The Georgia Dive Bar That Has One Former President's Face On Napkins All Over The Walls

If you gave us three guesses as to where a bar themed around Abraham Lincoln might be located, we'd probably go with Washington, D.C., Illinois, and Kentucky. We wouldn't have guessed it would be in Georgia, the Empire State of the South, and we certainly wouldn't have guessed that it would be in Savannah, a city that Lincoln never actually visited. And yet, there's Abe's on Lincoln, a Savannah bar decorated with countless napkin drawings of President Lincoln himself. Thanks to these drawings, its small size, and great ambiance, Abe's on Lincoln is a true dive bar.

To be clear, Lincoln had no history at all in Savannah, let alone with this specific bar. It got its name from its location on Lincoln Street, which is itself named after Benjamin Lincoln, a general during the Revolutionary War who was a key figure in the Siege of Savannah. But, the more famous Lincoln is there all the same. Many of the Lincoln doodles resemble his presidential portrait, but others get more creative. SpongeBob Lincoln? Why not? Lincoln riding a bike? Sounds reasonable. Zombie Abraham Lincoln? You know it had to happen eventually. In this spirit of collecting mementos, it's not unlike Keen's, the New York steakhouse which collects thousands of smoking pipes from its famous patrons — but you don't have to be famous to draw a picture of old Lincoln.

Although 17 Lincoln Street, the site of Abe's on Lincoln, is one of the city's oldest continuously operating bars (and was built between 1852 to 1853), Abe's on Lincoln was only opened in 2010. The napkin-doodling tradition is even newer. The practice supposedly began when a customer, having already had a few drinks, came up short for money and offered instead to draw a picture of Abraham Lincoln on a napkin in lieu of payment. You'd have to draw a pretty good picture of Lincoln for a bartender to accept it instead of cold hard cash, and this person apparently drew such a good picture that the bartender put it up on the wall — the first napkin Abe, but far from the last.

Abe's on Lincoln takes hundreds of doodles off the wall every now and then, putting them in storage and allowing new drawings to take their place. If you visit, just ask for a napkin and a pen (or come prepared with your own). Don't draw anything bigoted, put in a decent amount of effort, and your creation has every chance of ending up on the wall. (Also, maybe don't light a Miller Lite "bar smell" candle in here — those napkins are a serious fire hazard.)