Happy Hourz
Rockin' the Hood
Singer Jon Styles Launches Rock Star Karaoke
Beneath a dim barroom light, Jon Styles walks onto the makeshift stage and takes the microphone. As the singer eases into Live’s 1994 hit “I Alone,” the crowd hoots and hollers with approval. “It’s easier not to be wise / You measure these things by your brains,” he begins with restrained intensity before unleashing the howling chorus. It’s Friday night and karaoke at the Tiburon Tavern is one of the hottest tickets in town, thanks, in great part, to Styles, an extraordinary singer who delivers performances you’d expect to hear at the S.B. Bowl rather than at a neighborhood bar on upper State Street. Read story.
The Anacapa Strut
Anacapa Street Gives Young Professionals a Strip of Their Own
t’s been a while since I’ve prowled the lower reaches of the downtown club scene and even longer since I’ve participated in the ever-popular collegiate State Street Crawl. But in the last few months there have been some noteworthy changes, and a new arrival on the nightclub landscape is hard to resist. Such trusted options for stiff drinks and go-go-ogling as Joe’s Café and the Wildcat Lounge have become venerable downtown mainstays, and even Tonic already has a year beneath its belt. Read story.
The Last Meow
Where Have All the Gay Bars Gone?
When I drove across country to California in search of a new place to live, I assumed it would be a town with a healthy gay scene; from what I’d heard about the Golden State, the only people who didn’t frequent gay bars were nuns. Read story.
Footloose & Fancy Free
Where Santa Barbarans Hit the Town for Eating, Drinking, and Being Merry
Things haven’t been the same since good old Thomas Edison figured out how to light up the night. The rhythms of life have been forever changed by that electrifying discovery, with ever-increasing hordes of party people choosing to get down after sundown. Though I am pretty sure it wasn’t his intention, Edison’s big turn-on was a stroke of genius that has since illuminated countless dance floor dreams and libation-soaked evenings. Read story.
Club Listings
Club Listings Read story.
Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
Zen and the Art of Happy Hour
No matter what you have planned for the evening, the fun has to start somewhere. And, in a town stuffed to the gills with bars, restaurants, wannabe L.A. lounges, and somewhat seedy dives, deciding where to warm up your engines can be daunting. When the rat race releases its daily grip on your soul and the brain in your stomach pains for libations and platters of food, the questions begin to swirl among the happy hour set: Downtown? Read story.
The Sportsman's Bloodies
Hannah Tennant-Moore comes clean about her love affair with the Bloody Mary, and why drinking them at the Sportsman on Wednesdays and Thursdays are always recommended. Read story.
Hot New Bar drinks
As a bartender at Elsie’s, I know that most people’s drinking habits don’t change much. The hefeweizen drinker always orders hefeweizen. Read story.
Lavender Cocktails
Ogden Nash once wrote, “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.” Chocolate may be a time-tested route to Valentine’s Day hijinks, but it won’t score you any points for originality. (Not that I’d turn it down, mind you.) Read story.
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