Middletown

Middletown is the real hometown behind J.D. Vance's memoir Hillbilly Elegy, a former steel town (long home to what's now Cleveland-Cliffs' Middletown Works) whose working-class identity still shows in its bar scene - BarFinder lists 45 venues here, led by classic bars and sports bars, with a few dive bars in the mix. Local spots like Bill's Open Door Cafe and the Lakeside Inn carry that old-school character, while N.E.W. Ales Brewing and FigLeaf Brewing Company show a newer craft-beer side taking hold. It's a scene in the middle of the same transition the city itself has been going through.