Empress Hotel

This is the poorest, toughest postal code in Canada. The people on the streets are down-​and-​out. The neighborhood is notorious. This is an SRO hotel. The age of the building is obvious like the rings in a tree stump. A reasonable person would describe this bar as lower than a dive.
With a warm heart and a quirk for adventure, we enjoy the sense of community (don’t sit at the bar stools unless you ask), the humility, the human characters and the low prices. The staff is gracious and the atmosphere is humble. These are good hardy souls and the more I think about it, the better the room looks. I see that it is unchanged in decades. Through the back door and across the alley, I see the police station. I see people watching hockey. We talk to people that don’t live in a neighborhood like ours or dress like we do but, we all have the same interest in TV sports, pretty girls, and stiff drinks.
Pour me another and keep the change.

Not to be confused with the one in Victoria, this is a dive bar special.
I’ve been here a few times with the BF and some friends. The drinks are strong and the price is right. No one bothers you except to give you a compliment (drunkenly so, but still funny and heartfelt!!)
There are regulars here that have their seats, so beware. but they’ll be nice about it. They have karaōke on Saturdays I think, as well!
The other nice thing, is that it’s right behind the police station. The owner has told us that because of that, a lot of the judges, cops, etc come here to have a drink. So bad things don’t really happen here.

Dive bar alert!
The lovely Gina and I came here after a Unilocal party for some drinks. We were dressed to the nines and cozied up at the bar. Apparently the stools at the bar ‘belong’ to regulars, even if they are empty, but the staff and regulars insisted we sit there. We felt pretty special! The patrons were friendly and really chill. And the drinks? Cheap! We had amaretto & cokes, but the funny thing was, they were super stiff because they came in child-​sized glasses! It turns out the normal sized glasses always got stolen, so they had to resort to a more undesirable size. Well, it was quite the novelty and we loved it!
This place is right on East Hastings and inside an SRO building, so you can imagine that the décor is um… minimal. The bones of the building are beautiful though. This is no place to take the family, but a fun cheap stop for drinks if you’re in the hood!

This place is great. The staff are helpful and the building is beautiful. The cleaning crew was loud making sleeping in difficult. No visit is complete with the high tea experience. Raymond is terrific. He should be a diplomat.