Sometimes, you need a dive bar. When you are looking for that, you can't find a friendlier one. The night time staff are impeccable, the perfect combination of service and attitude.(Well ventilated) Indoor smoking and incoherent drunks mingle with UCSC students and local hipsters. A wonderful atmosphere to engorge yourself in a glorious selection of whiskeys while chatting it up with the locals and/or watching whatever the heck must-see sports game happens to be on. Love it!
Review Source:This bar seems like a fun dive that I could enjoy. There was a friendly bartender and all different kinds of people to meet.
But I just couldn't get over the cigarette smoke! I'm not a smoker and the entire room was filled with smoke and poorly ventilated. I was trying to chug my beer as fast as I could so I could get out of there and breathe again. It's great that there's a place for smokers to enjoy. But can we get some windows please?
Brian. Rules.
Sweet juke box, strong cheap drinks and random conversations with all kinds of people. It's not a bar for everyone, but I have many fun memories from this place, when I can remember the night. ;)
Since I quit smoking a couple years ago I haven't gone as much but it's still one of my favorite places to relax with a drink.
If dislike smoking...don't go. If you don't mind... it's a great and relaxing spot to get a good drink and enjoy company. Most people are laid back so you don't need to worry about how you look or what others are thinking. The drinks are a little higher than most, but the location off the main drag keeps away super large crowds and you can always hear the person next to you talking. It was a favorite college spot and I continue to visit even after and enjoy seeing old and new faces.
Review Source:This was the first stop in our pre wedding pub crawl and they were BY FAR the best!
I called all the bars several days in advance and the owner, Rick, was absolutely, positively the nicest person of all the bars that I spoke to. He was very accommodating for our group and assured me that he would be staffed and ready for our group.
He offered me "special specials" for our group and we negotiated it out to perfection! He was even so kind as to distribute flashing Blue Moon pins for us so we could keep track of each other. Nathan was our bartender that had time to laugh and joke with us even though he was slammed! He even took the time to pose for a picture with the bride to be- great staff here!
One of the girls in our group organized a photo scavenger hunt and a lot of things were crossed off the list thanks to the help of our amazing friends at the Rush Inn- this bar was amazing and no one in our group will ever forget the friendliness that met us there...
Cheers to the Rush!
I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about a good extended metaphor for all the bars downtown and I think I've finally come to a conclusion. Rappers. What could be more intense and more varied than the pop culture menagerie of rappers? They are the makers of music. They are the dreamers of dreams. The 515 Kitchen and Cocktails downtown is definitely Kanye. Li'l Wayne is easy to see in The New Jury Room (and conveniently located next to the courthouse and jail!). But the Rush Inn? Akon. Akon without a doubt.
Just like Akon, the Rush Inn may be a little intimidating at first glance. You think, "what, me? Go in there? But I barely have biceps!" But once you're inside, you realize that the Rush Inn is a tender, heartwarming place with bargain drinks, cool bartenders, and a really comfortable atmosphere. Come here in the middle of the week to avoid the UCSC broke-ass-hipster crowd and their collection of ironic tattoos. A mid-week visit to the Rush also gives you more time to chat with the bartenders, who not only make the cheapest drinks in town, they'll tell you awesome stories and jokes. And really, who doesn't love a good joke?
Back to Akon, he may look all hard and he may sometimes objectify women in his songs, but in the end it's always about getting the girl, and loving her the right way (sexually AND non-sexually). He's the prince of love in the rapper world, but the Rush Inn is the king of the dive bars. You walk in expecting a punch in the arm, but instead you get a hug. And a whiskey sour. Maybe 3 whiskey sours.
I like this place in the sense that its super dive-y, cheap, and has a chill ambiance. I would like it a lot more if they didn't allow smoking inside, but alas, due to my eyes watering and my throat burning after being in here an hour, I probably won't be back.
Come here if: youre a chain smoker who can't live without cigs while drinking, and wish to drink heavily in a chill environment and not spend much money.
Don't come if: you detest cigarettes like me.
Too bad for you, Rush Inn; you won't have my business cuz ya make me stink
Best. Place. To drink. in Santa Cruz. Ever. Period.
Yes, crowded, yes, smoky, yes, it's a dive But it's so good in a very old skool, mid-west, everyone is welcome kind of way. Hands-down my favorite (human-made) place to spend time in Santa Cruz.
Free pool and cheap pitchers on Wednesdays. Strong drinks, especially if you're nice. Plus the Sun-Wed bartender, Wendee is best, welcoming, generous, and down to lay down the law when need be.
Come here for a drink, stay for the experience.
Another good bar in town. Also popular with the UCSC students. I'd say it's in the middle between a somewhat nicer bar and a dive bar. You know, not a super hipster joint where they're drinking micro brews, more of budwiser place.There is a pool table and a juke box. Good location at the end of downtown.
Review Source:The Russian is a good bar overall. Their beer selection is nice, but they always card so do not forget it. Passports do not fly (poor international students). The crowd is a mixture of middle and younger aged locals, graduate students from the UCSC, and hipsters. I have seen people do homework here during its down times. The drink prices are affordable, for a bar and they mix drinks of decent strength. Juke box, free pool which some avid A-Hole pool players who drink maybe one beer a visit INSIST on playing even at the most crowded of times. Oh yea, smoking is a nightly thing climaxing on the weekends where the second hand resembling that of a reggae show. Tobacco that is.
Go there, it is definitely right up your alley if you like dive bars and good prices, and a good scene. If you do not mind smoke. It is right down town under the clock tower, so get all your friends away from the RED ROOM or the RED or whatever and their 5 dollar beers, and go to the working mans bar down the street. I am surprised at how few bar hoppers know about the rush inn.
It is not often that I find myself yelping about places. Â Perhaps 2 others, 3 tops. Â Venturing to the Rush Inn, however, is the rarest of occasions when I am so moved by a place or event that I have to go out of my way to let complete strangers know about it. Â
This bar, the term hardly seems to do it justice, is one of the few spaces in Santa Cruz where I felt safe. Â It felt like home. Â Wendee, Brian, and Nate are all very welcoming bartenders, but also protective of the space. Â Happy hour is a good deal, and if you can handle the smoke, you can stay there from open until close doing whatever you would like (given that you are spending money).
At the very least, it is worth the price of a drink to see what goes on behind that 1970's, pebbled wall that stares at you from the trendy side of Pacific.
Popped in here a couple weeks ago and have been meaning to do an update. Â Perhaps I had been a little harsh last time. Â Rush Inn is nothing flashy, just a local dive bar with a mediocre pool table. Â No pretense, no hipster poseurs, just locals and local drunks. Â Not a bad place to stop in for a casual drink when you're in that frame of mind.
Review Source:Um, only the BEST bar in Santa Cruz. I'm no local, so I don't know much about what else they offer...but the Rush Inn is comfortable, friendly and the drinks are strong and cheap. They have all the NFL team flag up, so I'm assuming this is the best spot to find yourself during football season.
Review Source:I love the Rush. Â I've been going for many years. Â Wendy, Elaine, Nate and Brian are all excellent bartenders, entertaining and polite. Â They take good care and they always look out for their customers.
The crowd during the day tends to be older male codger types who watch sporting events, drink their drinks and crack jokes. Â At night, there's a really hip but decent crowd of college kids and twenty-something professionals. Â
This is not a bro bar, thank goodness, it's a dive. Â Voted best dive in SC for many years. Â If you come here expecting Clouds, you're missing the point. Â And if you've missed the point, then you'll never get it. Â So if you don't like the smoke, the size, the people, or the cleanliness, then go enjoy your brotini elsewhere. Â
The jukebox is constantly in an epic struggle between 80s hair metal and 60s soul. Â I'm on the soul side.
Blech. Â Me thinks nots.
1. they allow smoking inside. so the moment you step in you're greeted by a wall of cigarette smoke.
2. Â The place is small...and smells.
3. Â The pool table in the middle of the room occupies the whole damn bar area, meaning you're going to get stabbed numerous times by the pool players.
Its gross, crammed, and I won't be back.
My favorite bar in Santa Cruz. Â A close second would be the Jury Room.
If you want to go sit at a clean table with low ambient noise and drink a fancy martini with your boss, this is probably not the place to go.
But if you want to drink some beer and way too many shots and end up forgetting what happened to all the time and money the next morning...this is your spot. And this is one of the last spots in California you can still have a cigarette with your booze...what a free country!
The bartender Brian can make a wicked awesome screwdriver if you ask for Stoli. And their jukebox is the best.
Rush Inn is the place I want to pass my last moments at, Rush Inn is the mother that holds me tender as a child when I need somewhere to rock me into blissful oblivion, Rush Inn IS the best bar in Santa Cruz
After spending 4 years searching out, far and low, Westside AND Eastside, by the sea, by the Costco, I have decided that Rush Inn is the best place to get a drink...wait wait, let me specify, after 9 PM.
Otherwise, head over to 99 and grab a pint to drink outside (specif. the warmer months).
But seriously, Wendy = boo of the century
And c'mon people, this is Santa Cruz...if the Red Room(upstairs) is your favorite bar in the town, than you really have no business being in Santa Cruz at all (read: douchebag).
I like the Rush Inn more and more every time I return.
It is NOT unnecessarily dirty.
Nor is it overrun by hipsters...unless you think that Joy Division and Neutral Milk Hotel occasionally being played on the jukebox makes it hipster. And I've also shown up here to classic rock, and then one time I heard Green Day and All-Americans Rejects. That's proof enough that hipsters do not own the Rush Inn.
This brings me to the Internet jukebox, which is a virtually limitless selection of music so you can always find something you like. It is a little pricey though.
The only complaint: if you're not careful you may be poked by a pool cue since the place is almost too small for that pool table. Or you might get hit by a wayward pool ball as my friend was. But then you'll probably get a free-drink offer out of that, as my friend did, since people here are usually pretty friendly.
This bar is my favorite place to drink in town because it doesn't try to be something it's not. It's a bar that doesn't attempt to hide its happening with low, colored lights. Nope. It's well light, cheap but good drinks, friendly and efficient staff and has the kind of community feel that all bars should have. You come there to drink and have a conversation. It's never crazy loud, but just the right amount of noisy and there's always fun (or ridiculous but enjoyable) music on the electronic jukebox.
Review Source:The Rush Inn is the worst dive in downtown Santa Cruz. I don't recommend anybody who wants to have a good time, get drunk, or meet girls go there. If your idea of a good time is a morose backdrop of depressed alcoholics chain-smoking around a cramped pool table, maybe you should try it out. If you're coming from out of town trying to have a memorable time in Santa Cruz, there are way better places to go at night. Try Rosy's, or something. They'll make you all the long-islands and irish car-bombs you need to forget who you're going to have sex with tonight.
Wendy sure is nice, though. ;)
If you love lung cancer, cocaine, and/or and long, greasy, side-sweeping bangsand skinny jeans- go here.
Called the "russhin" by my friends, I was unfortunate enough to be dragged here a couple of times, both of which i felt like I had contracted an STI, lung cancer, and a bad case of the Indie kid bug.
its good if you wanna sneak in somewhere without being carded. Check out the back door. Or, the front one for that matter.
Honestly - I would avoid it at all costs. Next to the Red Room and the 100h 7 club (or whatever the fuck it's called) It is one of the only places in Santa Cruz that really truly creeps me out.
...any establishment where cigarette smoke pours out when its doors open seems to scream "public safety hazard" t me (When WILL smoking crappy go out of style?)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Â Generic dive bar. Â Smoky. Â Inundated with hipsters and graduate students on weekends. Â
But seriously, find me a better place to drink in Santa Cruz. Â If I might conjure up a future version of me, I can see myself three, maybe four years down the line, being terribly nostalgic about the drunken nights I ended up in this place and the goings-on I either witnessed or participated in. Â With that future in mind, my sense is that this is not the kind of place one should take for granted. Â
Plus, Wendee, the bartender on Thursday--and a few other nights--is awesome.
The bar I grew up in, with the bartender I grew up with, Keith. Â We used to call this "Joe's Garage", for really no sensible reason at all, and used to come blow all our tip money after shifts at Mobo Sushi or Emi's, back in 95-96. Â I can't believe I'm even typing this as a "way back when" story.
They used to have "guest chefs" for monday night football. Â The jukebox is good. Â At night, the pressmen from the Sentinel used to come in.
Really this is not a review of the bar in it's current state at all, I don't know anythign about that. Â This is really a review of my memories of the once-great (and hopefully still so), Rush Inn.
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