About 81 years ago when Hollywood, Florida was a sleepy frontier style town, Stratford’s opened. Sadly this amazing historical bar will soon be closed to make way for a pot shop. I would think with the many vacant storefronts available in Hollywood a pot shop could go anywhere. But here we are. While I think it’s great that after all these years pot is legal “for medical use,” I’m hoping this landmark can be saved.
It’s my fault that Stratfords is closing.
I myself am guilty for the demise of this bar, because for as many times that I’ve passed it by saying ‘someday’, I never wound up going, until today. So it’s my fault (and yours) that their client base has probably gotten smaller and smaller and perhaps it is just one of the reasons the owners are selling it.
At least I did get to visit it. And what a place it is. It’s seedy, smokey and what most people call a “dive” bar, and I love it. On the day of our visit, there were a few bikers, lots of regulars, free pulled pork and ribs, cheap beer and pool tables in the back. This is everything a bar should be. Real people, real beer, friendly bartenders and an atmosphere that can’t be reproduced in any corporate bar. It’s one of the few bars where people can smoke.
While I don’t smoke cigarettes — granted I do have the occasional cigar — I truly feel that a bar has the right to make their own policy on smoking or not. There is good cause for banning smoking in public places such as offices, factories, supermarkets and such because an ordinary person HAS TO go there. But no one has to go to a bar. Let the owners decide, even if they do sell food.
They don’t know when exactly it will be closed, or even it if will be closed, it might, according to the bartender just share a space with the dispensary. So the future is very up in the air. But that being said, why not go and see what a real bar looks like. I know if Hemmingway was still alive he’d be here too. So what about you?
When you said a ‘pot’ shop I was wondering why a pottery would open there, and are they going to be potter’s wheel courses etc… lol.
Sounds like a great place!