Old Strathcona Hotel and Bar

Always a stop when I lumber around white ave. Just a good old fashioned dive. It doesn’t try to be anything else. Cozy and inviting. My friends and me always plug coins in the juke box whild plugging beer.
Worth a visit.

$ 1.25 for a 8oz glass, colloquially known as «strat slams» is the defining feature of this shallow dive. I say shallow dive because staying too long in this place is not unlike jumping headfirst in the kiddie pool.
The bouncers are pretty cool guys, and most of the waitstaff are rather indifferent. The bartender/​owner is what really brings this place down. She really doesn’t want to be there and has no qualms telling you so. Try calling the slams «little fuckers» or even making small talk with her and she will show you exactly what I’m talking about.
I constantly hear her complaining that the young kids come for the $ 1.25 beers and then leave to other bars. Maybe the sole reason they come in the first place is the cheap watery draft? If you don’t want to attract the crowd that wants cheap beer maybe don’t sell it

I, personally, have never been stabbed at the Strat. I’ve seen fights here that look like they were choreographed for West Side Story. I’ve had a lady of the night ask to borrow my eyeliner in the washroom (you can keep it). I’ve plugged hundreds of dollars into the old jukebox, and a few into the new one that has almost every song imaginable on it. I’ve made out in the phone booth. I’ve had countless conversations with strangers whether I wanted to or not. After all these years, I’ve still never had the guts to eat a pickled egg. They turn the lights off at the end of the night, not on.
Beer is cheap and watery. They used to sell bottles of wine but wisely now only sell wine by the glass. They fill that sucker to the brim. Hockey is always playing on the TV, even if the game isn’t live. The same bartender has been there for years and years and years. The people watching can be fascinating, depressing, annoying or frightening. Most of the people in here are really young or really old.
I’ve made a lot of wonderful, interesting, weird memories at the Strat, the finest dive bar around.

This is a no frills place. Shady but at the same time I have never felt unsafe here. I’m sure you could find trouble if you wanted to just like anywhere else.
There is not much for décor. Basic and plain. Washrooms are clean. TVs, pool tables, they also have a couple of VLT slot machines. Those tend to attract strange people.
The staff are indifferent, I’m sure they deal with all kinds of people though out the night. So I don’t blame them.
The beer is cheap. That’s was draws most people in. We usually stop in for a drink or 2 at the start of a night out. I would not stay the whole night here.
Don’t forget it is cash only.

The dive bar of all dive bars in Edmonton, and one of the oldest. Plain décor, plain tables, cheap drinks, and a host of real characters. I was very impressed with how clean the washrooms were — I had heard horror stories about them, but they were fine. If you want a taste of history and don’t mind the taste of cheap beer, try the Strat, if only just to say you did.

If you want to get drunk for cheap, this is the place.
You risk getting stabbed, HIV, jumped, kicked out, arrested, or drugged, BUT
at least you got drunk for only $ 10.
I’m mostly joking about that warning up there. In all seriousness, this is my favorite place on Whyte Ave to go Drinking.
It’s not as bad as most people make it out to be. It’s rowdy, but I honestly feel safer here than at many of Whyte’s «ultra lounges» or «dance pubs».
and like I said, it’s cheap!

This seems like the kind of place that could get pretty rowdy; unfortunately the night I went it was somewhat subdued. I asked some friends to take me to a dive bar and this is what they picked. It fit the bill.
There didn’t seem to be much beer selection. There doesn’t even seem to be much tip selection; the waitress helpfully suggested an amount of change to return. It’s cash only, of which I’m not a fan. Of course, it’s got one of those pricey/​sketchy bank machines. The kind of ATM where you need to monitor your account for suspicious activity for several weeks after use.
Despite my 2 rating, I had a pretty decent time here and I would go back. It’s a good place to start a night out. The beer is a bit watery so it goes down without a problem. It just isn’t memorable or flavourable. All the other beers you get afterwards will be excellent by comparison.

It’s a dive bar. It’s Edmonton’s version of Springfield’s Moe’s, down to the jar of pickled eggs. It used to have these terry cloth table cozies that soaked up the beer and what-​not clients spilled. It’s got the most eclectic weekend crowd on the planet.
If you have a shy personality or one of those self-​centred paranoids that thinks where you are and what you drink says something about you, well, there are plenty of other choices on the Avenue. But, hey, if you appreciate that experience that you can only have at a dive bar, this is your place.
Okay, no $ 13.00 microbrews, it’s cheap pitchers of admittedly thin tasting lager, but it’s not unacceptable. It’s hipsters, regulars, transients, old-​timers and those inexplicable people slumped over the VLTs. It’s absolutely primo people watching and an honest good cheap time for a group and a nice starter for a night on the Avenue.
The nature of it means that there is no judging, no need for the Ed Hardy and Affliction and Axe spray. People are there to have a drink (or several) and have their own good time.

This place is more than a dive. I actually fear going here now.
This place is like a glorified cafeteria with beer. I have heard rumours that they «recycle» their beer, but again, only rumours.
I have gone here a couple times, but never again. There is a certain breed of people who go here and they don’t want to over spend money for cheap gross beer so they come to the strat.
If someone asks for you to join them at the strat. RUN AWAY!

This place seems to have the «it» factor amongst the younger crowd. I think everyone during that age had one bar they always frequented without any real reason. The place could be a bit grimy, a tad falling apart but you would keep going back.
The vibe here is that everyone knows everyone else. The place is packed, usually has a line and messy. I guess I can’t really hold that against it because no one else seems too. It continues to pull in customers so it must be doing something right. The younger generation must enjoy the familiarity of the place, maybe it provides a comfort level. I have no real explanation.
If you are past those days then I would skip out on the Strat, but if you are just starting your clubbing adventures. this might be your new home.

The just-​out-​of-​high-​school hipster crowd can’t get enough of the Strat; I don’t mind it so much on weekdays when it’s pretty much empty and more of a dad bar, but on Friday and Saturday nights it’s absolutely packed with rowdy 18-​to-​21-​year-​olds pounding back jugs of nasty draft, playing games with the Hot Nuts machine, pissing with the stall doors open and joking around about pickled eggs. There’s practically always a lineup out the door and on weekends no one is allowed in with a backpack or even a somewhat large bag, as I found out the hard way by refusing to relinquish my laptop bag when stopping in to meet some friends after doing writing work at the Fringe. Sure, I could have left it behind the front door under the watchful gaze of the bouncer, but drinking under the bright yellow cafeteria lights of the Strat isn’t exactly worth taking the risk.

The Old Strat reminds me of a drinking hall I partied at once in Toronto called the Canada Tavern. It was a sad place with dollar drafts and regulars passing out at their tables. No one blinked an eye. The Old «Strath-​coma,» as I like to call it, is a fixture on Whyte Ave. but I’ve never liked it there. It’s crowded, stuffy and feels like a community league or legion. What I can’t understand is why so many young people want to go there. There are line-​ups filled with teen-​boppers waiting to get in — for what?!