The Blackboard Cafe

Friendly bartender, made sure my glass wasn’t empty and made useful food suggestions which is much appreciated. Chipotle cinnamon dry rub wings were really good.
I took a point off my original review because we keep trying to go back only to find they aren’t open, they don’t have their hours posted nor could we find them online. Would it really be that hard to put them on you FB page or something?

This place sucks. It’s trash. Their clientel blows cocaine lines off of a public restroom toilet. If you have any respect DO NOT GO!!!

If you don’t know what to expect when you walk through the door, you’ll know by the time your big toe crosses the threshold.
A few of the previous reviews have used the words «dive» and «divey» to describe the Blackboard. I think that description may be a teense harsh, so I’ll call it a neighborhood bar.
We saw all types here –a table full of landscaping guys relaxing at a table after a hard day’s work in the sun, half a dozen regulars parked on their barstools, and our group –half a dozen of us getting together for an «off site meeting» to welcome back a visiting work colleague.
The beers were cheap, and the food we ordered was fine. We went for a 20-​piece honey barbecue wing order and the BBC Nachos ($ 8.50) — a big platter with corn tortillas, chili, cheese, tomatoes, black olives, red onion, jalapenos, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole and salsa. It’s bar food, and to be honest it was pretty good bar food.
The interior of the bar is huge –two pool tables, a foosball table, and a beer pong table. Lots of tables and booths.
The jukebox was great! I played Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash, Intro/​Sweet Jane by Lou Reed, Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns and Roses, and Beast of Burden by the Stones.
Listen, its not a white linen place and not a place to impress a first date.
But for what it is — its pretty awesome.

Great divey bar near the airport. Decent prices beautiful bartenders and a local hangout kind of vibe. I will definitely return when I am in the area. Good specials as well. Worth a stop if you are in the area.

As a professional traveler, I rarely spend more than a night in a particular place each month, however, I had a layover in Hartford, once a week for 7 weeks. After visiting the Blackboard Café the first time, I returned weekly.
The food is good and very reasonably priced. Service is excellent. In particular, the young lady, Emily, really knows how to keep customers coming back. After only a few weeks, she remembered my name. I noticed her interacting with other customers and seemed to know something about each one of them.
The only negative for me is the noisy atmosphere. It is a little loud for my tastes, but the food and great service keeps me going back.

The blackboard café is a smaller bar by the airport. Let me start off by saying that this place is divey so if you’re looking for a fancy night on the town a) get out of Windsor Locks and b) choose a different bar. I’m not sure why other Unilocalers bashed it as «trashy» … What did they expect? The restaurant right next to it is called «Pickleworks»
This is a good place to go for drinks after work or to grab a few drinks with friends on a lazy friday or Saturday night. The drinks are cheap and the music is decent. Crowd is made up of locals and is hit or miss. Sometimes it’s crowded and sometimes sparse (whatever you do, DO NOT wait in line for this place). There are pool tables and a foosball table. Yes, the outfits the bartenders wear are ridiculous, but they must bring in the tips or I’m guessing management would have changed the policy.

This place gets packed for such a small town, they’ve got a lot of theme nights and Thirsty Thursday seems to be very popular. Its got your typical bar food and other nonsense. If you’re just looking for a place to have a little fun with your beverage of choice then this is for you.

Not my ideal place. Too crowded, but I’d take it as it is especially that my co workers go there after a hard days work and just unwind.

If you enjoy finding a pubic hair at the bottom of your beer glass, then go here. Otherwise… AVOID like the plague

Very trashy. Asked for a menu and the girl-​stripper?- acted like that was a very complex and strange question. The wrap was ok, but I’m wondering where it came from, and why there would be a kitchen staff when there were no bar guests? Since a menu was so hard to come by and all.
Decent selection of vodkas, never would have tried froot loops vodka if not for this gem.
One thing that I can’t stand– walking into a bar with my husband, and the regulars who look like they rent the stool they’re parked on, stare down who ever walks through that door. Not a great first vibe.
Overall, this place looks like a frat house.

Whoever is loading the jukebox is a genius but might just be an accident. Doesn’t look like there’s three quarters of a brain in the whole place. Pretty good bar food and a reasonable beer selection. Not a place I’d go out of my way to find in the future, though.

Sometimes you meet a person and they seem older than their years. More often people don’t really exude their age, or if they do, they do so congruently with how old they actually are so that you don’t notice. But every now and then you meet someone who should by all rights be much older but acts like they’re twelve. The owner of the Blackboard is that dude.
This is a guy who always posts pictures of large breasted women on his facebook page, along with fart jokes, poop humor, pictures of midgets and rude, borderline racist/​sexist insights even though he’s married and well into his forties (at least). Way to live the dream. High five!
The crowd is your standard lower-​middle class bar crowd. Some nights it’s packed with (I’m sorry, I didn’t make this up) what locals call the ho-​train, and other nights it’s filled with (I will not apologize for puns) people who drink the Night Train. More often than not it’s hardcore Windsor Locks alcoholic hobo territory (Night Train). You can go into the Blackboard on any night and find at least one person who will be riding their bike in six months from complications involving their second DUI.
The grip tape installed on top of the toilet tanks screams volumes. If you don’t know, grip tape is how bar owners fool themselves into thinking people can’t do coke in their bar. It’s supposed to turn the obvious flat spot a user would utilize into a coke burglar. The drugs get all gummed up in the sandy valleys. It never works though. Idiots will still try and the slightly smarter folks will find other ways.
The bathrooms also boast chalk and chalkboards above the urinals! I can’t think of something you should try harder to avoid touching than chalk that drunk people hold while simultaneously touching themselves. If you like brushing up against these people as you try to stumble over to an open urinal then you will be very happy when you see the narrow crawlspace they’re stuffed into.
I see people mentioning the food… You should ask yourself if you want to eat food cooked in a coke bar by a guy who thinks fat people are the most hilarious thing since farting. You can say that the grip tape makes it not a coke bar, but if it wasn’t a coke bar they wouldn’t need it, would they? You should ask yourself if you want to gamble that one day, short-​sighted fart-​joke guy doesn’t find something hilarious to do to your food, as well.

This is an ok bar (I didn’t try their food). It was mostly an older crowd (40s-​50s+) when I visited.