The top 10 most iconic bars in film

From the hotel bar in The Shining to the hobbit’s haunt in The Lord of the Rings, we round up the most notable drinking dens in film.

Most people spend a large amount of their day in front of a screen at work, and then go home and sit in front of a TV screen afterwards. If you’re anything like team db, then the small remaining segment of your day is spent enjoying a nice large glass of something. Sometimes there’s even an overlap.

As such, it’s not really a huge surprise that drinks, and the bars that serve them, have a huge impact on films and the people in them. From dive bars to speakeasys, classic British pubs to lively American diners, the silver screen has seen them all.

We’ve gathered up the most iconic appearances of any watering hole on film. Some are more realistic than others – Withnail and I in particular runs close to the wire – but they all hold a special place in the souls of drinkers and film fans everywhere. Anyone for a pint at The Winchester?

Mos Eisley Cantina

Film: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Drink: Tatooine Sunset

It’s not physically possible for a Star Wars fan to look at an image of the Mos Eisley Cantina without hearing its theme music bobbing along in their head. It’s where Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker first met Han Solo and Chewbacca, the location of some of the most quotable parts of the film (“Sorry about the mess” being one), and where the audience sees Kenobi use his lightsaber for the first time.

Basement Taverna

Film: Inglourious Basterds

Drink: Schnapps

A seminal point in Tarantino’s WWII epic begins with a card game and schnapps, and ends with Bridget von Hammersmarck in a high-heel shaped cast.

While most of us have played a version of the drinking game where you stick a name to your face and try and guess who it is, hopefully only a handful of rounds have ended as abysmally as this one. But it’s probably to Michael Fassbender’s credit that he couldn’t pass as a convincing Nazi.

The Winchester

Film: Shaun of the Dead

Drink: A nice cold pint

Despite being an at times frenetic zombie film, you’ve got to admire the characters’ passion for a pint. A safe haven from the apocalyptic disaster zones arising around them, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s noteworthy characters are drawn to their local with a force that’s only stronger at 4pm on a Friday. Head to the pub, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over. What a motto to live by.

The Crow & Crown

Film: Withnail & I

Drink: Whisky

In a film that essentially centres on two friends squandering what little money they have on booze, surprisingly little time is spent in a pub. The time that is, however, is spent wisely, as they manage to conjure up the perfect summary of a slightly grotty British pub in about 10 minutes. Thick with smoke and filled with self-righteous regulars, it’s no wonder they spent so much time in the countryside…

Bob’s Country Bunker

Film: The Blues Brothers

Drink: A few beers, in handy bottles you can throw at the band

Any bar that needs chicken wire across the front of the stage is one we’d like to visit – preferably not on the receiving end of the beer bottles being thrown around, of course. Bob’s Country Bunker famously does “both kinds – country and western”, causing Jake and Ellwood to resort to playing the Rawhide theme more than a few times. Not a Minnie the Moocher in sight.

The Gold Room at the Overlook Hotel

Film: The Shining

Drink: Jack Daniel’s

Even if it weren’t featured so heavily in Stanley Kubrick’s cult classic, any bar that doesn’t charge for drinks is just fine by us. Taking a break from both writing a manuscript and his sanity, Jack Nicholson strolls down to the Gold Room at the Overlook Hotel for a few innocent whiskeys, only to find a lovely chum in bartender Lloyd. One of the best bromances in the history of film if you ask us.

The Prancing Pony

Film: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Drink: Ale (“It comes in pints!”)

In the first instalment of Tolkien’s hobbit-based adventure, four fellows from The Shire find themselves hiding out in The Prancing Pony on a particularly rainy day. After one too many half-pints, they manage to draw all too much attention to themselves, and get in a spot of bother for being drunk and disorderly.

The husky hand of Aragorn chides them and whisks them away from their new-found happy place faster than you can say “They’re taking the Hobbits to Isengard”.

Gaston’s

Film: Beauty and the Beast

Drink: A pint of ale, or five dozens eggs if you’re peckish

Gaston’s tavern is the scene of one of the most misguided macho displays in any Disney film. The clueless, brutish Gaston indulges in a four-minute singalong outlining just how great he is at, well, everything. Unfortunately for him, he fails to win over the beauty from the only thing that could ever beat his ‘manliness’ – a seven foot high, sharp toothed, soft hearted beast.

With the new, Emma-Watson-fronted live action version coming out later this year, all that remains to be seen is whether they stick to the script or give the village strongman a fighting chance.

Jack Rabbit Slim’s

Film: Pulp Fiction

Drink: $5 milkshake

This is perhaps the most memorable part of the film. Despite bending the ‘bar’ rule slightly, this dancing diner is such an iconic part of Pulp Fiction that it has gained honorary dive-bar status.

Inspiring whole warehouses of fancy-dress costumes, each character in the film mimics a suave caricature of a person. Almost every one of Tarantino’s films revolves around a pivotal bar scene, with food and drink a key part of his storytelling process. But that’s worth a Top 10 all of it’s own.

Rick’s Café Americain

Film: Casablanca

Drink: Champagne

The gambling hub and nightclub central to the 1942 classic is a necessary inclusion in any drink-minded film list. So many bars have tried to recreate the aura of this fantastic establishment – with one Rick’s Café, in Casablanca itself, modelling every aspect after the original bar.

Maybe it’s just not possible without the love felt between Rick and Ilsa. Or maybe it’s the lack of Gestapo threatening to burst in at any moment.