Watering holes - best bars/clubs in your town

Nice idea for a thread; here are my picks for Bangkok.

Club; still BedSupper club, Q-Bar Bkk feels overpriced (esp at the door) and the clientele can be a bit rough.

Wine bar, Vino de Zanotti off Silom is great in the evenings, and they do excellent pizza and pasta too.

Bar to take a date; Distil at State Tower- spectacular setting. Avoid its competitor "Vertigo" at the Banyan Tree, which feels ready to star in the next Towering Inferno movie.

Jazz bar; if you like live jazz Bamboo at the Oriental hotel is the famous one and has a nice atmosphere.

For something really sophisticated try the cigar lounge at the Peninsula hotel, wonderfully intimate and a fantastic selection of single-malts.

For variety, you have to experience some of the dives in the backpackers' mecca of Khao Sarn Road, nothing like it.

Amazing city, so much to experience and worth more than just a day or two on your way to the islands.

Cool. My list is going to be Pest-centric, but I'll throw in a few Buda locations. Sure I'm going to leave a few worthwhile choices off... Budapest, Summer (ie outdoors places generally open May - Oct) Club: Bed Beach and Dokk, on Shipbuilder's Island. Honorable mentions: Buddha Beach, Romkert, Corvinteto. Avoid: Zold Pardon. Chill Bar: Holdudvar, on Margitsziget (Margret's Island). Honorable mentions: Potkulcs, ChaChaCha, Szimpla Kert (best known bar in the city), Godor Klub People watching: Liszt Ferenc Ter is a freaking runway show from about 7pm to midnight. A dozen or more cafes lining a beautiful, tree-filled square just off Andrassy Ut, the local swank street. In case I haven't mentioned it before, Hungarian girls are scorching hot. Honorable mention: Cafe Negro. Budapest, winter (ie indoor places. These should all be open year-round) Club: B7, Prive, Dokk, Mono, Merlin, A38 ship, and the clubs in the Mammut II shopping mall. I'm not actually in love with any of these places, so choose based on who has the best DJ going. Avoid all the places by the Nyugati station. Chill/downscale Bar: Kuplung, at Kiraly #40. Doesn't have a sign. Honorable mentions: Szimpla (again), Montmartre, Siraly, Szoda, Sark, Ellato, Vittula Cocktail bar: Bar Martinez on Vorosmarty utca. Don't be scared of the big neon martini glass sign--the atmosphere's cheesy but the drinks are the best in the city. Swank bar: as-yet-nameless place on Anker Koz, close to Deak Ter. Honorable mentions: Deryne, Creol, Hotel bar at the 4 Seasons/Gresham Palace, and guess I have to include Oscar's. Strip club: 4Play is the only place you won't get ripped off; it's run by an American and a Canadian. That also means no taking the girls home. Jazz bar: Take5, Paulay Ede utca. Honorable mention: Budapest Jazz Club, Columbus Jazz Klub edit: ah, HORNS, thanks for the reminder. Belgian Beer: Old Amsterdam, near Kalvin Ter. There's also a place on Buda side somewhere Delirium Tremens: Napoleon, on Zichy Jeno German Beer: Paulaner, in the Mom Park shopping mall Sports bar: Champs, Box Utca Pub: Caledonia Scottish Pub Oh yeah, after hours places. Seriously though, be careful with these. Coronitas, Piaf, Night and Day Cafe, Feszek Artist's Club Resources/info on what's going on www.funzine.hu www.caboodle.hu www.xpatloop.com www.indie.hu www.drumandbass.hu www.housemusic.hu www.deephouse.hu www.programmagazin.hu www.milonga.hu

I tend to base my preferences on their selection of beer and number of televisions. That being said (San Francisco):

Monk's Kettle - huge selection of beers with a very good kitchen. They have St. Bernardus Prior 8 on tap, which I find remarkable.

Noe Valley Tavern - good beer selection, lots and lots of televesions, pool table, back-patio seating, front smoking room that opens out onto the sidewalk.

Indianapolis: The Wellington.

I'll be in San Fran later this month. Do you know if Anchor has a brewpub?

When I'm in NYC I like to head over to Employees Only. They have great cocktails and pride themselves on having the best ingredients. They make many of their own mixes. The bartenders are hard working and friendly. My kind of place.

They do not. However, their brewery is a neighborhood called Protrero Hill, which you could easily take a cab to from downtown and tour it. Check Anchor Steam's website and see if they have tours.

Also, there is a brewpub literally right across the street from Jeremy's, which is the discount store for all high-end clothing in San Francisco. You would find it a most-enjoyable afternoon to have some beers at the "Second Amendment" and then walk across the street to Jeremy's.

In Boston, I like

Beantown Pub, for pool
Watch City Brewery, for local beer
21st Amendment, for cocktails
Eastern Standard & The Beehive for cocktails + atmosphere
Miracle of Science is pretty cute, too.

^^^ While AmJack central at times, I like Jillians for pool in Boston. Never really had trouble getting a table, either.

Costa Rica San Jose/Central Valley: -Retrovisor in San Pedro; an 80s-themed bar complete with all kinds of memorabilia you've long since thrown out. It's right next to the University of Costa Rica so expect a very young crowd (probably too young to remember the 80s ). -Jazz Cafe in San Pedro; live music every night in one of CR's best "small" venues. You'll get a top CR act one night (Editus, Mal Pais) and a Santana/Bob Marley tribute band the next. Usually a nice mix of locals and travelers so it's always easy to chat someone up between sets. -El Observatorio in Barrio California; another great place for live music. A bit more space than Jazz Cafe and usually caters to a younger crowd via tribute bands but can have some great Salsa bands, too. -Club Aleman (German Club) in Los Yoses; a relatively nice, quiet neighborhood that's home to a number of consulates and embassies. The German Club is a large house converted into a restaurant, beer garden, and clubroom upstairs with a pretty neat all-wood interior bar downstairs. Bar/restaurant is only open in early to late evenings so plan accordingly. Bar can be closed later in the evening based on the turnout but is usually open earlier on. -El Cubico in Los Yoses; another large house-turned bar. Crowd is relatively younger (under 30) and upscale. Good tapas if you're sitting up in the front, great bar if you're out in the backyard/patio area. "Popular with the rich kids" would give it a bad connotation that it doesn't really deserve. I've always found it drama-free and fun. Mostly locals mixed in with a few travelers as there are a number of hostels in the area. -El Refugio in Tibas; yet another old house-turned bar. Younger, "bohemian" crowd, great music, cheap drinks, and great atmosphere. I've taken a few dates here and have had them point out "famous" musicians who hang out there, too. The original location was once my favorite bar in CR. -El Cuartel in Barrio California; just around the corner from El Observatorio is one of the best places to be on a Monday night. PACKED <40 crowd. Yet another healthy mix of locals and travelers, you're almost guaranteed not to be drinking alone. DJ is a computer running iTunes on shuffle with a great mix. -Stan's Irish Pub in Zapote; one of a few Irish bars in CR but definitely the best. Great food, probably THE best beer selection in CR, and the owner is ex-US special forces. What more could you want? Tends to be busier during the weeknights with locals that look for other options once the weekend comes around. Be sure to check out my smiling mug on the Wall of Fame. -Grappa in Santa Ana near Escazu/Alajuela; one of the classier bars in CR, this place is located on a strip that is inventing itself as the $$$ part of the city. There are a few more bars down the street in another plaza that more high-end (in a big city LA kind of way) but I prefer this place for being more low key. Great live music, somewhat pricey drinks but you're just paying for the atmosphere and it's worth it. Can be hard to get a table some nights. -Henry's in Escazu; just looking for a place to drink out of liter-sized mugs with some other Americans to watch sports on TV? This is your place. -Escazu in general; one of the more $$$ towns in the Central Valley that's home to quite a few bars in the same large strip mall. Almost completely locals <30, this is where you come to check out the local talent. Jaco Beach: Everyone seems to go to Beatle Bar. This town is so Americanized and touristy that you're pretty much doomed. Just walk along the main street until you find something that remotely resembles a place that sells alcohol and go inside; it'll all pretty much be the same. Liberia/Guanacaste: Every beach community has the same beach bar. You really can't go wrong. Quepos/Manuel Antonio: -El Avion (The Plane); My favorite bar/restaurant in Costa Rica, period. Not a single wall in this restaurant that sits on top of the hill overlooking the ocean. Pretty decent food, fantastic sangria. Best part is that there is a plane inside the restaurant itself that doubles as a bar. My recommendation is the Pearl Harbor; great name for a drink, eh? -Barba Roja (Red Beard's); the best place you'll ever see a sunset in Costa Rica. Great happy hour, too, but plan ahead and get there early. Also buy as many drinks in one sitting as you can as it will get busy and service can be slow. Be sure to sit out on the "new" patio deck for an unobstructed view of the cove below. Food is ok, live music can be..."interesting." Last few times I went it was this older hippie American couple that looked like they just got stranded there and decided to play old Marley songs for tips. -There's some upstairs beachfront bar in central Manuel Antonio that keeps changing owners. Doesn't matter as it's usually the last place to stay open every night. They also allow drinks to go, a very important point when you're trying to get drinks to bring back to your hotel after the pool bar's closed. La Fortuna/Arenal: Too touristy for any real action during the week. On the weekends there's a place over by Baldi Hot Springs that is crazy as all hell. Just ask a local and he'll point you there.

Gainesville, FL

Stubbie's Shirt Pub- Over 300 beers. Lots of them good. Most all of the beers we lust about in the favorite beer threads. Abbey ales, fancy pale ales, belgians, us brews, all over the world beers i haven't heard of, and more. Very low key most nights too. I dont' know if it's done yet, but they're building a German Restaurant in this new area attached to it. It should be done really soon. Gonna be awesome.

The Top- Kinda hipstery, but more of the low key chill type. It's a restaurant first, bar at night. The food there is really great. Have some semi-fancy stuff and a lot of vegi/vegan options. Good apps too. Thursday is $1budlight, $2single wells ($1 during summer i think). Make solid martinis. Fair selection of beers. And a pretty decent jukebox.

Market St. Pub- Low key on non-weekends, a fair variety of your standard beers like piss bud/miller stuff, your usual "imports" like warsteiner, stella, blue moon, hoegarden, guiness, smithicks and others. Wednesday is "Mug Night" where you can buy a mug for $5 and then it's $5 all you can drink domesticks and $10 imports. I have 2 mugs as someone left theirs in my car so it's only $5 for all i can drink. Not bad.

I used to go to the bar at Chez Henri in Cambridge, MA, on a regular basis. Great mojitos, but the real draw is the awesome pub food. Clam fritters, Chorizo on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, a great pork Cuban, a better roasted vegetable Cuban, and terrific deserts (though I liked the old desert chef better than the new - more balance in the flavors.) Plus, the place was really conveniently located near the law school just off Mass. Ave.

Los Angeles: Bigfoot Lodge: If Smoky the Bear had a secret rockabilly/hipster lodge, this would be the place. Actually, he's there, too. Really. $3 Guinness/Newcastle on London Calling night (Wed I believe), psychobilly night (great vintage 8mm films shown), karaoke night, ladies night, etc. Make sure you get a shot of Smoky's Moonshine: $5 of whatever the bartender decides to put in a dump vat that week and it usually tastes like smooth gasoline. Good bourbon selection here, too. 4100: Asian-themed lounge with a Hollywood twist. Jukebox has some really great albums on it. Super-hot rockabilly-type bartendresses. Crowd tends to be late 20s-early 40s. K. Sutherland used to tend bar here before the DUI. Tiki Ti: LA's only bar where you can legally smoke inside (loophole: only employees are the father/sons owners). 50+ tropical mixed drinks to satisfy anyone's palate but NO BEER IS SOLD. Drinks start at $8 all the way up to $15 so while somewhat expensive, you get what you pay for in a strong, tasty drink (more expensive drinks are larger and equipped with more booze). Tiny but fantastic tropical interior with a crowd of all ages with some old timers having gone here for 25+ years. Easily one of my favorite bars as the drinks are strong and the attitude is bullshit-free. Two words of advice: if you go on a Fri/Sat night, come early or prepare to stand in line as there's a 40-something max cap inside; secondly, BRING CASH, NO CC's, but there is an ATM inside if you need it. Can't recommend this place enough for a fun time. Lucky Baldwin's (Pasadena, Sierra Madre): a UK-inspired pub/restaurant. The point is not to be a gimmicky bar but to deliver the best European beer selection in SoCal (hell, probably just about anywhere outside EU). Food is standard bar fare so stick to the beer menu. Fantastic selection on tap that changes every few months depending on specialty or festival (Belgian Beer Festival, Barleywine Festival, etc.). Best beers I've ever had in my life have been here. Don't be afraid to ask the waiters for a recommendation as they have never steered me wrong. This is the first drink I have every time I come back into town. Red Lion Tavern: Best German bar/restaurant/biergarden in LA. Fun fact: in order to be a waiter/waitress here you HAVE to have been born in Germany. Another fun fact: all the waitresses wear the beer wench dresses (and are smoking hot). Place is regularly busy with an older crowd in the restaurant/bar downstairs and a younger crowd in the biergarden upstairs. Beers on tap include Hofbrau, Paulaner, etc. Good dinners, too. While other German places around SoCal are bigger (Alpine Village, Phoenix Club, Old World), none are as popular and busy as Red Lion. Verdugo (Eagle Rock): I've only gone once but I've deemed it worthy of the list. Somewhat hard to find being that it is in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Very swank bar/lounge with two big flatscreens behind the bar showcasing random and obscure films. Beer/whisky/scotch selection is nice and unusual. They have beer sampling on most nights. 3 Clubs: I'm not a "dance club" kind of guy, especially in the Hollywood area, but if I were, this would be the place. Named "3 Clubs" as they have three separate rooms of different kinds of music. Crowd is younger escaping the Sunset scene. Parking is a bitch but your lady friend and sanity will find it worth it if you're looking for something different from the standard overpriced, overhyped LA fare. Dresden Room: ever wanted to see what a 70s "classy" dive bar looked like? If you've seen "Swingers," Marty and Elane still play here. Fun for the occasional gimmick but when the tab arrives you'll see the experience was somewhat overpriced. Texas Loosey's (Torrance): Located in a strip mall in a residential neighborhood lies this "family restaurant" gem. Bartenders are all female and all wear bikinis with ass-less chaps and cowboy hats. "Coyote Ugly" this isn't but it definitely makes for a great dive-bar experience while watching a game on TV and enjoying the free popcorn with cheap drinks. I remember having a detailed conversation with one of the bartenders about on the cell cycle (it turned out her daytime job was as a high school biology teacher). Duke's (Malibu): Not the actual restaurant as much as their Barefoot Bar. Couldn't count how many USC afternoon lectures my friends and I ditched to come here for happy hour. The food was nearly free and Fridays always had cheap mai tais. Yardhouse (Long Beach): The best Yardhouse in my opinion. If you're not familiar with the chain, they flaunt a relatively long list of beers on tap with the majority being US microbrews that can be purchased in half-yard or full yard glass form. Food can be average to great. What makes the LB location so great is the outdoor patio with a view of the harbor docks as it's right next to the water. Place seems to be busier than hell 24/7. The Nose (Pasadena): Small, quiet wine bar owned and operated by the owner himself. Hard to find as it's in an arcade/paseo off Colorado Blvd not far east from the Paseo mall. Very intimate atmosphere with pre-selected wine flights picked out by the very knowledgeable owner. Usually has some desserts or cheese plates to accompany the wine tasting and every month or so will offer a several-course meal paired with different wines along each stage of the dinner. Large selection in the backroom cellar with prices for anyone and as the owner has tried every single bottle himself, you'd be wise to trust his recommendations. Probably the best kept secret date place in LA. Viva Madrid (Claremont): While a 45 min drive from Downtown LA (or longer depending on horrendous traffic), this place is so unique it deserves mention. It is located inside an arcade hallway just a few blocks from the Claremont Colleges, about as random as it could be, but feels like it was cut out of Madrid itself right down to the balcony where a classical guitarists plays a few nights during the week. This place offers the best Spanish tapas I've ever tried, hands down, and the sangria isn't bad, either. Another great "secret" place that needs to be experienced but keep in mind that it is relatively small inside and EXTREMELY popular with the locals. Dimples (Burbank): People will talk about doing karaoke around Koreatown but in my mind this IS LA's karaoke bar. It's a favorite of people from NBC/WB studios looking to blow of some steam; Mr.Belding from "Saved by the Bell" fame practically lives here, too.