Bar, pub, tavern: No matter what the name, it’s where we love to hang!

Most neighborhoods have at least one favorite watering hole where friends meet after work, watch ball games and spontaneously create late-night after-parties. These pubs are those special places where, according to the popular television show “Cheers,” everybody knows your name.

You have a favorite seat at the bar. The soundtracks of your life will be on the playlist. Your favorite beer will be ice cold. What more can a patron ask for in a beer joint?

Neighborhood taverns top the list of things that are all-American. Early American taverns, or as they were called in the 1600’s “ordinaries,” are remembered as resting places for weary travelers to quench their thirst and feed their bellies. In reality these colonial pubs were especially important to the magistrates of villages as a way to regulate the sale of alcohol. The Puritans didn’t like drunkards any more than we do today.

At your favorite spot the owner or wait staff knows you well enough to say when enough is enough, gently reminding you to drink responsibly. They will take your keys, call you a cab or make sure a sober friend drives you home. It is a safe place.

We must agree with Samuel Johnson that, “There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced by a good tavern.”

We asked our friends on Facebook to tell us some of their favorite neighborhood bars. Here’s where they like to pop a cold one and chill:

• Barley’s (200 E. Jackson Avenue, Knoxville)
• Toddy’s Back Door Tavern (4951 Kingston Pike, Knoxville)
• Mulligan’s (8923 Linksvue Drive, Knoxville)
• Kingsport Grocery Company (453 E. Main, Kingsport)
• Roosters (7585 S. Northshore Drive, Knoxville)
• Café 111 (111 Broyles Street, Johnson City)
• Blue Chips (7815 Montvue Center Way, Knoxville)
• Tipton Street Pub (110 Tipton Street, Johnson City)
• Tom and Barry’s (7706 S. Northshore Drive, Knoxville)
• State Line Bar & Grill (468 State Street, Bristol)
• Wild Wing Café (11335 Campbell Lakes Drive, Knoxville)

Visit the Cherokee Distributing Facebook page and tell us the name of your favorite beer joint.