The Glam in the Grime: San Diego’s Favorite Dive Bars

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    They’re everywhere: lurking in the most unassuming strip mall façades, buried between Laundromats and quickie-marts, across the street and down the block from Gaslamp’s glitz and glam. What are they? San Diego’s dive bars!

    You know, the places where all posturing must be deposited at the door, where pool and darts are the only games played, where the dirt-cheap drinks are as stiff as corpses. Before cruising down San Diego’s darker corridors, check out some of our favorite haunts.

    Step right off the beach and into this laid-back watering hole, and don’t bother brushing the sand from your flip-flops. Way down Mission Boulevard from Pacific Beach’s myriad bars, sometimes Beachcomber seems to attract more beer-guzzling beach bums than all Garnet’s watering holes combined. Definitely a no-frills place, you’ll more likely be sipping Pabst Blue Ribbon than a cosmopolitan, and playing darts than dancing, but you can be sure your good-time factor will be at an all-time high.

    Tivoli claims to be Downtown’s oldest bar, and its grand old history has established it as one of the city’s inarguable best. It’s also where the behind-the-scenes Gaslamp crowd goes to drink. You know, the cocktail servers, wait staff, bartenders and bar backs from the bug clubs and lounges; the people who know the industry up and down and side to side. Who could possibly be more trustworthy than them?

    Star Bar a glittering nightmare of Christmas lights, trinkets, and reflective surfaces, truly revels in its own bad taste. Obstinately, it sits directly across from three of Gaslamp’s most expensive and exclusive nightclubs: Confidential, Belo, and Red Circle Café. Yet while the star-eyed patrons of the latter clubs are busy paying ten bucks a pop for designer martinis, Star Bar’s regulars enjoy twice the drink at half the price.

    Although most of the bars along Pacific Beach’s Garnet Avenue are clustered towards the beach, head eastward along this popular strip for one of the city’s very best dives. The Silver Fox, titled for the shiny canine lording over the door, is where beach city locals go to avoid the belligerent crowds who frequent other places. Not that these patrons don’t know how to have a good time. The energy is high every night at The Silver Fox, in the most relaxed, surfer-chill sort of way.

    The Jewel Box consistently wins "best dive bar" rankings by other San Diego publications for a reason. It’s only slightly grungy, a dive with a smiling face, and its patrons pledge it all-encompassing loyalty. There’s no reason to ever go anywhere else, they say, as The Jewel Box is well-equipped with an interesting menu, games from pool to shuffleboard and strong cheap drinks served by friendly bartenders.