I never write reviews. I believe everyone can have an off night and feel Yelp is a place where the average Joe flies wild with critical review. Â I live in Yountville, work in Yountville and have spent many a blurry, over served night at Panchas. Â I only write this review after being treated so badly by the owner. Â Obviously I know who she is, but this time, she was sitting on the opposite side of the bar - my side - and wanted to start something with me. No, I am not a tourist. Â I know your name and paid for this drink in my hand. Â She followed me out the bar to the patio, but cowardly didn't say a word. Â This review is an accurate agreement with the other reviews of the owner. Â She ruins this authentic, dive bar for us locals and restaurant workers. Â She doesn't know who she is or what she is doing, to this business or the town. Â I will never go again, and will tell people and my patrons to avoid this place instead of suggesting it, like i have before. Â Shame on you. Â This is an authentic post, and this lady has absolutely NO business being in MY town. Â Change it!!!!!!!!!!! Get rid of her! You have lost so much respect And business. Â I also know they won't read this, so please, do not give her your money! It breaks me to see she treats so many random people this way.
Review Source:The old lady that works/owns this place is ridiculous. I mean, I can't for the life of me even understand why she is so rude to every person that walks through the door. Her life must be really awful because that would explain why she is such a b@*%+. Well, she is really really ugly. Like godawful.. Someone else needs to run this spot or tear it down. It's infested with white trash and cigarettes. The drinks are awful. You'll never have a good time. I saw a rat on the floor.. I know the typical person may think this dive bar has potential and charm but do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. You can hardly breathe because of the smoke. One bartender is kinda cool. I think his name is rory... Ya
Review Source:Shit. Hole. The bartender /owner is a fat lunatic who won't accommodate anyone not a local no matter the fact that you're spending money. She and her white trash patrons/cousins physically assaulted me and my friends because they didn't like that we were tourists. Â We had to leave for fear if being stabbed. Â DO NOT GO HERE.
Review Source:It is what is. Â The only true "dive" bar in the whole area. Â If you are honestly comfortable in a dive bar (with real live cigarette smoke) then you will find this a nice break from the surreality of Yountville and Napa Valley in general. Â If you are a conservative tourist who thinks Napa is the place for getting out of your comfort zone and going "a little crazy" because you've hit a few too many wineries, then it probably won't work out too well. Â If you want to chill and are respectful that this is a local joint to get away from it all then you will enjoy it for what it is: a dive bar that is a little dumpy and full of young local hipsters and older drunk characters.
Review Source:The finest and most distinguished establishment in Yountville. Jen, Bob, and Rosa will make you feel like part of the family. If you are unable to score a table at the French Laundry, visit the "Taco Truck" in Pancha's parking lot and enjoy fine dining at the bar!
Great place...Great people!!
Love this Bar! Don't let the outside fool you!
We were greeted by the friendly bartender (Rosa, I think) and served promptly in the packed house! The locals even moved over a seat just to make room for us at the bar then talked with us as we finished our drinks! Â The drink prices were reasonable, especially after we asked for the "local" discount (if you ask they will honor locals prices!)
A definite must-stop to bring you back to reality before you leave the "Rockwell" town of Yountville and return back to your meager valley or beach town/city! Pancha's is the quintessential Dive Bar situated among the overdeveloped tourist wine village of Yountville!
Local dive and awesome! Â Went here after an incredible meal at Bouchon and it was great! Â Very friendly bartender and patrons. Â It makes you feel like you've been a regular for years! Â If you need a taste of reality and some great local people after froo-froo wine tasting, definitely pop in for a beer!
Review Source:When you're in the Napa Valley, surrounded by tourists (myself included), couples, families, wine lovers, "ladies who lunch," and cute cafes ... sometimes, you start to miss that seedy bar from back home. Enter Pancha's of Yountville.
Our server at the restaurant across the street recommended this dive after we asked, "where do the locals go? The industry folks ... cheap drinks, cold beer." We strutted in her, headed straight to the bar, ordered a few cold pops, danced to tunes on the jukebox and talked it up with the cool bartender and other locals. Good times.
Great dive bar. Right at the end of the main road in downtown Yountville, this place is a staple. It is where all the restaurant industry poeple go after work and is a fun place to check out as a tourist. I personally am not a smoker but cigarettes are allowed inside which is a rarity in California. There is also an AWESOME taco truck that parks outside usually all day until just before dark. You can bring the food from there into the bar. Cheap drinks, friendly people, and pool tables. Only 4 stars because it gets a bit smoky at times.
Review Source:Long before Thomas Keller turned Yountville in to Kellerville there was Pancha's, a garage, and resturaunts with amazing food. Pancha's is a dive bar I have walked past a zillion times in the last 18 years and never went in due to the snooty people I was with. Yesterday I told my husband, his first time in Kellerville....I mean Yountville, about this dive bar down the street. He couldn't wait to to finish his duck pate at Bistro Jeanty and get there..definately the reason I married him. Pancha's is family owned, family run and awsome. If they chased a recient yelper out of the table in the back lot she shouldn't have been sitting there in the first place. Its a bar...a dive bar! Cheap drinks, massive pours, 11 bottles of beer, 2 taps, 2 pool tables, smoking in the bar, super clean restrooms, and cash only. If you are not there to drink don't sit at their table in the back lot and whine that you got kicked out. Keep your prissy, snooty, upity butt at Bouchon...even better LA!
P.S. the customer is always wrong.....see Rose!
According to my wife, leave it to me to find a dive bar a block away from the French Laundry. Granted, Pancha's is basically next door to our hotel, so it didn't take that much sleuthing. With the smoking, cheap beer and shady-looking characters, this certainly seemed like Yountville's version of a dive bar. To me, it looked like a Wednesday. But hell, usually I'M one of those shady-looking characters. Needless to say, I felt right at home, though to be quite honest, it wasn't nearly as divey as some other reviewers have stated. Unfortunately, I think that's more of a reflection on me and where I've been than on Pancha's.
So yes, there's smoking. There's a taco truck in the lot. There's a sassy bar owner Bobby who comped us some drinks because 1) I made fun of the Opus One winery and 2) the bartender liked my wife's selection of Tesla on the jukebox (because my wife is AWESOME.)
Once you're done washing your whites and brightening your colors at the French Laundry, you could do worse than grabbing a drink at Pancha's. And maybe a taco.
Pancha's should be a little more kind to the patrons of the Tacos Garcia Taco Truck that is parked in their parking lot. Â It only makes sense. Â We were there to enjoy some killer tacos and hoping to grab a shot or two of Tequila as a digestif but we were yelled at several times and didn't feel very welcome. Â We weren't supposed to use the table outside but we did anyways and they asked us not to use their dumpster to dispose of our food. Â
Still I give them 3 stars for being the sole dive bar in this lovely wine driven area.
I may be harsh but I found this place to be a disgrace to Yountville neighborhood after visiting French Laundry, Hotel Luca, and other amazing places nearby. I could barely stay in there for one minute without feeling disgusted. After I saw the couch, I decide to call it a day and quit.
Review Source:At first glance, I was worried that Yountville didn't have a local dive bar. Â I'm glad I was wrong. Â Definitely seems to be the place where people in the know and the local restaurant crew hangs out. Â
And btw, plop yourself on the couches to check out some local flair...they are sweet!
Forget Anguin or whatever that "dry town" is called around here, if you have lived somewhere long enough with a great bar scene, that you are now an alcoholic, don't waste your money on detox or rehab. Â All you need to do is move to the Napa valley for a year or so and
BAM!
you will be reading books, watching PBS, eating vegetables, doing volunteer work with elderly crippled minority dogs and cats, drinking water whilst going on brisk walks- anything but hanging out in these godawful places the locals call "bars." Â Sorry Pancha's aint a bar, its a building where they sell alcohol and let you drink it there...needless to say I've learned to save my money till I have enough to get a room and shit faced in the city.
BOOOOOOOOThisBAR!
OK. I love everything Yountville. EVERYTHING, from one end of the town to the other. Panchas, is by far, my favorite hangout in this quaint little town. I love the.....pooltables, chairs that are falling apart, "porn couches" (yes, that's what we call them), the "jukebox", Bobby, Rose, Gary......I love all the signs, the fact that they let you smoke...( I don't but hey, it's a bar!). I've ordered wine from Gary, and he rolls his eyes. I'll stick to Corona. Where else can you dance with the charming Vets from the California Vets Home??? Only at Panchas! I will always come back!
Review Source:Incredible little spot at the end of town (Yountville/Napa). My friends said it Reminds them of a Wisconsin bar, but i think of it more like a locals only spot you'd find in Mexico. Feels kind of run down, but really, its just a well used bar. 2 pool tables, inexpensive drinks, and a super cool and on the spot bartender. He was making rounds on maybe 100 people, 20 ordering up at anytime, and keeping everyone happy. Great white trash couches in the back with a nice view over the pool tables and into the bar.
Amazingly... they allow smoking inside, and everyone was smoking.
In a land of wine and pretense (don't get me wrong, I love wine and even the pretense that goes along with it at times) each little town in the Napa region seems to have one bar where all of that goes out the window. A place where one can get a beer and burp and say tacky things with wild abandon and little judgement.
Pancha's is Yountvilles answer to the heavy drinkers escape from all things grape and all things classy. This is where you can sit on a couch that you might otherwise find at the city dump, where you can smoke indoors and listen to people fight about the rules of pool, where you do not need to describe anything as having berry or oak or earth undertones, except maybe the air, which might just actually taste of earth due to the grunge, not the harvest.
It is a place that doesn't fit its surroundings but somehow does, or at least for me, by the time I am ready for something other than wine, it sure seems as though it does.
Fun bar
Has a lot of "divey" appeal, I particularly like the crazy couches with tacky floral print all over them, and the woven chairs that are blatantly falling apart. Â Add that to all the beer placards all over the walls, and you have a winning combination of dive decor.
$3.00 beers, 50 cent pool table, 50 cent "juke box" and the bartender put on the Finals for us on the TV which made me happy. Â And to top things off, Odum actually played well! Â Amazing!
.
Kevin wrote on Jan 11, 2009 9:11 AM:
" What's "unusual" about walking home from Pancha's at 12:30 am? "
That was posted on the Napa Register's website in regards to a gentleman walking home late last Friday night from Pancha's, which sits at the end of the dark end of Washington Street, Yountville's main drag. Â This guy was at a wine party being held at someone's apartment only three or four doors up from the bar. Â There were, by one account, forty bottles of wine open. Â There was wine tasting, lasagna, more tasting, some dancing, photos of everyone tasting straight from the bottles, and then the notion to stumble over to Pancha's. Â He doesn't remember ordering two beers at the bar and chasing a girl around the pool table, his mirrored sunglasses and sweatshirt hood likening him to the Unabomber. Â Also foggy to him was leaving the bar and heading south on Washington Street. Â Where the hell was he going? Â Pancha's had all he could ask for: music, friendly folk, a full bar, a haggard yet attentive barkeep, a small garden area out back for getting fresh air, and plenty of stools inside for dragging on a smoke and taking up conversation with anyone. Â Instead of having the security of being in a warm, well-lit place, surrounded by neighborly people in a genial atmosphere, he slinked away and off down the street he went. Â The Sheriff's Deputy was driving by and couldn't help but notice this individual tottering down the street. Â As he stopped to question the man, a car lifting off from a 'hollywood stop' hit the officer and kept driving down the road. Â The Deputy and the staggering fellow hopped into the crawler and stopped the car a block down the street. Â The officer suffered minor bruising and a fucked up side mirror. Â The man who tagged along was minimally hung over the next day. Â
I can recommend Pancha's if you're in the area. Â I wouldn't suggest going there for a remarkable wine list or beers on tap, but perhaps for some strong mixed drinks. Â It might be the most fun you have on the Yountville strip.
By the way Margot B, very nice photo of Pancha's!
.
.
.
Incident as reported by NVR:
<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.napavalleyregister.com%2Farticles%2F2009%2F01%2F11%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fdoc496997b227fbb668125031.txt&s=e64efdf46ee08128244c1a4080ca221f0794f88efd61bfb54340932e8374d758" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.napavalleyreg…</a>
"Dive Bar"? BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! You guys are joking right? This is Yountville, there are no dive bars. This place is about as phony as Cinderellas Castle at euro disney. Â Need proof? Just look at the bathrooms. Spotless. Still not convinced? Talk to the patrons. most are regular dinners at Ad Hoc, Bouchon, and French Laundry. This a dive bar for the elite. Â It's a bunch of weekend warriors heading out to dinner and pretentious/sluty/drunk winery chicks before 11:30pm.
However... After 11:30 a lot of the various servers and restaurant staff that have been dealing with those pretentious pricks all day get off work. Â That's when this bar gets crackin. But seriously, if want a dive bar head down to the Green Door in napa. Or better yet, the Ha-Ra or Zeitgeist is San Francisco.
I Love Dive Bars. Â You meet the most interesting people in them. Â The Vietnam Vet Telling you of all the great and wonderful things you can do with pliers and a ball of string... The woman that looks like Patty from the "Pop Inn" playing video poker in the corner, practicing her skillz for when she makes her monthly trip up to Reno... The young Wiggah swilling a Budweiser as he writes down flows in his steno notebook (he WILL BE the next Eminem! He gonna Blow Up one day, yo)... This is the kind of salt-of-the Earth people I hope to meet at a dive bar. Â
The patrons of Pancha's have too many teeth and know too much about French food for it to be deemed a true "Dive." Â Plus, don't these people realize second-hand smoke kills??? Â Sheesh. *CoughCoughWheeeeeez*
Fantastic dive in the heart of the otherwise pristine and exclusive wine country. It's just so out of place feeling you HAVE to go in and check it out, which we did. Nice breath of fresh air after the wineries. Really strong drinks (the way I like em), locals hanging out in the middle of the afternoon, awesome seediness everywhere you turn. Loved it.
Review Source:Geez...it's been a while since I've hung out at a dive, and I forgot how much they RULE. Â This is probably the only place in California that still lets you smoke inside! Â
I felt like I was back in Hawaii again (circa 1996, Anna Bannana's, smoking my brains out). Â This is where all the French Laundry, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc folks go to get post-shift libations - Â we were accompanied by Ad Hoc-ian Nessim, and even saw our waiter for the evening, Peter, sans brown Dickies. Â
I was slightly inebriated when I arrived after a lovely birthday dinner at Ad Hoc, so I don't remember the finer details, but I distinctly remember pool tables, rocking out to the jukebox, and being hit on by three very VERY drunk dudes at the end of the bar offering me a birthday sandwich. Â (And I don't think they meant food.) Â I really just had to laugh - it was a very interesting way to end my three-day birthday celebration. Â Oh yeah, the drinks are nice and strong - I passed the hell out in the car ride on the way home.
Is it wrong that I went to Napa for my birthday and had more fun at the dive bar than I did tasting the gallons of amazing wine I consumed over the weekend? Â
Because I did.
And I want to go back to Napa, not to taste more delicious wine (although don't get me wrong, I love wine), but to hang out at this bar.
I'm going through my boy-crazy 13 year old stage about 11 years late, so the plethora of local men in this bar was almost overwhelming for me. Â Not really overwhelming so much as amazingly fun though. Â
We played dice, we drank pabst and whiskey, I doubled the number of cigarettes I've consumed in my life, the jukebox was blasting, people were playing pool, and at the end of the second night in a row of going, the bartender gave us a giant bag of potato chips (because my mom loves her chips when she's drunk).
I like Pancha's a lot. Â Maybe even more than I like boys.
Look up the term *Dive Bar* in that one imaginary dictionary that people always refer to and you'll see a picture of this place right next to the entry, serious.
From the shag-tacular couch that you couldn't pay me enough money to sit on to all the dive bar flair on the walls, this place is a dump. Â The fact that it is in Yountville amongst the likes of French Laundry and such just makes it that much sweeter. Â If they serve wine it's probably in a plasic tumbler for sure.
Before spending a wad of cash on your TK meal, drop by Pancha's for a dose of what life is really like in the Yountville. I thought everyone there lived off of 25 course meals from the French Laundry. How wrong I was! Fantastic little dive bar with a nice mix of regulars, that serves beer in plastic cups (bar fights?), lots of great beer signs, had no ginger ale (but gracefully substituted 7-up for my whiskey cocktail), cheap ass pool (Karen K, predictably, is a fantastic pool player) and of course, the true sign of non-SF life, you can smoke indoors. Â Excellent pre-game destination. A brief drive from Bouchon & Ad Hoc.
Review Source:Before my first trip to Yountville, I couldn't stop hearing about how "great" the food can be in this 'burg. Well, the first place I walked into was this cafe/wine bar named Gordon's and- looking at the menu and people waiting in line-I wasn't sure I was looking in the right place. I meandered next door and my eyes gravitated toward a potato chip rack and beer taps featuring Sierra Nevada and Pabst Blue Ribbon. It was about 2:00 PM and while, this dive bar seemed to offer everything I'd want on a day-to-day basis, I still wasn't convinced on the idea of Yountville being a culinary oasis.
I continued walking down Washington Street and made my way into Bouchon for a late lunch, but I couldn't stop thinking about that bar. A year later, I was employed at a restaurant in Yountville and all my co-workers could talk about was a post-shift drink at Pancha's. The moment I re-entered the bar, a sense of homecoming took over me. The smell of smoke and chef pants laced with salad dressing made me feel at ease. The jukebox featured Phil Collins, Depeche Mode, Steely Dan, The Pixies and The Smiths. I thought that I had reached heaven.
I ordered a Pabst and a shot of Jim Beam. Soon after, I ordered another Pabst and bought a Sierra Nevada for a co-worker who was apparently "too good" for a PBR. I ordered another Pabst and the tap ran out just as my cup-to-be was about to be full. The bartender put an empty plastic cup on top of the PBR tap and sadly announced that Pabst was done for the night. Later on, I ordered a Sierra Nevada and by this time I had smoked half a pack of cigarettes and made industry chit-chat with visiting chefs from Los Angeles about how wine service can be filled with so much bullshit in many cases.
I left Pancha's that night with a sense of rebirth. I ended up being pulled off the road by California Highway Patrol that night. They issued me with a ticket for driving under the influence and invited me to stay in their county jail for the evening. I moved to Yountville later that month and I've walked home from Pancha's ever since. I love this bar and I don't think anyone could make this bar any more of a fixture in Yountville.
As I'm typing this review, I'm reflecting upon the special moments that I had at Pancha's this very night. I hope everyone can have such cherished memories of Pancha's as I have had in my stay in Yountville. Check this place out and let me know what you think.
losers vs tourists when it comes to this joint. Â pool tables unable to to played, lush bags, dead-end hospitality workers looking ...just looking
many many willing souls. Â i was first afraid - but found the love of this unforsaken place - deep in the heart of drunkville - u can walk blindfolded and still smell your way there. Â ...word to the willing wise, dont sit on the couches. Â by far best coors in town!
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,611 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,972 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,318 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,916 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,987 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
