River Horse, at 701 Center St. in Riverwest, is a dive bar. It starts outside, with half the sign gone on one side and fliers for punk bands and pub crawls littering the wall. The door, battered from heavy traffic, looks older than the building. Inside is the same, with sparse furnishings, dirty floors and seats sticker than a movie theater floor. The fridge behind the bar is empty of beer but adorned with obscene bumper stickers from the Milwaukee area.
Having just reopened in late December after renovations, the place looks like almost nothing was done. But, having not seen it before, I can’t truly be 
one to judge. The paint is fresh, and the men’s bathroom has a new sink (it’s no Trainspotting bathroom, but I wouldn’t want to spend more time than necessary in there). But like all good dives, not much can be done in the way of restoration. The appeal of dilapidation brings patrons.
Contrary to what a lot of people think, being a dive isn’t always a bad thing, and River Horse is the shiny jewel for dirty bar lovers. First, the bartender there, Scott, was great. Really great. And it’s got a pool table with decent cues, which is more than most bars 
with tables offer. The jukebox is stacked with songs, but it’s a new machine, which takes away slightly from the dingy feel of the place (I never use them because every time I play a Dylan song, someone comes along and plays “Margaritaville,” and that’s too much for me to handle).
The art is a whole thing in and of itself. It’s sparse, which is great because you can’t miss it, and it creates an atmosphere of modernity, an atmosphere of art that not a lot of bars embrace. It’s also quite 
disturbing (the shrine to Michael Jackson, for example, or the ladies room door).
What I neglected to do with River Horse was my homework. I had heard that the bar was a staple from a lot of people, but I went on a Monday, which was a mistake. The Horse is all grunge, not a place you go to sip a cocktail, but a place for loud music and louder people. The weekday cheapens the experience, not to mention the lack of DJs or live music, both of which River Horse has on weekends.
And that’s what dive bars are about: Great music and rowdy friends, a place you can go without pretension or intrusion. It’s what makes River Horse great, and if it impressed me this much on a Monday, I can only imagine a Friday night.
