Pete’s Bar holds the most distinguished distinction in Duval County drinking: liquor license number one, issued in 1933 when Pete’s became the first bar to legally open after Prohibition’s repeal. The bar is older than the city of Neptune Beach itself. Three rooms of deep wood paneling, old rifles on the walls, ancient liquor bottles gathering dust, and a pool table where games have cost a quarter for as long as anyone can remember. The UK Guardian named it one of the top 10 Florida bars in 2013 — “a dive with a lot of history,” they noted, with no intention of insult. Family-owned for decades, it still feels like a 1930s Key West film set. Some bars are just places to drink. Pete’s is a time machine.
