In college, Alec Lopez read a book that changed his life. Called Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow, he’s genuinely tried to live his life that way, and, it seems to be working out.

As owner of The Dive Bar (as well as the more recently-opened Armsby Abbey) on Green Street, Lopez is one of those guys – not unlike Vincent Hemmeter – who draws people in just by being himself.

Hanging at the Dive can still feel like one of those best kept secrets that isn’t quite so secret anymore – a local gem that townies bring their out-of-town guests to for a beer. The intimate, tavern-like pub that focuses on serving up microbrews and craft beers evolved from a college kids’ meat market to something of a hipster hang, without the pretension. In fact, the vibe is so “ridiculously chill” there that Lopez is reluctant to want to talk about it to the media. He has never advertised for that very reason. Still, Lopez explains that achieving the vibe was one of the most patient and deliberate acts of his life.

“I started converting the bar to fit my personality,” he says, “slowly changing the beer selection, slowly changing the music. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. The most important lesson I’ve learned about the Worcester night scene is if you do anything, be deliberate and unfaltering.”

Not only does the Dive thrive in the colder months, but with the new fenced-in patio outback, it is becoming one of the most inviting places to hangwhen the summer hits. Lopez bought The Dive about four years ago, and began work on the outside “Beer Garden” last year, just about the same time Armsby Abbey was opening.Though the patio technically isn’t finished yet, it’s open, and Lopez has some big plans for improvement on it in the coming months. “The patio is big,” says Lopez, who is also opening the bakery Crust soon, too. “It’s the largest outside in Worcester, definitely. We still have quite a bit of landscaping to do. And we’re doing a mural on the back wall as well as building a stage and adding some lighting. The Dive has no equal, inside or out. We are an oasis in the city. My customers are always appreciative and grateful for The Dive. I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to have poured my soul into this little corner bar and have it be so appreciated.”

The music, too, is key. With help from Duncan Arsenault and bartender Jeremy Curtis, the three of them “only book amazing talents.” Monday nights, Al Vaudreuil leadsa cast of jazz musicians. Thursdays, of course, have been popular for years with drummer Arsenault’s rotating slew of musician mixes, bringing in the likes of Scott Ricciuti, Michael Thibodeau, Troy Gonyea, Brooks Milgate and Jon Short, and various other combinations, on a regular basis. Weekends bring inbands such as The Cassavettes, The Weisstronauts, Gilded Splinters, the Delta Generators, Bow Thayer and the PerfectTrain Wreck, The Howl, The Hurricane Horns and more. To him, he says it’s the only venue in the city with an uncompromising program.

And he uses the same approach in choosing his brews. The Dive currently has 16 taps, 80 bottles and one cask.

“I was raised with a ‘slowfood’ philosophy,” says Lopez. “That encompasses all aspects of my life. As a chef, I’m extremely careful with selecting only the finest and freshest ingredients. As a consumer, it’s no different. Why anyone would drink a Bud or the like is beyond me; these are products brewed with the cheapest ingredients money can buy for maximum profit. It’s fast food. No thanks. I’ll take a hand-crafted brew every time. As for deciding what I carry, I’m a beer geek. I only carry the finest beers from the United States. There are no imports at The Dive.”

The Worcester Telegram Summer Book -2009

100 Thursdays in the Making
Pat Clark

Thursday, June 11, was a date to celebrate at the Dive Bar. One hundred Thursdays ago, Drummer Duncan Arsenault went on a mission to bring together a wide assortment of Worcester musicians for live music performances on Thursday nights. The tradition has been going strong ever since. Usually, on a Thursday, the Dive Bar will have a good number of people in attendance, but on Thursday there was a line of people that snaked all around the outside sidewalk.

An eight-piece group made up of local musicians from diverse bands shared the stage performing funk and groove music from Al Green and James Brown, to Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder. Playing two electric keyboards with a permanent smile on his face was Brooks Milgate. Craig Rawding sang his heart out on vocals and blew his lungs out on the Harmonica. Steve Lefabvre and Brian Thomas gave the music an extra funk-feel with the Trumpet and Trombone. Brian Kearsley provided the right kind of jazz with his Saxophone. Al Vaudreuil and Jeremy Curtis kept a steady groove with the Guitar and Bass, while Arsenault was the backbone of it all.

You can call the musicians superstars or masters of their craft. In between songs, members would form a huddle and start explaining the chords progression for the next song, as if they never had a rehearsal. “It’s a basic E-minor and D-flat progression. You remember to give a pause when he screams at the bridge.” During the performance, Arsenault would keep a beat with his feet and one hand while the other hand was fixing the levels on the PA system set up behind him.

The joint was so jam-packed with people it was close to impossible to move, though the outside patio provided for a nice breath of fresh air. The few table-umbrellas setup guarded the smokers and shoppers from the torrential downpour. There were shoppers because there was another celebration going on outside, Punky’s grand opening of her mobile vintage boutique (Punky is a bartender at the Lucky Dog Music Hall and vintage cloths entrepreneur,Punkystyle.com). She transformed a very small mobile home into a thrift store that was parked for business in the patio area.

The entertainment went on right until the bar closed at 1 a.m. with very few intermissions. The crowd that night was an unbelievable mix of the generations; women and men in their 60s drank and danced right alongside women and men in their 20s. Some sat at the bar and never left their stool, while others did their best to move through the crowd and mingle. Others preferred to be stationed under the umbrellas outside in the patio area with their drinks and smokes in their hands. There was no perfect spot to experience the night. No matter where you were positioned, good people, good music and good beer were in close vicinity.

THE BEER NUT: In breathless anticipation of 75 Minute IPA from Dogfish

When bar owner Alec Lopez tapped the firkin, the crowd cheered, and he and other bartenders rushed to fill the special Dogfish Head pint glasses and hand them out to the crowd.

Dogfish sent 75 pint glasses to each bar that participated in the “simulcask,” and the first 75 people to get a pint of 75 Minute IPA got to keep the glass. I snagged one. I was about the 30th person to be served. Now I have a new Dogfish Head pint glass to add to my small collection at home, so now I have two different pint glasses and a snifter.

The first firkin was kicked, or tapped out, within 18 minutes. The second lasted a little longer the last pint was drawn around 10 p.m.

I was lucky enough to get two pints.

read the whole article here

www.metrowestdailynews.com/food/x889468324

Usually, if I really want to go to a top-flight beer bar, Boston is the place to be.

With plentiful selections of craft beers on tap and in bottles, it seems like there’s a good bar on almost every block.

But, I don’t always like driving to Boston. I don’t like dealing with parking, traffic and people.

Luckily, there is an option in Massachusetts’ second biggest city. The Dive Bar in Worcester offers more than enough good brews to make any beer lover happy.

Tucked in a corner at the intersection of Green and Temple streets, the Dive has 16 beers on tap and another 80 to 100 bottles available.

“I’ve always been a beer nut,” said owner Alec Lopez. “I’m in it because it’s where my passion lies. Money’s secondary for me. I don’t keep something on tap because it sells well. It’s nice to not have it be about money.”

The Dive Bar opened in 1995, and Lopez worked there as a bartender for about five years.

The bar was much different then, Lopez said. It served the college crowd, with a lot of young people coming in, drinking heavily and then leaving.

In 2003, Stuff magazine named the Dive Bar one of the top dive bars in the country, and the magazine remains on the wall to commemorate the achievement.

About four years ago, Lopez bought out one of the owners and started working on turning the small bar into a destination for drinkers of better beer, a daunting task in a city known more for the type of bar the Dive used to be.

“I wasn’t sure how it would go, with Worcester being Worcester,” he said. “I slowly started bringing in good beer and slowly moving out mass-produced beer. Worcester kind of surprised me. The bar is doing amazingly well. We had our most profitable year in 2007.”

The best way to describe the bar: It’s just a cool place to hang out. It’s small and dark with a long wooden bar. The tap list is written on a chalkboard behind the bar.

There’s two small televisions. No food is served. The walls are decorated with a mixture of oceanic-themed knickknacks and brewery stuff.

“It’s like a pawn shop,” said Lopez. “The Dive Bar was a concept of the original two owners’ love of Key West. The nautical stuff comes from that. I’m an avid diver. I surf and I boat, and I love the idea of that stuff.”

But, the real star of the Dive Bar is the beer.

On a recent trip, the beers on tap included St. Bernardus Prior 8 from Belgium, Southern Tier’s Choklat from New York, Great Divide’s Titan India Pale Ale from Colorado, Ephemere’s Apple Ale from Canada and Lagunitas’ Hop Stoopid from California.

The tap list price ranged from $5 to $8, and all of the beers were served in the proper glassware.

Bottled beer included Bear Republic’s Racer 5 of California, Pizza Port’s Hop 15 from California, Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA from Delaware and Victory Brewing’s V-12 from Pennsylvania.

“It’s very rare I bring a beer in that I don’t like,” said Lopez. “If you notice, during the wintertime, my beer selection becomes very heavy-handed. I guess the bar is a reflection of me.”

Two breweries commonly on tap at the Dive are Berkshire Brewing Company of South Deerfield and Allagash of Portland, Maine.

Thursday night is a special night at the Dive Bar. Each Thursday, there is a new beer tapped that is cask conditioned. Cask-conditioned beers are unfiltered, unpasteurized and still contain live yeast.

Also, each Thursday the Dive Bar features live music, provided by drummer Duncan Arsenault and a variety of other musicians.

The bar will continue to morph, Lopez said. He is currently phasing out mass-produced liquors and will bring in liquors from small-batch distilleries.

This summer, Lopez plans to add food and open a beer garden in the bar’s rear parking lot. The plan is to have seating for 60 people with wrought iron tables and umbrellas.

“We want to make it feel like you’re not in the city,” he said.

The Dive Bar, 34 Green St., is open seven days a week from 5:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.