Seacoast dining is becoming higher end, but there are still a few holes in the wall for locals to enjoy.

Eli Sokorelis estimated there were probably 20 to 30 dive bars in the Portsmouth area when he opened State Street Saloon in 1983. Most are gone, he said, the watering holes replaced with expensive development and fancy restaurants.

“We’re becoming dinosaurs,” Sokorelis said. “Ask the locals, you know what I mean? And you’ll see that they go to three or four, maybe half a dozen establishments in town they can afford.”

But a dive bar is more than just cheap. It has a certain character, local dive bar owners say, and certainly is not cookie-cutter or commercial.

“It’s not McDonald’s, it’s not Chili’s,” said Bill Niland, owner of the Chop Shop in Seabrook. “And it’s not a white coll

See Full Page