There’s a well-established bar close to home that never has last call.

And it certainly won’t face COVID restrictions from the governor. You won’t even need to keep half-eaten food on your plate to stay a little longer!

It’s not too good to be true. It’s Honest Trav’s Virtual Dive Bar.

Travis Lindenmoyer, of Lehighton, created his Facebook group in March, which now has over a whopping 85,000 members.

“We came home from a vacation that was pretty terrible; a COVID vacation,” Lindenmoyer said. “I was looking for a way to connect with people and a way to share some of my funnier social media ideas that I never did because I was always in a very professional setting. I invited 2 or 300 of my friends and thought we would shotgun some beers together or share what we were having for dinner or share some dad jokes or do karaoke. It just exploded.”

“We’re across all platforms. It’s a pretty cool place. We were kind of wild in the beginning. … Now it turned into more of a community and a real group. We have all types of eating challenges, fundraisers, and we have a sober section that comes in and shotguns Monster Energy drinks with us and just hangs out. It’s really taken on a life of its own.”

Lindenmoyer has a team of 50 administrators and moderators to act as virtual bouncers to make sure everyone at the bar is behaving.

“We just don’t allow any politics, religion, any hate, arguments or drama,” said Lindenmoyer. “We don’t care what color you are, what your sexual preference is - it’s all love.

It’s an idea that people actually want to be nice to each other, but they’re afraid that they’re not going to get that love back. There is so much acceptance and coolness in the group. We don’t argue with people. If you post some weird stuff or anything against those rules, you’re out.”

There are members across 50 states in the group and there is almost always somebody “going live” and musicians even put on performances regularly.

Six months later, restrictions are loosening up, and members of the dive bar have been able to connect with each other. Lindenmoyer hosted an event at his house last weekend where dive bar members came together and even had a handful from other states show up.

“The connections with friends is what’s neat. I did go by social-distancing laws. I had about 60-70 people camp at my house last weekend. Nobody was allowed in the house; we had a band outside and a firepit. We drank all night and had a good time and there wasn’t a single argument - and none of the people really knew each other a few months ago.”

Lindenmoyer’s group grew into something he never planned for or dreamed of. But life works in weird ways, and the online community that he built from the ground up has even bigger plans on the horizon.

“We have a lot of cool things coming up when the time is right. We teamed up with Norwegian cruise line. We’re going to have a dive bar cruise from New York to Bermuda in July. We got a really sweet deal. If you go to the Facebook page, the cruise has a separate page.

“I’m a family guy who has a lot of friends and I like to make people laugh. I just like to see people smile and have a good time.”