Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus./US, also swill pot, a hotel, i.e. a public house; US) a bar.

1929		Nebraska State Jrnl (Lincoln, NE) 30 Sept. 9/3: The Bowery [...] ran the gamut of picturesque cafe naming [...] ‘The Hot Skillet,’ ‘The Soup Tub,’ [...] ‘Ike’s Swillery’.
1955		P. White Tree of Man (1956) 332: He got out, and went into the pub [...] Several men talked to him in that swill pot.
1956		Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) 2 Nov. 24/4: You’ll be seeing them [a pair of movie stars] linked in the Sunset Strip’s swank swilleries.
1963		Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA) 24 Nov. 9/2: The swankier swilleries even issued membership cards.
1978		Baker Aus. Lang. (3rd edn) 216: swillery, a hotel. (Influenced by, and doubtless derived from what is remembered as the six o’clock swill). [Ibid.] 232: A hotel (especially in Victoria and South Australia) where drinking conditions are poor is a swillery.
1988		Sun. Tribune Colour TV & Radio 21 Feb. 12/2: Steve goes off and gets ossified in the local swillery.
1991		W. Sanders Big Wolves 200: It was turning-out time at The Crossed Staves (the communal swillery of the district).
1999		Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg, FL) 15 Mar. 1/1: Without [‘the danger of discovery'] it [i.e. marijuana] has as much thrill as a double vodka at your neighborhoos swillery.
2006		K. Nicht Scrambled Eggs 86: I spent a lot of time going to the local beer hall, called the Rendezvous Inn. The Vouz, as it was affectionately called, was a swillery.

2. (US) any form of cafe, restaurant.

1957

D. Karp Leave Me Alone 87: ‘Come on — we’ll have a cup of coffee at the swillery.’ They drove a few miles to a new chromium road-side diner.