Dive bars prove ominous in an unexpected way

Who would have thought not going into a dive bar could prove just as ominous as plunking down for a drink? In a quest to capture photos of the city’s sketchiest bars, a photographer had some close encounters.

Michael Alan Goldberg was on a mission: photograph dive bars for Philadelphia Weekly colleague Brian McManus’ book, Philadelphia’s Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the City of Brotherly Love.

Turns out dive bars are dive-y for a reason. While most cases of snapping a few shots from a street corner proved uneventful, bars in Roxborough and Point Breeze drew some unsavory run-ins with nearby residents who turned whatever curiosity Goldberg had about these places into a lesson in keeping his head down.