I wish I had four hands so I could give Whiskey Richards FOUR THUMBS DOWN! Â I recently vacationed in Santa Barbara for spring break and during the course of my week in town, Whiskey Richards is the only establishment that I have an unfavorable review of, so way to go guys. Â At least you have succeeded admirably at something: Being the singular fail of my SB vacation. Â
Unfortunately during the course of my travels, I lost my driver's license, but did still possess a valid military I.D., clearly depicting my photo and date of birth. For whatever reason, that wasn't an acceptable form of (government issued, fingerprint embedded, hologram studded, rendering my blood type and religious denomination for pete's sake!) Â I.D. for this establishment. Â
I find it strange that I wasn't turned away from any other bars or restaurants when I ordered a drink and in fact was offered free beverages or discounts at many of them, in recognition of my service. Â To some, this may not be a good enough reason not to visit a bar, but I found it to be pretty despicable. Â Turning away vets? You guys can do better than that.
Oh well, more money for The Press Room, down the street at 15 E. Ortega. Better crowd of people in there anyhow.
Saturday night is karaoke, and it's fantastic. Best karaoke I've ever been to by far. The sound man and host is a real professional. Sound was mixed and EQ'ed better than a lot of live bands I've heard, and it's not "just" karaoke to him. The singers were almost all talented, too, which makes for a fun night. Great brews on tap. The volume was loud, so I recommend earplugs.
Review Source:Unfortunately our experience here was the opposite of the other reviews. We had been in Santa Barbara for three days and went to a variety of places. At the end the service here was awful. The staff was extremely rude and derogatory, they lost our credit card and blamed it on us. When going to talk to the bar tender, they kicked us out and refused to let us back in. I was coherent and kept trying to get my card back. the were extremely rude and treated us horribly. I'd rather pay more for drinks and be treated decently.
Review Source:This place was pretty bad-ass. Prices for drinks are awesome. I ordered 2 whiskey sours and got charged $8 for them. They had a small live band performing which was very entertaining. I'm not usually one for folk music but they had my foot tapping. To top it off there's a photobooth. Always say yes to the photobooth.
Review Source:If your recipe for a good dive bar includes the majority of the following, you'll be in luck:
* Cheap, strong drinks
* Bored bartender
* Colorful locals of indeterminate age and/or gender
* Pool tables
* Pinball machines
* Picturesque grime
Of course, it's really the first factor that's most critical, so for that alone I'd probably come back.
The drinks are cheap and the bar tenders pour generously. You can always find someone to play you in a game of pool or pin ball. The crowd is different from night to night and almost from hour to hour. This is the type of place where anyone from the homeless to multimillionaires can rub elbows and all are having a good time. My favorite part is sitting out front and people watching. You know it's a cool place to hang out when the people that work there choose to hang out when they are off duty. I think it is the bar tenders and other employees that make this place so special. I hope the owners realize this and do what they can to keep the vibe going.
Review Source:Came here on Holla-ween. I was a zombie, and I needed brains to feast on.
+1 star for pinball machines, old school ones!
They have a photo booth, the DJ was mediocre, and the crowd was, well... your typical Santa Barbara crowd (drunk girls straddling guys and dancing like they're on Dancing with the Stars).
Excellent whiskey sours! The bartender was kind of a dick, though.
Whiskey Richard's is further down State Street than the rest of the pubs visited on the Evil Pub Tour, so it was our final destination.
We have mixed feelings about that because it was our favorite spot by a pretty wide margin. Â Had we discovered it earlier, we may not have tried the rest of the pubs, so I supposed it's good that we found it last.
Whiskey Dick's has everything you could want in a pub.
Fun crowd? Â Check!
Pub games? Â Check!
Indoor and outdoor seating? Â Check!
Good bartenders? Â Check!
Good music? Â Check!
WR was a real down-to-earth feel to it. Â Evil loved it.
Compared to the rest of the crap on State street, this place is actually pretty good. Its dark, kinda sexy, kinda cheezy, but the setup is nice.
Drinks: wellll made drinks, bartenders have an extensive knowledge of mixology, and will make you a good strong drink that tastes fantastic! Also.....bartenders were hot in a very punk/hipster way.
Dance floor is small, but so is everything else in SB. BUT the music was good, where an equally hot DJ was playin some DuckSauce remixes, even tho no-one in the local crowd knows much about it!
So grab a drink at probably one of the better bars on the street.....hit up that Whiskey Dicks!
i love this place! it just about as good as you could get for a downtown state street bar (besides the sportsman that Is). next to one of the best tattoo shops in town it draws in the hot boys who work there. Â nothing wrong with a little eye candy. Â the shows here are always free, the staff is friendly, and there is a wide variety of patrons.
thank you whiskey's. i'll miss you when i move back to sf.
When you're driving back from San Francisco/San Jose and you end up in Santa Barbara at 1:20am looking like crap, what do you do???? Go to a bar for a drink!!!! We had finally parked and gotten physically onto State at 1:25am so we went to the first bar we saw.
Whiskey Richards. Definitely an interesting joint but I liked it! Rock/Emo vibe. Pool table. Black lights. Little dance floor. Random bands and artists pictures on the walls in collage form. Best part was we looked like crap from driving ALL DAY and I didn't care at all! Coronas and New Castles here we come!
I stumbled into Whiskey Richard's after dancing to MSTRKFRFT at Sandbar and doing some amazing karaoke nearby. Â I was probably 6 or 7 drinks into the night and I felt that my night could not conclude without one last drink at Whiskey Richard's. Â
I don't remember much from that night except for Adam. Â Adam is the hottie bartender that served us some mean drinks. Â Blah blah blah I got even more drunk and somehow the night ended. Â
The next morning, I wake up (still drunk) and have Adam on the brain. Â I convince everyone that we have to go back to WR that night. Â Well, guess what? Â According to my friend, we had already made plans with Adam to come back the following night so he could make his special drink for my friend that wasn't able to come out to the bars with us. Score! Â
So I hung out at the beach, drank a fifth of vodka and waited to pay another visit to WR. Â
When we finally walked into WR again we were greeted with a "Hey!" and a smiling Adam. Â Perfection. Â I then told him about how I was going to "Yelp him". Â He didn't know what Yelp was, so I'm pretty sure he just thought I was being pervy. Â And you know what? Â I was being pervy. Â
He made the special drink for my friend. Â It was crazy good. He let me charge my iPhone. He also let me bring pizza from next door into the bar. Â Good times had by all. Â
And that's my story of how I fell in love in Santa Barbara.
The black walls, neon signs, and loud music were very inviting from the sidewalk, but once we stepped in, the place became much less interesting. Â Loud music is just weird when there's only four people in a huge bar. Â Meh beer selection, though there is a juke and a couple of pool tables. Â I'd rather not return, but could return with an open mind if someone wanted to.
Review Source:for being a bar on State St (aka amateur central)...this bar ruled.
we had to leave the current bar we were in because they thought live entertainment by a college dropout was a good idea. note to them, IT'S NOT. please just let us play the juke box.
anyways, we stumbled on down to whiskey richards (whiskey dick's, HA!) and were pleasently surprised to only find 3 other people drinking in here and the Clash playing. hurray! it looks like a beat up old punk club(though it's only a year old) with 2 pool tables, 2 dart boards, and a couple video games. they have an internet juke box so you can play whatever you want. i opted for some hair metal and southern rock. doi.
we played pool, multiple shots of jameson, a couple beers, and happily walked up to the corner and got a slice of pizza before our venture back to the hotel.
basically if you want to skip the lame college kids and those older dudes that creep after them, go here.
a great place to just shut up and drink.
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