College Lane

It is a dive bar, what do you expect?! Martinez nightlife is non existent so go to Walnut Creek or SF if you have high expectations. My old man loves to drinks and I love it when he choices this place over the Moose Lodge. The staff is really nice, but probably because my pops and all of his friends dump their retirement into drinking! Reading the other reviews, everyone loves that blonde that works there. Y'all crack me up!

I've been here twice.  The first time was months ago and we were two of about 5 people in on a Saturday night.   The bartender, a long, pretty blonde, was nice enough, and good at what she does.  Free popcorn.  Juke box playing now and again.   We stayed for a few drinks, decided to move on.  

We went again last Saturday, again being two of about 5 people there.  Same leggy bartender, same free popcorn.  But this time there was some choice White Stripes playing.  Normally I'd stay anywhere that was playing any sort of White Stripes at all.  But the DJ had it on so loudly that the walls were shaking, the bar was rumbling, the speakers were making that weird blown out fuzzy sound.  We stayed for three more songs, then hand-motioned to eachother that it was time to GTFO before we both lost hearing in our respective good ears.

I think it could be a decent dive bar, but they need to recognize that they are, at best, a Martinez dive bar, and not some downtown club (except perhaps for the 70 year old man excitedly chair dancing and glaring at the 3 chicks in the place, and maybe once or twice at my boyfriend.)

For a random day of adventure, my sister and I decided to do a pub crawl in downtown Martinez. We grew up here, and love the people in all their various stages of sobriety, appropriate dress, and smell. So we're not  bothered by the parade of trash that sometimes accompanies a "fun" scene in the MTZ. We look forward to it. We embrace it.

College Lane was staffed by one sweet, raspy, cleavage-overload of a bartender, who told us a bit of her life story and asked about our own. She gave us dollar bills for the jukebox and kept the popcorn full. That was a huge plus.

There were bikers and friends and drunks after a funeral that took up most of the space at the counter that day. We got a few weird "you've never been here before looks," and it was funny to me that a place called "College Lane" was full of people well into their fifties and sixties. But it was like a scene from "Cheers," with every new face walking in the door having to high five, hug, or slap the back of each person at the bar.

My sister and I got free shots, as we were sorta celebrating her birthday, and settled in with cold brews at a table to eat popcorn that got more delicious with each sip, and play some cards. Everyone was friendly, some came over to see what game we were playing (a family favorite called "Duffel."). The people watching alone make this place a must visit for every native Martinezian.