'Hardcore biker bar' Boot Hill Saloon a must-see for Daytona Bike Week
When Bike Week roars into Daytona Beach for its annual 10-day run starting March 1, one of the must-do experiences is a visit to the venerable Boot Hill Saloon on Main Street, among the landmark watering holes forever tied to the event.
Longtime fans of the bar, however, don’t need a special occasion to make the pilgrimage to the establishment that marked its 50th anniversary in 2023.
“I’ve been coming here about 30 years,” said Coleman Leonard, 71, a retired cabinet maker from Edgewater, who rode his Harley-Davidson Street Glide to Boot Hill for a quiet beer on a recent afternoon more than two weeks before Bike Week’s opening day.
“It’s the history of the place,” he said as a vintage Deep Purple song, “Child In Time,” wafted from the speakers above his head. “It’s always here, always a good time.”
Here’s a look at the Boot Hill’s history and its appeal to the Bike Week crowd:
As Bike Week evolves, Boot Hill remains “authentic”
Among the afternoon crowd on the bar’s front deck, Tom Prusaski, 61, said that has been patronizing Boot Hill since the mid-1980s, a time when Bike Week was more like the “wild, wild west,” compared with the corporate sponsorships and tourism promotion that characterizes the event nowadays.
“This was a hardcore biker bar,” said Prusaski, a retired auto mechanic, who traveled from Grant in Brevard County for a Boot Hill visit during Speedweek. “They didn’t sell T-shirts in the Boot Hill in the 1980s and it wasn’t always pretty, either.”
Although Bike Week and the Boot Hill have lost some rough edges over the years, the bar still offers a genuine biker experience, Prusaski said.
“This bar and the Iron Horse (in Ormond Beach) are two of the older bars that are still pretty authentic,” he said. “Things have definitely gotten more commercialized, but we always come here when we can.”
Boot Hill shifts into high gear for Bike Week
At the inside merchandise counter, around the corner from the bar, there’s a new assortment of Bike Week T-shirts on display, part of an inventory of merchandise that also includes doo-rags, ballcaps and other trinkets.
Many of the items offer a nod to the Boot Hill’s famed slogan that “you’re better off here than across the street” at the Pinewood Cemetery.
During Bike Week, the bar also will host a lineup of dozens of bands on multiple indoor and outdoor stages throughout the 10-day event.
The marquee out front touts the “Boot Hill Saloon and Museum,” but evidence of the latter is hard to find unless you consider a bra once worn by serial killer Aileen Wuornos a historical artifact.
It’s displayed behind the bar, where dozens of less famous under-garments also hang ceremoniously from the rafters. Almost every inch of wall space is cluttered with ancient business cards and faded snapshots that document the bar’s history. So maybe it is a museum?
For its fans, Boot Hill offers family connection
Beyond the T-shirts and the bands and the beers, Boot Hill has endured because it offers a family connection, said Patti Raimondi, who handles merchandise at the bar.
“People feel like they’re home,” she said. “They have that comfortable feeling and that’s pretty much it. You just feel like you’re with friends and family. Great food, great friends, great fun. What else is there?”
For more information on the Boot Hill and its upcoming Bike Week events, visit boothillsaloon.com or the bar’s Facebook page, facebook.com/boothillsaloon
If you go
WHAT: Boot Hill Saloon and Museum
WHERE: 310 Main Street, Daytona Beach
HOURS: 11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily
ONLINE: boothillsaloon.com
For Bike Week 2024, the Daytona Beach News-Journal will be doing quick profiles of landmark biker bars tied to the event. If you have a suggestion for a favorite, please email jim.abbott@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 'Hardcore' Boot Hill Saloon a destination for Daytona Bike Week 2024
