Long story short, the South Bay has some great stuff going on. Most of the drinks at these bars were of top quality, most of the bartenders working were very knowledgeable, and I'd go to most of these bars again in a heartbeat. The other two venues - Orchard Street Kitchen in Campbell and Jack Rose Libation House just outside Los Gatos, were each large funky spaces with casual, seated crowds and unusually great liquor selections. Tony, tiny Los Gatos on the other hand, had surprisingly small venues - both The Bywater and The Lexington House are teeny tiny restaurants with bar programs, but not so much room at the bar. Additionally, all of them (55 South, Five Points, Paper Plane, Haberdasher) were built for big rushes- three of them had bars spanning the length of the room with at least three bartenders working (and this was on a quiet Tuesday). In downtown San Jose itself, the bars are huge! I expected them to be small venues built to hold 40 people but they seem like they could each fit 100+. It turns out there is some great stuff happening. Though I'd been paying attention to the very few cocktail bars that would pop up on the radar here and there, and increasingly kept meeting excellent bartenders from the South Bay at events and competitions, I had never made it down to explore the bars until last week. Follow that with a visit to Pub Hoxton (Boulevard Los Yoses, 75 Este de la Antigua Subaru), with kind of an English thing going, including top Britpop and old favourites like fish and chips and shepherds pie.Ī quick safety note: most taxis in San José are fine, but just to be on the safe side, make sure yours conforms with local laws mandating things such as taximetres and yellow triangles on the doors.San Jose is an hour or so south of San Francisco, and is a larger city in population, but most of its residents have preferred to come up to SF for their nightlife, cocktails, and culture. Start out laid back at Pub Piso 3 (Calle 2), with exceptionally good prices and an especially fun crowd when they broadcast football matches. One of the hubs of that nightlife is right near the university: Calle de la Amargura, whose name (“Street of Bitterness”) has always seemed ironic to us, as these days especially on weekend nights it’s packed with throngs of young people who have a grand old time at a wide variety of restaurants, pubs, and bars. The scene especially heats up as the work day comes to a close and stays hot into the wee hours.Ī bit east of downtown (a taxi ride of maybe 10 minutes), this is a catch-all for several neighbourhoods, with a happening nightlife driven by one of the area’s main institutions, the This is an impressive shopping centre just a bit north of downtown with a great cluster of popular restaurants, bars, and clubs at accessible prices (among the best known: Friends and the Ebony Club). Out west of downtown, the so-called Zona Rosa (Pink Zone) is the somewhat posher side of San José nightlife, a mix of restaurants like Pocket a good selection of bars including several for live music like La Central and the city’s most fashionable discos, such as Rouge (known for its theme parties, art, and creativity). Backpackers visiting San José as well as young people – locals and those studying abroad alike – all want to have a good time once the sun goes down, and Costa Rica’s capital obliges with three main areas serving up a wide variety of nightlife:
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