20 Main in Au Sable Forks: A Go-To for Great Music
AU SABLE FORKS - Based on its exterior, you might hesitate before walking into 20 Main, a bar in Au Sable Forks, located on, you guessed it, Main Street. Its stand-alone, gray, brick-and-glass-block building has stood the test of time in a town that for the most part has not, though it’s trying. Built in 1911, the building housed a fruit stand and restaurant before the first floor became a tavern in the 1970s–right around the time that the town’s main employer, the paper mill, closed for good.
Step inside, and it looks as you might expect: worn-in and wood paneled with a coffered ceiling. Some high-top tables, a shuffleboard table, a dart board, and a pool table. There are a few TV screens showing sports. Dollar bills are thumbtacked behind the bar, and the walls are covered with posters, framed pictures, ski memorabilia, and neon signs advertising Michelob Ultra and Labatt Blue.
The bar itself, curved and also wood paneled, is to the left as you enter. The swivel seats in front of it seem designed so that when non-locals enter, regulars can turn and glare. Or so I imagined.
Turns out 20 Main is the friendliest bar I have ever stepped foot in. If anyone does look at you, it’s just to say hi–and then maybe to tell you their whole life story.
Despite its facade, this may be the friendliest bar in the ADK.
The Best Bar in the Forks
To say 20 Main is the best bar in Au Sable Forks is no exaggeration as it is also the only bar in the small town named for where the east and west branches of the Au Sable River converge.
To be clear, it is a dive bar, a description its new owners, Michelle and Jody Perkins, lean into. Not long after they took over in 2024, my brother-in-law, visiting from North Carolina, ordered a dirty gin martini. As I recall, it came in a plastic cup—with ice.
When Michelle spotted the drink in his hand, she asked him how it was.
“It’s terrible,” he replied with a laugh.
“Well, what did you expect?” she asked flashing a wide grin. “This is a dive bar.”
A better bet is beer. Along with the hard seltzers, Bud Light, Mike’s Hard, and Mudslides popular with the regulars there are a handful of local brews on tap including a new red ale called 20 Main made by Valcour Brewing Company. The fancy draft beers are just $6 a pint, and a PBR tallboy costs $4.
Prop tip: bring cash as they don’t take credit. There’s a bank with an ATM machine right across the street and one of those stand-alone ATMs in the bar.
Along with Bud Light and Michelob Ultra there are a few local craft beers on tap including 20 Main Red Ale made for the bar by Valcour brewing in Plattsbugh.
Enjoy music in a hidden beer garden.
It was the music, however, not the beer, that lured us in. One summer day as we slowly drove by with our windows down, we could hear live music coming from the bar. To our great surprise, we discovered that there’s a beer garden out back.
The outdoor space was initially created by Dave and Jean Wiswel, who owned the bar for 10 years before selling it to Jody and Michelle in 2023. But Michelle and Jody have steadily been improving it. Along with a large, covered wood stage built by Jody, there are now colorful umbrella-topped tables and chairs, cornhole, and a smokeless firepit. (There are also plenty of people actually smoking, but they tend to be respectful about where they partake.) The beer garden is next to the river but is fenced off per regulation.
To get to this outdoor oasis, you must pass through the bar and go out the back door, hence the name, the OutBack Stage. And when the weather is warm, that’s where the action is.
Behind the bar’s brick building lies a brightly colored beer garden with a huge stage, a firepit, and cornhole.
Our first visit to the Outback Stage was on an open-mic night, which is usually the first Friday of the month. We were planning to pop in for just one beer before going home for dinner, but the talent was so good, we stayed for hours even as our bellies rumbled. (Since the bar doesn’t serve food, we thought about getting a pizza from Lance’s Place across the street but didn’t want to miss anything.)
The Wiswels also featured live music, but Michelle has taken it to a new level, booking bands for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Many are local to the region like All Without the Base from Plattsburgh and the Vermont-based Blues without Borders. But as the reputation of 20 Main’s curated music program has grown, Michelle is now booking talent from as far away as Chicago and Nashville (Justin Howl and Kristina Murray respectively). The bands get paid, but there is no cover charge. The style of music varies–country, ‘80s, blues, rock–but the sound is almost always top notch.
The music at 20 Main starts and ends early, from 6:00 to 9:00 Fridays, 5:00 to 8:00 Saturdays, and starting at 4:00 on Sundays. The early times are to avoid annoying the neighbors in the area but also because, as Michelle notes, “Nothing good ever happens after midnight.”
The early time slots bring in an older crowd, though some recent bands, including a local rock/punk band called /paintTHINNER (spelled with the slash), have brought in younger fans, and there’s often a bachelor party or bachelorette party kicking off their night at 20 Main.
You can dance if you want to.
When the music is upbeat people dance, and Michelle often joins in. This despite her initially not wanting to buy the place. It was all Jody’s idea, she says. She and and Jody, who’ve been married for more than 25 years, are longtime Forks residents, and they patronized the bar regularly. He’d just retired from owning his own construction company when the Wiswels, ready to retire themselves, began whispering in his ear that he should buy the bar.
Michelle, who still has a day job in health information management, resisted at first but was finally swayed by Jody’s enthusiasm as well as a look at the books.
You can spot 20 Main owners Michelle and Jody at the bar on most nights, and they seem to be having as much fun as their guests.
They took over the taps in the fall of 2024 keeping much of the staff–and much of the decor–intact. Jody handles the physical labor, including extending the back deck in the beer garden; Michelle oversees the finances, the social media, and booking the bands, which has gotten easier as bands now call her asking to come play.
In addition to music, there’s pool and corn-hole tournaments, a Monday-night dart league, and many theme nights. Theirs was the winning float in the Fork’s 2025 Labor Day parade, and 20 Main is the place to go before and after the town’s annual (and amazing) Christmas in the Forks. The couple also hosts many community events and fundraisers.
20 Main is open 365 days a year. On Christmas Day Jody and MIchelle let their employees stay home but keep the place open for those who might have nowhere else to go, or maybe just need a break from the family.
Though running 20 Main is a lot of work, Michelle loves it, and she or Jody (or both) are there most nights greeting guests and doing whatever else needs to be done, such as Jody’s tending to the fire or Michelle running across the street to Tops get more milk, presumably for those Mudslides.
On one of our early visits I thought for a second we were special because Jody remembered us and Michelle gave me a hug. I came to realize, however, that they treat everybody that way. “We’re social butterflies,” explains Michelle. “We love to entertain.”
GOOD TO KNOW
20 Main is open everyday starting at noon. It closes at 10:00 p.m most nights and 11:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Open mic night is usually the first Friday of the month and is open to anyone who signs up that night.
To find out what’s coming up, visit Michelle’s Instagram page.
July 2026
Photo of Michelle and Jody courtesy of 20 Main.