Kevin G.
Yelp
This is very sad for me to write this review because I spent a summer behind the World's Longest Bar in the late '90s, and it was the best time of my (former) life. Thousands of patrons on the weekends came through our doors, 3 live bands throughout each day, and some of the musicians became some lifelong friends of mine. I took a lot of pride in saying that I worked at the Barrel and busted my butt for the owners here. I really loved working for them, and it's sad after my latest visit to PIB that I've seen how far the BBS has fallen.
Not much has changed inside since I left as an employee in the previous century. The bar, stools, stage, floor, everything is exactly the same and could really use some upgrading to continue to compete with the other locations downtown is what I kept thinking. Well, I have a lot of family that are locals on the island spanning generations, and I just learned that the owners have suffered a lot of hardships in the past five years which is why the bar still looks the way it does. It really broke my heart for the family, as they're the last people to deserve everything that's been handed to them recently.
The manager on duty was pretty rude when I asked him a question, but the security staff was friendly enough. However, my heart was too broken to see the condition of one of my most favorite places in the world as it is now to come back and spend some time and money here. I'm hoping that as the season goes on that this place still hosts great live music, pours a good drink, sells great stuff in the gift shop, makes a great pizza and packs the people in like the good old days.