The Pony Club Bar

Love this little wine bar with small menu at hotel cheval, right next to the park in down town. Awesome local wine list, great outdoor patio, its a nice place to have a drink before you go to dinner in down town

Decided to take a last minute road trip to Paso Robles with the BFF and her corgi in tow. We made it into town right around sun down and needed a spot to unwind with a few glasses of wine. We stumbled upon The Pony Club Bar as we walked around the cute downtown square. We were worried at first they would not let us in with our little friend, but they had no hesitations and welcomed us!

We were able to enjoy the local wine flights (with our choice of wines) and a local port flight (again with out choice of dessert/port wines). The atmosphere was perfect: hanging out on the patio with glasses of wine and warmed by heat lamps. The only minor issue was the fact that we wanted to order a cheese plate and a second round of flights and it took a while to flag down a waiter. Other than that, I totally plan on coming back again when I'm in town!

At first glance, Hotel Cheval's boutique-looking sweet atmosphere made this adjacent bar look cozy.  After reading the reviews, I was looking forward to the multiple outdoor fireplace sitting areas!

But when we walked in to the bar's wide open door at 4:30pm, we were met with a server's semi-icy "we're not open til 5".  Then when we wandered out the door to see the fireplace areas that I had read about in the other reviews, two other women asked us to wait on the outside patio for the bar to open and literally escorted two of my friends to said patio.  

Mind you, all we were doing was looking at one of the outside fireplace sitting areas, which were accessible through the wide open gates that led to the bar area, so it's not like we were even remotely trespassing or causing a stir of any kind.

Hm.  Ok, sooo the space is warm-feeling but the humans that work here are not.

Service didn't warm up when they finally opened and we were seated either.  Rather than endure another moment of iciness, we passed on the small menu offerings here and walked down the street to Thomas Hill Organics.

After the icy reception here, I'd think twice about staying in the hotel too - however charming it appears.