Q. What is it supposed to be on the show? A. A bar & grill, Popular with the local townsfolk. Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show? A.  In the small town of Iron Lake, New York. Q. When did we see it on the show? A. In Episode 1, of Season 9, "Cold Snap". Dexter goes there to meet Angela for a date. Entering, they notice a number of people line dancing, Including Esther. Angela takes a seat at a table as Dexter goes to the bar and orders drinks. He encounters several of the people he met before, Including Ramon, and Matt Caldwell, who is out partying with his posse, Dexter and Angela line-dance a bit, to Blondie's "Heart of Glass" (it's always somewhat embarrassing when Dexter tries to dance). Matt makes a second attempt to persuade Dexter to sell him the rifle without a background check, but Dexter refuses.

>

Meanwhile, Angela meets a young girl at the bar who  is obviously broke, so she helps her out with a few bucks, and refers her to a local shelter.

We see the Tavern again later in this same first episode, when Dexter arrives only to find a small demonstration underway protesting oil drilling.

It turns out that a billionaire named Edward Olsen has shut down the tavern in order to hold his annual board meeting.

Angela and her daughter Audrey are there. Dexter complains about not being able to get his regular tuna sandwich from the tavern. The billionaire comes out and attempts to charm the crowd, but doesn't get very far.

Dexter spots a mysterious figure watching him from across the street, but it vanishes before he can take a closer look.

The Tavern shows up again in the third episode, when Dexter spots a drunken Kurt Caldwell outside the bar, and offer him a ride in his truck.

And we see it in a bizarre scene from Episode 5, in which Kurt Caldwell comes into the bar, and, despite his son being dead, proceeds to play "Runaway" on the jukebox and dance with the female bartender.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. A bar & grill, only not in New York

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. In the real world,  the Iron Lake Tavern is actually two different places: one location for the exterior of the bar, and another location for the interiors.


The exterior we see on the show is a real-life bar known as the West End Pub, And you'll find it directly across the street from the Iron Lake Police Department, at 16 State Street, in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.


The pub is located in a two-story, red building on the east side of the river, right next to (just north of) the iron bridge.

Other than adding a fake sign and a few Christmas lights, they didn't change the exterior much for the production.

But they shot the interiors of the bar 70 miles away, at the Bull Run restaurant in Shirley, Massachusetts.




These photos of the Bull Run were shot by Ron B.

What fooled me at first were the lamps in the bar. They looked identical to the ones inside the West End Pub, but unlike the lamps at the Bull Run. But later, I found a photo of the bar in the Bull Run during filming there, and they had put up identical lamps hanging over the bar. Other matching details about the bar  made it clear that the interior scenes of Iron Lake Tavern had been filmed inside the Bull Run.

Here is Ron's photo of the bar inside the Bull Run: