Restaurant Scene: ‘Retro hangout with tropical drinks’ set to open on M.L. King

Bless Yer Heart is the watering hole of my dreams.

I’m partial to a good (or bad), no-frills, dive bar because there’s something in me that feels comfy getting sloshed in squalor. Bless Yer Heart is like a dive bar — with dignity and without sleaze. It’s the type of bar where snobbery is washed away with cheap, cold, halfway decent beer. But on the flip side, the cocktails will be special for bottom-of-the-barrel booze.

The confines are highly curated with decor that looks like it came from your cool, rough-and-tumble great-uncle’s estate sale and maybe a few flea markets in Wyoming. There are stained glass Schlitz Beer signs, a replica of the infamous leg lamp Ralphie’s father won in “A Christmas Story,” felt rodeo pennants, portraits of cowboys and the mounted head of a 10-point buck clenching a cigarette between its teeth, probably a Marlboro.

All of this, from the butterscotch banquettes, booths and bar stools to the front door’s porthole window is the brainchild of Freddie Schwenk and his crew.