I have walked right past this little gem for years never knowing it was here! Finally I spotted it and decided to try it.
STIFF drinks!!! I hate ordering a vodka pineapple and all you taste is juice, not a problem here! Also their bloody mary's are AMAZING! Nice and spicy!
It's pretty dark in there, no loud thumping music to drive you nuts, and a good mix of locals.
The bartender was playing yahtzee at the bar with a few regular customers :)
He was prompt with making our drinks and pretty friendly. He seemed a bit skeptical in the beginning when checking our id's because everyone in there seemed to be over 30. But that doesn't bother me. It's his job to check id's.
Bathroom was very clean with plenty of soap.
There is even a bookshelf filled with books in the back!!
Also if you are using a credit card it is a $20 minimum purchase, so be forewarned!
I am totally going back here for cheap strong drinks!
5 stars for the Dive Bar category! Â The Marmist is the true neighborhood bar. It's somewhat trendy as far as the younger-crowd goes! but most of its customers are "seasoned." Â The bartenders are old-school pros and appreciate politeness and fair tips. Â (They are very appreciative of generous tips.) Â Unfortunately the Marmist has no beers on draft, but it has a fair selection of bottled beers. Â When it comes to mixed drinks and shots, all of the pours are generous and priced well. Â Basically, you can get your swerve on and not go broke. Â They don't serve food, but you can bring in your own from one of the local eateries. Â I always enjoy the friendly service, good mix of patrons, and the absence of dumbasses you can often encounter in other neighborhood bars. Â I only wish their TV's had the HD signal.
Review Source:Marmist is a small dive bar tucked away in the corner of the small shopping plaza.
Went here with a few friends after hearing about how this bar was similar to the bar from HIMYM and honestly it was nowhere near it...
While we were drinking, an older lady started to converse with Alan.. eventually asking him to come over to her house and keep her company, it was hilarious! LOL. Read Alan D. review for more detail.
[Decor/ Atmosphere]
Small with limited seating, low lights, and loud music (payable jukebox player).
[Drinks]
Cocktails were $4 to $5 dollars. We ordered:
-Manhattan
-Vodka Tonic
-Spongebob
-Sex on the beach
I know what you're thinking...Sex on the beach?! No it wasn't me LOL...but I did take a few sips here and there.. LOL.
[Service]
Only one bar tender working at the time. She was friendly and knowledgeable on a good variety of drinks. If she doesn't know how to make your favorite drink, just give her a list of the ingredients and she'll make it, no problem.
------------------------------------------
Overall, Marmist is a small dive bar with easy access to cheap drinks. Although a great place for cheap cocktails, it just wasn't my type of bar.. our group was the odd bunch in the bar.
Great place to hang out with your buddies to grab a drink.
The owner here (or I believe she was) was very kind and I'll be honest... pretty good at making her vodka tonics.. you guys would be surprised at how bad many bars make the simplest drinks taste like absolute horror.
Anyways, upon entering this corner lounge, I promptly grab a seat with my friends and start talking before I go grab my drink.
Well... when I did, this 50 year old lady and I start up a nice conversation about life, college, (her kids), and jobs. 5 minutes in... she asks if I'd like to go home with her. I was seriously shocked.. "oh, I'm sorry, did you need a ride home?" I asked her. "Actually, I want you to come over, keep me company tonight", at this point, I was really flabbergasted... I mean, I guess I was flattered, but sorry ma'am, my compass points my in another direction!
So, I just politely end the conversation and leave to my friends place.
HAHA! Well, sorry for the tangent, but the reason why I'm giving this place 3 stars is because although it's a nice place to just grab a drink with a few friends and just relax, there were no real booths to sit in. My friend Daniel envisioned this place to replicate a scene from HIMYM, but we were sorely mistaken.
Overall, it's a great place (as I mentioned a thousand times), it's just not the crowd that fits ME. I like to be around people, have good music, and yeah, I like to meet great people... not to be asked if I'd take them home...
Cheers all around for St. Patricks Day coming up!
This is a total dive bar - the good kind! Tucked into the corner of the shopping mall, The Marmist is a tiny little drinking hole with a dart table and a few TV's playing some sport or another. The bartender on duty the other night was very friendly and pours a mean drink! No high class frills here, just a nice place to sit down and have a drink or 3.
Review Source:This place is right by my house and I had never gone. Once night I was tempted to look up reviews on Yelp to see how much of a dive it actually was. I was so surprised to see that people actually enjoyed this place. My boyfriend and I decided to check it out. Great prices for calls and a pretty chill atmosphere. The inside is actually way nicer then you can imagine from the outside. The only downside is that I wished they had beer on tap! I'll be back for sure! :)
Review Source:What can I say...this place is dope. Dive bar status...but you have darts, karaoke, lotto to play, jukebox with a cool selection, peeps that wanna have fun...and best of all a friendly staff, with heavy hands. Hit up Applebee's happy hour...and wrap it up at the Marmist...thas the way to do it....
Review Source:It's hidden in the corner, where you wouldn't know it was a bar unless looking for it. I have been here a few times with friends and the people and bar tenders are sweethearts. It's like it's own version of cheers. People always say hi when you enter and make you feel welcome, the drinks are relatively cheap as well. Nice little dive bar to chill at or hang with friends.
Review Source:This is a dive bar by my house and although I don't come often, I always enjoy myself.
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The bartendress was awesome and poured good, stiff drinks and was fun to chat with. Â Â It has old school bar chairs that look comfortable, but really aren't. Â I love that the napkins advertise the El Dorado in Reno. Â It just seems fitting!
As far as dives go, the Marmist is one that fits the bill perfectly on the outside: strip mall, check; guy smoking outside in the wee morning hours, check. I lived across the street from here for a few years and one day finally stopped in for a drink. Cute was hardly what I expected, but lo and behold, it was. They have nice, deep, old-style upholstered booths where you can sit and disappear into the velvet wall if you so desire as well as the tall, more updated pub style tables and chairs for a more "casual" feel. The crowd was pretty mixed e.g., there seemed to be a retirement event with a Hawaiian theme going on one of the nights I was there.
Four stars because they don't have draft beers, but overall, a good place.
The bartender's always cool, pours strong and friendly, and the clientele's not your shiny valley yuppies. Â No windows or bright lights, a feel like a good Tom Waits tune, and a vibe that feels good.
Reminds me of bars in the midwest. Â Still smells vaguely of cigarettes in that soaked-into-the-wood way.
Oh, and they have food in the evenings for happy hour (at least when we've been there). Â It's one of two places in Willow Glen (the outer edge, at least) that I've enjoyed.
A priest, an alien, and a horribly deformed autistic woman walk into a bar. .. Â I'll skip the punch line, but rest assured that it was THIS bar. Â Seriously. Â If you are into the dive experience this is about as close as can come in San Jose. Â Dim lighting. Â Cheap, but stiff drinks. Â Patrons ranging from vinyl clad cougars stalking the young and weak to Econo-Lodge business travelers smelling of gin and desperation. Â Nary a hipster in sight. Â If you want to be an intoxicated anthropologist studying the working class suburban residents of San Jose in all of their natural glory, this is the spot.
Review Source:Great old fashioned saloon - what else is there to say?  Plenty!  6AM - 2AM 365 days a year. Warm to new folks and fun regulars.  Professional bartenders, plenty of flatscreens.  Football, NASCAR, Cash Cab, American Idol - if you wanna see  it they'll tune it in for you.  Free eats for Happy hour on Fridays, and always for football. Frequent special events with a DJ and food.  Great place for birthday gatherings.  You can decorate to your heart's content.  Rocking after work crowd.  Killer juke box;  dart board and California Keno and we've won lotta $$ here .  Gonna hang there for the Superbowl tomorrow - potluck munchies and Tri-tip barbecue.  See you there!
Review Source:"Let's just pop into the Marmist for one last drink....." Â Strong pours, super nice bartenders, interesting clientele. Â Good local dive with a lending library, trivia machine, and open at 6am. Â SIX AM. Â Hell yeah.
For some reason we always end up here with our out-of-town guests and they always have a blast.
The bartenders endure our shenanigans without comment or disdain.
Thank you, Marmist, for being in the neighborhood.
Coming here on Christmas Day eve is becoming a family tradition. I thought I was in for a repeat of last year when we walked in to a lady slurring and getting sick right outside the door, but I was pleasantly surprised by the jovial atmosphere within.
Thank you for fueling some mighty hilarious stories among us with your VERY strong (and cheap) drinks! Either the people working this place read my last review - or I've become a lightweight. (Either way, much better now.) The bartender was a sweetheart.
See you next Christmas!
Dive bars are awesome.
Glad my sister was craving bloody marys. I see this bar every time I drive past it and the little martini glass sign always catches my eye. I always wondered what the name meant as well.
Anyways.. the bartender made us some of the best bloody marys ever. It was SUPER spicy, but soooooo delish. The olives were pretty damn good, too. Mouth is watering as we speak.
I think it might be time to visit again tonight.
It's just ok. Â Kind of snotty bartenders the times I have been there. Â Standoffish regulars. Â Drinks were OK, not great. Â Better than nothing thats about it. Â Do like the bookshelf for sharing and the one nice customer recommended a book he liked from the shelf. Â I only pop in once in a great while, would go back if I was in the neighborhood, but with fairly low expectations.
Review Source:I have never gone to a bar that I didn't like, but I just really didn't care for this place. Â My friends and I stopped in quickly before our movie, and literally stood there for a few minutes waiting for the bartender. Â There was no one behind the bar, and we just stood around looking at each other. Â We were about to leave, when the bartender finally came out of hiding. Â She was friendly and poured very strong drinks, which made up for the wait. Â
Some of the bar patrons were very weird. Â And not, the usual dive bar kind of weird. Â The minute we walked in, this old woman would not take her eyes off our group. Â She even turned around to stare us down while she poured her snacks down her throat and licked her plate. Â Then, another lady was talking about lesbians and how she "knew how to deal with them" to her male friend, which made it quite uncomfortable. Â Perhaps, it was an off night and I would probably come here again, but it wouldn't be a first choice.
I like this little dive bar. Â I actually know the bartender too. Â It might be a bad thing this place is so ridiculously close to my work..
I came here the other night with some coworkers. Â The great thing about this place is that there is no way you will ever run into anyone you know here so feel free to get sloppy! Â They have a lot of top shelf liquor like Grey Goose, Patron Silver and Crown Royal. Â Shots are like 6 bucks.. Didn't have beer but I'm sure it's dirt cheap. Â Lots of regulars here. Â I know this because I came in the next night too. Â Haha.
The decor in here is really old school but cozy.. The bathroom is relatively clean too. Â But be careful about the old guy in here who can't keep his ass in his pants, literally!
I'd been contemplating The Marmist for a while but from the outside it looks like a drinking den plucked from the depths of Soviet Russia and plonked in the middle of a struggling strip mall. Â But one night, after working late, I thought....what the heck...and gave it a go. Â
What a great place! Â I'm a sucker for 70s stylings and the British racing green leather seats knock the faux hipster look of places like Dive Bar into a cocked drinking hat. Â The drinkies themselves were strong and cheap and the clientele not as scary as might be imagined from the outside. Â Lots of hardened drinkers to be sure but the vibe was more one of resignation, rather than aggression.
I love this place because of the friendly people and its such a close walk from my house, but the prices need to kick back! It may be willow glenish place, but they need to get over themself. WAY over priced drinks and I have gone to both dive bars and nice bars (haha i know) It would have had 5 stars if they werent so over priced!
Review Source:MAR Â Â
-verb (used with object), Â 1. to damage or spoil to a certain extent; render less perfect, attractive, useful, etc.; impair or spoil: . Â
MIST Â
-noun 1. a drink of liquor served over cracked ice
MARMIST: to render one less perfect and attractive by drinking liquor served over cracked ice
I have to say when fellow yelper Jessie K suggested we go here for Tuesday night Idol I thought it would be another dive bar experience to the likes of The Last Call (RIP), Hyde Park Lounge, 5th Quarter etc.
I was pleasantly surprised by how damn clean the place was. (even the bathroom girls) The drinks were stiff and cheap and the minimal crowd was just as I expected.
Im not exagerrating when I say the drinks were stiff. I ordered a vodka and diet coke and Jessie looked at my drink and said it looked like iced tea :)
Any bar I can walk home from if I have to scores big in my book.
Any bar that gives me endless bowls of generic overly salty Ruffle-esque potato chips is even better!
This place is awesome. Â I still say it's a secret gem, it has grown popular over the past few months.
It is truly a dive bar, but both bartenders are down to earth, and cool as hell.
Janeen sometimes asks what is in the drink you order, and Donna is always cool to talk to.
Nice little place to just relax. You will always find good company.
i love this place. Â
an actual dive bar left in san jose that hasn't been taken over by the odd rockabilly/hipster hybrid crowd this town seems to breed. Â i don't mean to hate, i mean i love me a hot rockabilly dude but the constant need to wear what looks to me like a costume from the original "back to the future" or "grease" is just a little strange. Â
sorry, i didn't mean to digress.
anyhoo, top shelf coctails for five bucks and american idol on the telly. Â pair that with running commentary from the salt of the earth people sitting next to you and it's ON.
also they have a one of those fancypants jukeboxs that allows you to pay more money to hear your song before everyone elses. Â nice when i'm fucked up and REALLY need to hear prince's "erotic city".
UPDATE NOV.1: Â had to deduct two stars because of a really bad experience here on halloween. Â i came in with a friend from sweden who has a greencard which results in a federal government issued i.d. Â the bartender behind the bar was a total crankpot about it, and when i tried to explain that he was from sweden she replied well "that's weird". Â i politely as possible explained that being from sweden does not make you "weird". Â way to raise the bar REDNECK!
UPDATE: they've started up american idol again and i do believe this might be the best place ON EARTH to watch it at. Â so i'm giving them a star back. Â neighbor (kitty kitty mow mow) and i hit them up last night for the season opener and throughly enjoyed ourselves. Â we spent two hours watching the television with a biker couple, an african american preacher dude and his date (who was half his age, you go gramps!) and some drunk old people offering up some weak, but amusing commentary. if donna is bartending you will taken care of fo' sho'.
This baby is getting 5 stars for being open at like 1pm on Christmas Day when everywhere else was closed still. When u are having a bad Xmas and Dammit you want to just go to a bar to have a drink with a friend, this place will be open. :) Its a dive bar but hey, who the hell cares at that point.
Review Source:
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