There are few cities more fun to visit with drinking in mind than Asheville, a mountain town that embraces beer culture, food culture and, it turns out, dive bar culture. The city’s downtown area has exploded in the sheer number of increasingly upscale bars and restaurants, some of them coming at the expense of what some locals would call true Asheville originals. And thought outside investment continues to come to Asheville to match increasing tourist interest, there are some potent dive bars around town well anchored to the city.

Burger Bar is king among Asheville dive bars, a shack-like, squat blue building a bit off the beaten path that serves no hamburgers but does offer a microwaved corndog for the hungry. Asheville natives own both Double Crown and downtown’s Lazy Diamond, that rare combo of dive bars opened fairly recently that feel like they’ve been open for ages. And Asheville Yacht Club rolls out a tiki vibe downtown, an area that sorely needs a little roughing around the edges.

All told, Asheville may not have the sheer scale to compete on number of dive bars available, but Asheville’s dive bars are potent, funky and formidable.