Let's be frank. Thanksgiving is nice - cardboard pilgrim hats, feigning interest in parades, silently unbuckling your belt under the dinner table - but it's really just a means to an end. The REAL holiday is the night before, because we all know that the pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday is the only holiday that gives St. Patrick's Day any competition for the most alcohol-fueled day of the year. That's right. November 26th is Christmas for alcoholics, kicking off the biggest bar weekend of the year, so prepare yourself to run into every single person from high school and college you hoped you'd never see again at the bar and get yourself in the mood for some serious tavern time.

Since this unheralded holiday is so often overlooked for the puritan gluttony of Thanksgiving - which is really just a way to use food to soak up all of the undigested alcohol in your system - we thought we'd gather a list of some of our favorite bars, taverns, and assorted drinking establishments from movies to help put you in the mood for this lushiest of holidays.

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Drinking Establishment: The Gold Room at the Overlook Hotel

Movie: The Shining (1980)

Bartender: Lloyd, the best god-damn bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine - or Portland, Oregon for that matter. Hardly matters that he's dead.

Drink Specialty: Bourbon on the rocks. And you've always got credit at the Gold Room... for a price.

Entertainment: There's a 1920s New Year's Eve Ball every night of the year! Swing bands! Champagne! Balloons! Dismemberment! Fun!

Atmosphere: Welcoming and prideful. Belly-up to the bar in the Gold Room, and they'll practically give you anything you want. Everyone's invited to the party - that is, provided that they have the best interest of the Overlook in mind. If you try inviting some party crashers who aren't totally down with the dead man's party vibe, you might be expected to grab an axe and make with the "Here's Johnny!" to prevent being cut off (pun intended).

Why We Love It: Because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

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Drinking Establishment: The Mos Eisley Cantina

Movie: Star Wars (1977)

Bartender: Wuher, a no-nonsense booze peddler with a prejudice against blasters and droids. However, in the hilarious, often bootlegged 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, The Golden Girls' Bea Arthur played Ackmena, the cantina's much more wisecrack and musical-number-prone barkeep. (Don't believe us? Check out the clip below.)

Drink Specialty: Romulan Ale. (That pop you just heard was 20,000 Star Wars fans having their blood pressure spike in unison.) Just kidding. We'd stick with a glass of water.

Entertainment: Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes - you know, those bloated butt-head aliens who keep playing that wacky cantina song over and over on their space-clarinets.

Atmosphere: The cantina is one of the most wretched hives of scum and villainy in the universe, and you're more than likely to find yourself on the wrong end of a lightsaber or blaster, regardless of whether or not you shoot first. But the great thing about the Mos Eisley Cantina is how accepting it is of alternative lifestyles. Whether you're a wookie, a Jedi, a Jawa, or some weird dude with a fishbowl for a head, you can let your freak flag fly in Mos Eisley.

Why We Love It: Because that cantina song is way, way too catchy.... doot-deet-doot-deet, doot-doot-doot-do-doot, dootitly do, do-do, doot-deet-doot-doot...

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Drinking Establishment: The Golden Horn

Movie: Barfly (1987)

Bartender: You've got two choices - Jim, the day bartender, a soft touch who's prone to giving hard-luck writers free drinks, or Eddie, a machismo ladies man who hates the regulars, might beat you up in the alley, and looks alarmingly like Frank Stallone.

Drink Specialty: Almost everything. The clientele of the Horn is NOT choosy about their hooch.

Entertainment: Back alley boxing between the regulars and bartenders and main-floor catfights between Faye Dunaway and Alice Krige.

Atmosphere: This is not a place for casual drinkers. The Golden Horn is a place for professionals, people making a career out of getting soused. You'll find a lot of good-hearted slobs to commiserate with and share a sandwich, but unless you're trying to use the place for artistic inspiration, it's probably not a good idea to become a regular. However, Mickey Rourke has never looked more at home.

Why We Love It: Because any bar that comes from the mind of Charles Bukowski is worth celebrating.

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Drinking Establishment: The Titty Twister

Movie: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Bartender: Razor Charlie (Danny Trejo), your tough-and-tattooed bartender, master of ceremonies, and lead bloodsucker.

Drink Specialty: Shots of tequila sucked from Salma Hayek's toes. Which, depending on your personal preferences, is either awesome or an insane health code violation.

Entertainment: The table-dancing of Santanico Pandemonium, the authentic mariachi band with instruments made of human body parts, and a nightly feeding frenzy that makes Shark Week look tame in comparison.

Atmosphere: The ultimate dive bar, covered in dirt, sawdust, and blood-stains. This is not a place to socialize. This is a bar where you sit back, mind your manners, and pray that you don't have any open wounds. However, there are lots of opportunities to build camaraderie with your drinking companions - mostly defending yourself Precinct-13-style from armies of the undead - and it's still better than going to the Tijuana TGI Fridays. Just make sure you eat a really garlicky lunch beforehand.

Why We Love It: We mentioned how they let you drink tequila, right?

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Drinking Establishment: The Double Deuce

Movie: Road House (1989)

Bartender: Forget about Pat the bartender - he was skimming anyway - just pay attention to that new bouncer James Dalton (Patrick Swayze), the coolest cooler in the business who uses his B.A. in philosophy to mask his propensity for kicking ass in a facade of tranquil zen calm.

Drink Specialty: Watered-down, over-priced liquor from local villain Brad Wesley

Entertainment: Blues legend Jeff Healey, a blind musician who, thankfully, never had to see Swayze or Sam Elliot's haircuts.

Atmosphere: You know it's dicey when the owners of a bar describe their own establishment as a "slaughterhouse," but if you're a 40-year-oId adolescent, felon, power drinker, or trustee of modern chemistry, this is the place for you.

Why We Love It: Because it taught us to be nice... until it's time to not be nice and, most importantly, that pain don't hurt. Thanks for the tips, grasshopper.

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Drinking Establishment: The Raven

Movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Bartender: The big local guy, Mahdlo, sometimes serves drinks, but the true boss of The Raven is Marion Ravenwood, the coolest, baddest, most hardcore lady barkeep in history. Honestly, she makes the Coyote Ugly girls look like Hooters waitresses in comparison.

Drink Specialty: Whiskey, either shots (lots and lots of shots) or whole bottles smashed over your head

Entertainment: Nightly drinking contests (warning - the house always wins) and the occasional bar-brawl with flaming-fist local sherpas

Atmosphere: Secluded and private. This is the ultimate hole in the wall, a place to retreat to after your archeologist boyfriend done you wrong. Still, in the frosty locale of Patan, Nepal, The Raven is a refuge from the cold and a place to unwind after a long day of helping the Nazis hunt for the head-piece to the Staff of Ra. Hope nothing ever happens to it.

Why We Love It: Because, thanks to Marion, we've always dreamed of having a woman sweep us off our feet and drink us under the table.

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Drinking Establishment: Rick's Café Américain

Movie: Casablanca (1942)

Bartender: Sascha, a warm hearted Russian always rooting for the little guy who isn't afraid to tell his boss when he's done a beautiful thing

Drink Specialty: They've got a nice Veuve Cliquot '26, but don't be offended if Rick (Humphrey Bogart) refuses to share a glass. He NEVER drinks with customers.

Entertainment: There's this great piano player, but his name escapes us. We'll be sure to ask next time he plays it again.

Atmosphere: Cosmopolitan. EVERYBODY comes to Rick's. This classy nightclub is the ultimate neutral zone, a place where the rich and the poor, expatriates and locals, Nazis and Allies, cynical bar-owners who've been hurt and the women who've hurt them can all come together and drink their sorrows away. It's the pulse of Casablanca and, possibly, the coolest bar in movie history.

Why We Love It: Because it's a great place to start a beautiful friendship.

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Drinking Establishment: The Winchester

Movie: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Bartender: John, who might be a). a trusty pub owner, b). a member of the North London Mafia with a gruff demeanor and a trophy wife, c). the walking undead, or d). all of the above. Some call him Mister Fahrenheit.

Drink Specialty: Pints of lager, however, be careful if there's any red on the glass. Might be a left-over blood stain from... you know... the z-word.

Entertainment: A jukebox stocked with Queen classics and hilarious orangutan impressions available by request

Atmosphere: Familiar and comforting. There's nothing fancy about The Winchester and your girlfriend will probably hate it, but, when the world is thrown into chaos and the legions of the damned are knocking down your door, you're gonna want to be somewhere familiar, where you know where the exits are, and where you'll be allowed to smoke. And the Winchester fits those requirements admirably.

Why We Love It: Because if seven people battle across a zombie-infected London just to get to one specific pub, it's got to be good.

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What do you think? Did we miss some obvious choices for best movie bar? Can't believe we left off Lou's Tavern from Fight Club? Want to argue (in vain) about how awesome St. Elmo's Bar was?

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