Deadwood Tavern — Restaurant in Iowa City

The town of Iowa City has changed tremendously in the last couple of decades. There are still a handful of Institutions that remain untouched by those who wish to teardown and rebuild. The Deadwood is one of those places.

A long time hangout for the disenfranchised, awkward, deadbeats, Deadheads, potheads, pinball addicts, intellectuals, psuedo intellectuals, drinkers, smokers, trippers, etc.. There are all types that hang out of this place. Some may seem a little rough in appearance but most are genuine and occasionally well educated conversationalists.

It's affordable and would qualify as a dive bar. There are pool tables in the back. There are also a number of pinball machines, both old and new.

Unfortunately, the bathrooms have been painted in recent years and the outstanding collection of short prose, graffiti, dirty jokes, and poetry have been lost forever. Let's just say the newest generation of patrons have some work to do.

The bar is dark and has booths along the wall, which combine to ensure that you will leave the establishment more inebriated then you realized.

I had some of my best times in this bar over the years. Drinking bottled Pepsi, meeting strange people, attending drag shows, naked rugby parties, Halloween parties on LSD, watching two homophobes get harassed by two of the buffest gay men I've ever seen. If Bill Hader's "Stefon" where to mention the Deadwood in one of his cameos it would not surprise me in the least.

The Tobacco Bowl is gone, Joe's Place a shadow of its former self, but the Deadwood remains, a haven for those who wish to keep...

Would give this place a negative 5 rating had that been an option. Met a friend I haven't seen in over 40 years and wanted to get a drink together. We pull up to the Deadwood Tavern and see 7-8 people at least inside. All the lights were on including the open sign. Went to the first front door and it was locked. Went to the patio side door and it was locked too. A patron inside started to come over and open the door when the barmaid I guess told him not to. We're standing out there for several minutes waiting on on them to decide what's going on and they said they were closed. This was at 11pm and Google and the door sign said open till 2am! Truly pathetic to treat your customers this way! Such a lack of dignity and respect! Please don't give these people a single cent of your money. I could see if we showed up 20 minutes prior to closing, but 3 hours before their listed times and also several people in there drinking. Show some decency and respect for your...

The one star is not for the bar or other people in the staff, it is only for the waitress of our table, she was really ill-mannered. I could have specified how I wanted my order, I maybe didn't know the choices, didn't read the whole description, maybe forgot, so then you expect the waiter/ress to check about your preferences and tell you all the choices about that order; but most and foremost you are not rude with a customer who is not even complaining about something you failed to do, this is what wrecks everything, because you can miss or do something wrong, no big deal as for me, what is unacceptable...