Ministry of Information

449 Poplar St., 215-925-0999

The actual bar, though it's changed ownership, has been around for about 30 years. A bartender who goes by Dave isn't scared of being run out by burgeoning trendy bars three blocks away. "We've been here forever," he says nonchalantly. Plus, there's the notoriety of having been featured in the 2004 Kevin Bacon flick The Woodsman.

Scattered throughout are people as mixed as their surroundings: three blue-collar men, a couple that looks like they stepped out of a Gap ad and young hipster types. Oddly enough, they all lean across the bar to talk to one another. Two of them even start a game of pool in the next room.

Ministry carries a plentiful assortment of bottled beers (they don't have anything on tap), including locals like Yards and Victory. And if you miss the early '90s, bartender Christina Campbell tells me, the biweekly Pumps 'n' a Bump DJ night can bring you right back.

"Sit on my face," orders the toilet in the bar's microscopic red bathroom. Someone else has scrawled "78!" multiple times across the walls. Fair enough. Thing is, it feels wrong to question anything about Ministry. Maybe that's because its name comes from the 1985 film Brazil, about a futuristic, state-controlled society.

Marx, anyone?