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When the kindly bartender is named Veve (short for Elvira), there’s hard rock playing on the jukebox, you can pretend to shoot virtual deer on a video game and you leave smelling like you’ve smoked an entire pack of Luckys, you know you’ve been at the Daniel Street Tavern before the sun went down.

MULTIMEDIA Video:  The Daniel Street Tavern

The Daniel Street Tavern is a busy place at 4 o’clock on a Friday afternoon, as many bars are. But this place is sometimes even busy at 7 a.m. That’s because, as one patron put it — the bar is for working folks. This is a place where the third-shift guy can unwind before going to bed, while the rest of the world wakes up. The tavern, located of course on Daniel Street in Portsmouth, opens its doors at 7 a.m. on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays and at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (always closes at 1 a.m.).

There is a history of good times at this address. When I moved to town in 2002, I briefly worked down the street from Daniel Street’s previous incarnation, Golden Memories. It was not uncommon to pass tipsy people on the street as I was unlocking the door to the office next door. Before Golden Memories, it was a head shop.

Veve probably won’t look at you funny if you order a Cosmo, but frou-frou drinks are generally the exception at Daniel Street. You don’t have to spend a lot for a beer here — Pabst Blue Ribbon Tall Boys are $1.25 and the customer favorite, Miller High Life, is on tap for around $2.

The cheap beer, permissive smoking atmosphere and karaoke (held from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sundays) also makes Daniel Street an early-20s-hipster destination on weekends.

We chatted with a housekeeper, fisherman and social worker. Jeff, who declined to give his last name, was the fisherman – and a faithful regular. He’s been showing up at the bar for years, and can’t say enough about the "good people" who are to be found there every day. To him, the Daniel Street Tavern separates itself from the multitudes of Portsmouth drinking establishments. Here, he says, you can always find someone to talk to. "Out there" (meaning other places) you can sit on a stool next to someone all evening and never speak.

Meet Jeff on our video — and see what Daniel Street Tavern is like on a Friday afternoon. Maybe you’ll decide to go next week.