Johnnie O.
February 15, 2018, 4:41 pm

The Black Pearl is now Dicky's one of my favorites I try to visit whenever back home in Rochester. Cool site.
cheers

Mike
March 8, 2018, 2:24 am

Nick's Pub in St. Louis has a Granite trough.

john thomas
May 23, 2018, 5:50 pm

Star Hotel, retired Basque shepherd boarding hotel, great lion photos, and the best eating in the West. Wonderful food. Too much of it, but wonderful food. The full deal Basque meal. And in the same block as legal bordellos.

Pete Andrijeski
May 24, 2018, 3:53 am

There are similar troughs in the Brooklyn Tavern, Brooklyn, Washington, and a no-longer-running version at the Comstock Saloon in San Francisco (dating back to its pre-prohibition days as the Andromeda Saloon and Albatross Saloon.

Mike
October 28, 2018, 5:05 pm

Add the Woodman Lodge Steakhouse & Saloon in Snoqualmie Washington to the list of bars that have a running water trough at the bar. Awesome place!

Julie Estes
November 25, 2018, 7:17 am

Just visited The Brick. Got pics if you want them.

George
February 15, 2019, 7:31 am

I own a ex bar in Ashley Pennsylvania. It was called Chick's. I have the bar top still. It was located across from a anthersite coal mine. It had a urine trowl and was a standing bar only. The women where not allowed in the bar and had a separate dinning room for their activities. That room had a side entrance and they could not enter thru the front of the building. Many of the local bars here (every other building) had them.

Brian Azevedo
May 6, 2019, 1:53 am

You can add Oaklands oldest operating bar, Merchants Saloon to the list. Trough is still there around the entirety of the bar

Dan
June 5, 2019, 5:49 pm

The Woodman Lodge and Saloon in Snoqualmie, WA has one as well. In a historic building built in 1902 the Woodman was established in 2008 and built with great detail to replicate those early-1900 era bars. Our spittoon runs 30 feet around a corner bar and was hand-formed to custom specifications. We would love to be included in any future lists of places that have running-water spittoons.

Bob Taylor
September 12, 2019, 10:33 am

There's a line in James McMurtry's great track Safe Side about a bar on the Texas/Mexico border:
And at the base of the barstool there's a drain in the floor
You better not go in there, if you don't know what that's for

Brian
October 22, 2019, 7:10 pm

We are open as Dicky's Corner Pub and once a year we turn on the trough for a paper boat regatta!

Kronenberger Teresa
December 13, 2019, 10:42 pm

We were just in Tiffanys in Frankenmuth, MI and I looked up what it was for. I thought I had heard they used to pee in them... well I was partially correct. I learned their original intent!!!

Phil
May 3, 2020, 4:05 pm

Saw one and had its multi purposes explained to me in downtown Ottawa, Illinois in 1961.
Havent seen one since despite spending many hours and nights doing research.

John Schaf
December 8, 2020, 9:08 pm

We still have a terrazzo trough at the bar in out local Eagles Lodge in Shelbyville, IN

Max Ronchack
March 14, 2021, 12:28 am

Yes and the filled them with ice to keep the odor away

Brenda Eichelberg
May 20, 2022, 6:17 pm

The Deitsch Eck in Lenhartsville, PA has one!

J First
August 15, 2022, 4:00 pm

There was a bar in the Oakland, Ca warehouse district, next to Jack London Square that had one of these troughs but I cant remember the name of it. It was near the Oakland Grill. Its somewhere in the middle of the produce and fish houses.

Athena
August 30, 2024, 7:46 pm

Add to your list - comstock saloon in San Francisco. White marble tile. Contact me directly for pics!

Billy Reilly
October 17, 2024, 7:53 pm

You left out several bars in Montana that where the originals, Atomic, for one and most has the urinals

MURRAY GINNANE
November 28, 2024, 9:51 am

A guy once had a bet for $10 that he would take a sip out of the spittoon. Bet accepted, so he took a sip, ...... but kept chugging until it was empty.
"Jeez, mate, you only needed to take a sip!", said his cobber.
"I would have", says the guy, stuffing $10 in his pocket, "but it was all in one lump!!!".