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[[Image:HandleBar.jpg|thumb|240px|right]]
The '''HandleBar''' was a nightclub located at 319 North [[Tarragona Street]] that dates back to the early 1980s. Owned by [[Sue Lamar|Sue]] and [[Jimmy Lamar III]], it is was often described as a "hole-in-the-wall bar,"<ref>"The HandleBar: That was then, this is now." ''Pensacola News Journal'', December 28, 2002.</ref> and "the closest thing Pensacola has to a true [[Wikipedia:CBGB|CBGB]]-style dive."<ref>[http://www.inweekly.net/article.asp?artID=1884 Independent News - INMA '05 Winners]</ref> It is was a popular venue for local and regional bands from the area's [[Wikipedia:punk rock|punk rock]] and [[Wikipedia:Underground culture|underground]] music scene. In November 2018 the bar suddenly, and permanently closed.
==History==
:And the national acts came, too: Future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer the Replacements played its first Pensacola gig at The HandleBar on the same night in 1985 when Kiss opened up the [[Pensacola Civic Center]] just a par five or so away. Hundreds of Pensacola punks and metalheads slam-danced through a sledgehammer-hard set by Suicidal Tendencies at the height of that band's popularity. Black Flag - hardcore punk's seminal band - slung sweat and rebellion at a crowd of hundreds, literally shaking the club's walls with its fierce volume. Then there was the early Dash Rip Rock gig, where the drummer pulled half his drum set outside and played on the railroad tracks, half the crowd following him, as the rest of the band played from the stage.<ref name="burns">"The HandleBar burns." ''Pensacola News Journal'', </ref>
The bar closed for a few years in the late-80s, and the building was occupied briefly by [[Sluggo's]] before moving to its [[Intendencia Street]] location. The Lamar family reopened the bar around 1991. In November 2018 the bar permamnently permanently closed, with the building going up for sale.
===Fire===
