This place is the epitome of what a dive bar should be like. My friends and I came here to watch the SF Giants game after spending an afternoon at Davenport Landing picnicking and barbecuing. It's a good thing we found this bar on Yelp otherwise we would have never even know it exist. Â
The patron's look rugged but they were all easy to talk to and very friendly. As I mentioned before we were here to watch a Giants game but it's not the ideal place to watch any sporting event. They have three small television sets in the whole bar and they don't serve any food. But again, this is a dive bar and not a sports bar.
This is cash only bar so make sure to bring enough cash. They do have an ATM machine inside in case you run out of cash. According to the bar they have happy hour daily from 4-6pm.
The bartender is super friendly. The one that served us was a short, blonde, middle-aged lady. Because we had just come from the beach from barbecuing I had my dog in the car and I asked her if it was okay if I bring my dog in. She said "yes" and even gave him a dog treat. So thumbs up for being a dog-friendly establishment.
Overall, a great experience and great prices on drinks during happy hour. I would go back just to take my dog but the only problem is I live in San Jose.
I ordered a whiskey and coke... got no coke, but I'm not complaining. If you'd like a drink and quiet spot where people won't be bothering you, this is it. People keep to themselves and leave you alone. It's so far from downtown it seems the "regulars" are very regular and visit often. Not a great spot to impress visitors from out of down, but maybe if you'd like to break up with your significant other, seems appropriate here.
Review Source:I had a reaaaallly bad experience with one of the girl bartenders here...
I had dropped my phone in a previous bar I was at. Realizing this after I left the bar, I proceeded to call my phone. A guy answered asking me what I was going to give him for my phone back. I told him $50 (which of coarse was a lie) so he told me he was at "the watering hole." My friends and I came here trying to get my phone back, mind you it was 2 am. My My friend went in first to find there was no one in the bar but these two guys and a girl blonde bartender. The bartender started asking my friend, if she was the one who called about the phone and asking what were we gonna do for it back. Within 2 seconds the cops show up (yes we called the cops to scare these kids, I mean this is my work phone) and I walk into the bar to see one of the kids handing my friend my cell phone.
I finally got my stupid phone, and will NEVER be back to this bar. Anyone who is ridiculous enough to be apart of bribing someone, for their crappy phone is just plain dumb.
I'm going to be honest and say that I've been to this bar more than a handful of times. And I just have to say, it is not a great bar.
The good-- the bartender while slow was incredibly nice, and made my friend and I feel really welcome.
The bad-- in my humble opinion, if a bar is THAT divey they better allow smoking inside. It was so dark and dingy and mangy in there allready, I was actually shocked when they didn't have ashtrays laying around. And more importantly, they should at least have draft beer. I mean, c'mon, really? They have allright deals on beer, but really no draft beer?
I gave three stars because I truly enjoyed the bartendere, but the bar itself is pretty lame.
I used to frequent this bar when I lived in the area. Dive bar is quite the appropriate term. It's tiny inside with a pool table (maybe 2) and is dark. The bathroom is unisex with a toilet and urinal. I enjoyed the drinks, friendly bar staff, and the prices were cheaper than elsewhere in town.
Review Source:Okay, this place was recommended to me by one of my hardcore heavy drinking buddies in Santa Cruz. Â He told me he really likes this place a lot and recommended it wholeheartedly. Â As someone who appreciates and knows the value of a good dive, how could I not check it out after hearing something like that?
Anyway, I haven't been there at night yet, but did pop in for a quick one around 5PM last Friday. Â Basically, it seemed to be a good local neighborhood bar that was very mellow and low key, at least in the time that I was in there. Â The crowd seemed friendly and the bartender was nice. Â Unlike some other reviews for this place, we felt very safe in there and did not get the impression that it was dangerous or that we might get stabbed. Â I know some great places in San Francisco for that. :)
During the time I was in there, an older guy kept yelling about how "Obama was going to fix this and that and oh yeah, he's going to fix that too." Â He kept doing this over and over. Â After a while, it got pretty amusing and the whole bar was laughing, especially after he pointed out that the college happy hour special written on the wall was for "dometic beer" and not domestic beer which he said he did not qualify for anyway since he was not in college.
My drink was okay, a little watery for my taste. Â I ran into my buddy at the Asti later and he told me that we had gotten the "new" bartender. Â I told him that she was nice and that it was a good bar, but was pretty dead for that hour of a Friday and he said that was why he liked the place as you can drink and people leave you alone.
Lastly, they do have a pool table which is a plus, but their cue ball is one of those horrible, over-sized, overly heavy balls that I have not come across in years. Â All coin-op pool tables have to differentiate their cue balls from the other balls so that they come out the cue ball return and don't go in with the other balls, but this is one of those extreme versions. Â Usually, the bar owner can go with a lighter cue ball and uses this kind of cue ball as a last resort only after the cue ball keeps hanging up with the other balls. Â No fun to shoot with a pregnant ball.
Location is away from downtown and just about every other bar, but there is a pizza place next door and a motel across the street which I heard has hot tubs in some of the rooms. Â Seems to be a good place to drink a lot without too many distractions...I'm sure Bukowski would have loved it. Â As for me, I soon left and ended up at Callahan's...now that's a great bar.
This is a chill after work happy hour kind of place. The atmosphere is a friendly neighborhood one at this time. Never gets too crowded even on the weekends. I dont remember the prices, but i dont think they were too much. Definitely on the upper side of the dive bar price range. They have no beer taps and they do not accept credit cards. They have an ATM on site.
The patrons are working class locals who are good to talk to. They bring their dogs in and sit on a stool at the bar next to you. Cute and funny. You could bring in food from the pizza place next door.
DO NOT park in the lot behind the building. It is a small lot and difficult to maneuver for drunks. One time i got overly inebriated and had to take a bus home. The next morning I went to pick up my car only to see that someone had smashed the Front left blinker and did some body damage on that part of my car. Â Of course they just left it. I recommend parking on the street behind it.
I used to work at the Ace HArdware around the corner in the Almar center. I would come over to this bar for extended ten minute or lunch breaks and drink with my Ace Hardware nametag on...god I hated that job.
Nobody looked or talked to me when I sat down, awsome, I wasn't there for the company. I was there to forget that my life had become an argument over drywall screws. I was there to forget that it was no longer funny to me when people came in and asked me where I kept my caulk.
I would walk in to Ye Old Watering Hole a sad and broken man and I would walk out a heavily buzzed sad and broken man. Mission accomplished. I have stopped in a few times since quitting the Ace gig and it's the same: decent cheap drinks, everyone leaves you alone and nobody seems to notice or care that you are getting hammered in the middle of the day in your work uniform.
Holy shit this place scared me!
This place is a dive. Don't expect good customer service or a clean glass. And thats cool, dive bars I can deal with. But man, some of the people in here were down right menacing. I agree with Andy P about being scared of being stabbed. My spidey sense was kicking the whole time, inside my head I was planning my defense moves which included smashing a beer bottle on the table to create a knife and curling up into a ball under the table crying for my mommy.
So why the 4 stars you ask?? Because this place made me feel alive!! There is nothing like feeling scared for your life to make you feel energetic. Every cell in my body was on high alert and it was a fun feeling! It was either that or whatever disease I caught using the restroom.
Seriously..don't use the bathroom here.
Not really close to much besides 7-11. Â Sorta worried about being stabbed every time I'm in there. Â The pool table is miniature and a piece of junk. Â Drinks are cheap but so is buying your own six pack at the liquor store. Â You're better off at home or Santa Cruz Mountains Brewery. Â The real SC is a dingy, dirty shithole where everyone's an obnoxious alcoholic? Â Let's watch a crappy TV? Â Come on.
Review Source:I went to the watering hole partly as a joke with my friend, and partly out of sheer curiosity. Â went there at around 5 on labor day, after gettin some burritos across the street. Â we had a blast. Â the bartender was super nice, and the patrons- well they are interesting and friendly as well. Â the pool table was so old and worn out that it was kind of fun, playing without some of the balls (which got stuck in the table) Â and our crooked pool sticks.
Review Source:This is a dive bar, people. Â And it's good at doing one thing, being a dive bar. Â If you expect any thing more, you'll be disappointed.
1) best whiskey bombs EVER.
2) cash only, with an ATM that MIGHT be working
3) The bathroom.... hahahahahahha. Â there's one, with one toilet and one urinal. Â Ladies, lock the door behind you, or you'll be sharing.
4) best jukebox in the history of santa cruz bars. period.
I've had some of the best conversations ever with the patrons of "club h2o", although this place is not for the faint of heart.
This place is a dive, no doubt about it.
We arrived on a Saturday night and there was no music playing (despite the fact that the juke box seems to have a little bit of everything), nobody could be bothered to stop drinking and get off their bar stool to play pool on the one table in the back, the lights were turned up way too bright, the bartender was ignoring a very annoying and insulting local and even what would ordinarily be a super cool black and red checkered floor managed to look dingy and a little depressed.
The drinks were served with only a little hitch, that little hitch being I ordered two drinks and only got one on my first ordering attempt, but they were cheap. No taps here, this place is not that fancy. Bottles only and the popular ones with the patrons seemed to be the large American brewery varieties.
No paper towels in this joint either. This place prefers to use the archaic and unsanitary rotating cloth towel in their single urine stenched, hole in the door, unisex restroom. The regulars don't seem to mind. They are not excited enough about anything, nor, on the flip side, downtrodden enough either.....
......except for the woman who sits at the corner of the bar, probably nightly, with the completely fried, bleached out mullet. Anyone with that hair would have to be downtrodden.
This place is everyone's dive bar wet dream come true. Until the weekend, at which point I found my beloved watering hole overrun by a thronging mass of frat douchebags. Sad really. The prices, the regulars, the pool tables (ha!)... everything about it just BEGS for five stars, but the weekends here are so fucking AWFUL that I can't even bring myself to give it four.
Review Source:Ye Olde Watering Hole for those who read.
Stiff wells with remarkably decent booze, a paltry 3.50.
Juke box with a variety of standards to sing to, loudly, after the second well drink.
The required pool table, without which, it cant be a dive bar, its just a hole.
3-4 televisions, all showing poker .......this place is a little bit of all right. Particularly in light of the fact it is the only actual bar for blocks of walking. Really, who wants to walk to U SAVE Liquors with ambiance like this!
Feckin worth the walk mate!!!
This is truely a dive bar, with people you would only expect to frequent a place like this, a sign saying something like "NO BAR TABS" (have you ever been to one that did) and a drunk cougar hitting on an unsuspecting young boy, my date. Â
Honestly though, it is laid back, great drink prices, the people are sweet, its not so dirty, has a juke box and kind of fun.
LOVE this bar- Santa Cruz's venerable dive, within stumbling distance from my house when I lived on the Westside. A broken neon sign and incognito location make this spot perfect for the low-key late night beer run, with a cozy atmosphere and a hilarious local scene.
The bartender/owner is one of those women who wears Christmas sweaters in August, calls your "dear" as she serves you your White Russian with a crooked smile, and kindly cusses out the drunk guy next to you for being inappropriate and cuts him off. I'm tellin' you, it's as legit as legit gets.
The best part: The Jukebox... The best ever, really. Seriously impressive, to the point that checking the bar out for that reason alone is worth the trip. Simply amazing musical selection, from Queen to En Vogue, The Doors to Snoop Dogg, even including local bands like our neighbors Zach and Colin on Ladera Dr. It really compliments the intense pool games that go on in there, as well as the exciting electronic casino games and Keno that peek out from the corners of the bar with flashing lights and annoying sounds.
Always Comedy Central playing on the TV in here, which is a great alternative to the Sports Bar feel. I always thought that it was great on school nights when we would be taking a 'study break' that we could walk 2 minutes around the corner and still watch South Park or the Daily Show with John-my lover-Stewart while drankin'. Brilliant!
Overall, my recommendation = Â If you're looking for a place to bring a bunch of friends, this place is IT. If you're looking to get into a fight with drunk locals and/or meth heads, this is ALSO it.
Good advice: Â Don't go to ye olde Watering Hole when you're a single male who is new to the area (locals like t pick fights with such blokes) or if you're alone, or if you're going out with interest in "making new friends" or some other kind of harmless socializing... its not like its dangerous, but well... let's just say that it's just not that kinda place...
We call this bar the Memory Hole. Â It serves until 1:59, consistantly. Â These facts are not unrelated.
It has a large parking lot in back for you to leave your car in overnight.
Go because of the peer pressure. Â Stay because:
a) you are locked into a pointless argument with a local
b) your friends ditched you
c) you're hiding from the Law
d) someone keeps buying you whiskey bombs
e) you can get cheesy bread next door
I was introduced to this gem of a dive bar by a friend who is a west side native because it's where her friends congregate for last call. There are some shennagians that go on here for sure, but it's all in good fun the drinks are way cheaper than downtown and you're bound to be amused by SOMEONE while hanging out there. Can get pretty packed at times, but usually is a good spot if you want to be able to hear your friend talk.
Review Source:Upon entering this dive bar, a toothless drunkard looked at us and slurred loudly to his friend, "I wish I went to college!" Â We could only assume that he thought we looked like young UC Santa Cruz college types, which I found immediately flattering. Â Then I saw the jukebox and knew I found my favorite bar in Santa Cruz.
One weird thing happened though, the female bartender pulled open the junk drawer right next to the bar and in it was a "Lady Deodorant" stick, and I don't mean the under-the-armpit kind. Â EEWWWW!
Perfect for people watching.
This is your classic dive - it's a great little bar with a bunch of locals - a true watering hole! It's the sort of place where people by each other drinks, and get sloppy, and every so often a few cute UC Santa Cruz girls and boys show up, and surprisingly just join in the fun.
Good and strong drinks, and a classic rock jukebox that reminds you why  a slick ultra lounge or night club is sometimes just a bad idea.
There is an area out back for parking and smoking too.
I'm told I had a great time and provided an entertaining urban injection into this local SC dive bar. From the outside, the Watering Hole looks like a great local bar that's been around for at least 40 years. Â The Highway 1 location was prime as we were staying within eyesight at the Mission Inn.
On return to the big city I found two cards in my pocket with 831 area codes, so Joanna N M. and Tracey B., I'm sure you're nice ladies, but don't feel rejected when I don't call. Â In the words of my mentor, Bill C., I don't recall. Â Next time, I'll bring my seeing Yelp dog.
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