Smitty's Downtown — Restaurant in Vista

I used to revel in the ambiance, the cheap beer and seedy clientele, but I've seriously outgrown my attachment to dive bars. I think it's also dependent on company you go with and something I've been saying a lot lately. Going to the well too much.

Imagine a corner lot with 1 entrance and no lines, a huge tree in the middle and it basically looking like a junk yard. The front is quaint with some decorations, some chairs, some bricks to sit on and decent lighting, but then you walk in and immediately see the plumbers crack of some overweight guy nursing his beer. Though that may not be accurate everytime, you are bound to see something like that or worse within these walls. Service is usually slow and the banter is non existant. Curt conversations and cash only with 4 bouncers or so on weekends. After last call it's "gtfo" time and they do not play around, simply put security is on edge and looking to overstep their boundries which would be a mistake on their part.

Sticky floors and tables, poor ventilation, but a pretty kick ass stage and a decent sized dance floor where bad renditions of bad songs are butchered nightly. It's more country than Irish towards the back and if you can gather enough people to go with you here it's not so bad, just be sure you outnumber the rest of the bar.

Don't go to the bathrooms here and I think that's all that needs to be said. Liqour selection is missing basic mixers and anything remotely top shelf. Ask what their well is because apparently a Ketel tonic and really a Seagrams and 7. I've always preferred Village Pub and probably won't return to Smitty's, I don't know why I didn't recommend it when looking for somewhere else to go locally....

Ooh boy, This place makes prison feel friendly. Lol. The current KJ on Friday is... Some guy. That's his actual personality, NPC. The bartender was a blonde lady that was as fun as putting your hand In a wood chipper. Sure gets you drinks though... So that's... Cool. And what place still only takes cash? What time are we in?

Also, side note, if you do like singing, The sound levels could be anywhere. They've decided to go with the crappiest version of any new song. I've heard better instrumental versions on elevators. If you're a karaoke bar, is it really that hard to get a subscription to Karafun? They might not be the best, but at least you know what you're getting, and it resembles the actual song. The certain they gave me was the great value version of karaoke. Awful!

The customers were fun. So,...

I love this little dive bar. It's small, dim, dingy, you can only pay in cash (& yes, there's an ATM that charges a small fee for cash withdrawals) but that's part of the charm. 2 highlights: 1- the KJs are always excellent with a truly fantastic music selection, I've seen some incredibly obscure songs performed & 2- they're next door to the Yellow Deli... if you have the drunk munchies & it's Sun-Thurs, it's darn near paradise :P I swear that home grown food will revitalize any drunken soul lol Bottom line: it's a nice little spot to unwind after work, nothing fancy & sometimes that's just the way...