Take A Break Bar

Great dive! Love a dive bar and this spot is always great. I love their big giant beer glasses that are perfectly frosty- always the perfect beer- great prices too. Tons of pool tables- the people who play pool here are always really good. This is a smoking bar so if you don't like that, maybe skip - I personally don't mind at all and love the vibes and atmosphere. Service is good- Shay is a great bartender

Cheap drinks! Daily drink specials that help a girl on a budget stretch her dollar. Mixed crowd-young and old. Occasional hipster sighting (thank goodness they've not found this place to be ironic yet). Lots of fun.

Owner is dismissive of customers Covid-19 concerns Durning a spike in the pandemic, even going so far as to ask one customer who raised concerns to never step foot in his restaurant again.

A welcome respite from several Lawrenceville scene bars, Take A Break has great drink prices and tasty large cheese filled pretzels. Skip the Pizza. There's also two decent pool tables, and free darts--if you don't mind throwing between the perilous gap in a row of gamblaholics and their electronic slot machines (for entertainment only, of course).While perhaps not enjoying iconic Pittsburgh dive status, the relatively unknown Take A Break has recently gained more and more notoriety in the last few years among the neighborhood, and in our hearts, as a mix of locals and 20somethings alike attempt to comply with this oddly named bar's imperative.

Do you like to smoke? To you like to play pool? Do you like good music selection? Do you like GIANT ass mugs of beer on the dirt cheap? HUZZAH! Have I got the place for you. Everything about this bar feels like narnia to me. The string lights, the cheap big ass beers, the great drink specials, the cool jukebox, the pool table, the low key atmosphere. The staff is typical pittsburgh bartender staff. They're not overly interested in you or what you have to say. They aren't rude. They're just aloof. I LOVE THAT. The crowd is mixed with older yinzer types, young hipsters/scenesters, and college folk. It's laid back. They play sports on their TV if that's your thing, it's not mine. It IS cash only. So keep that in mind. Your dollar goes a lot further here than anywhere else, bonus: it's right up the block from Arsenal Cider House....

Take a Break (or TAB, as I've started campaigning for it to be called) is one of the few sketchy-as-all-hell bars in Lawrenceville that I don't enjoy. Let's start with how freaking hot it is in there. The place is kept at a sub-tropical level that's uncomfortable for anyone under the age of 78 (coincidentally, the temperature I believe the thermostat to be set at) AND they allow smoking inside. Now, smoking indoors is one thing, and keeping your bar hot as blazes is another, but doing them together?! Oof. When the inconvenient truth that is global climate change catches up with us, the entire world is going to feel like the inside of TAB: a smoky, humid nightmare. TAB boasts a truly bizarre mix of people, even for a Pittsburgh dive, and on any given night you'll see local hipsters, elderly drunks, businessmen that look like they're in the mafia and a sprinkling of yuppies kicking back $3 whiskey and cokes and $1 PBRs. The bartenders are slow, slow, slow, even when the bar is dead, dead, dead; however, they do have sweet pool tables and darts.

Nice little dive. As everyone else has mentioned, the drinks are cheap and the pool tables are great. The place generally avoids the huge bar crowds that other places nearby tend to get, but it does get pretty full on weekends.I've never had a problem with any of the bartenders or patrons of this place. Everybody seems friendly every time I'm there. If you're there during a football game, expect it to be loud, the bar is usually packed with old-timers cheering on (or cursing) the game. On a few occasions, during some big football games, the owner showed up with a stack of pizzas for everybody to share, which was awesome.If you're there on a Friday or Saturday night, you may have a hard time getting a go at the pool tables. The two tables are usually packed with groups of weekend regulars playing all night. It tends to get a little crowded and noisy around the tables.The place allows smoking, but it doesn't really bother me. Their two large "smoke eater" vent machines seem to keep the air clean and moving. As a nonsmoker, I have no problems with the smoke level at Take A Break.The bar itself is kind of small, and beer selection the same, but if you're just going for some cheap drinks and a few rounds of pool, then this is a good place to go.

I don't come on Saturdays often, but the bartender Scott is certainly the rudest, and shadiest bartender I've ever encountered.

Take a break, is the best pool hall in Lawrenceville. The beer is cheap. The pool tables play true, and the jukebox is on par. All in all this is a top notch bar that cant be beat. If you're in the area, then I would definitely check it out.

Nice dive bar, cool configuration of the bar. Pool tables, cigarette vending machine. However we came in on a Sunday night and the bartender obviously didn't want business or maybe our business? It was a weird interaction every time we ordered and got weird looks quite a few times. You don't come across a bartender who doesn't want to make money or has something up his a** too often.