Liars' Club Alpine Tavern & Grill

rallison

California

4.83/5  rDev +10.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $

Also, a note about the glassware: If you order standard pints, they will come in standard pint glasses. But, you can always order 8 oz glasses of anything, and these are goblets. Not a bad way to do it, and you get to try more beers.

This is the best beer bar I've been to in the states.

A: Great place to hang out and enjoy a beer or two. Best if you go with a friend, as most people who come are with a group it seems. Great jukebox, always lively in the evening. Just a fun environment. Early day is nice too, more chill. Although earlier in the day it would be nice to have a nice big open patio or beer garden facing the beach. But I can't really complain.

Q: Can't fault this. Beers are all top-notch, food is top-notch, and both are cheap.

S: Service is usually quite good. Even when busy, the bartender was always there within a minute of me finishing my drink - more often than not she was there as I took the last swig. At the tables, it seems to vary a little more, but is usually good.

S: Selection is amazing. They will ALWAYS have something interesting to try, be it a barleywine from Mexico, and IPA from Belgian, or one of the many amazing San Diego brews. And it's all good stuff too. No BMC. Well, actually there are BMC taps. Over the urinal in the bathroom.

F: Delicious. It's always been full of flavor and just leaves you wanting more. Had the Fuego Steak Melt last time, and it was phenomenal. One of the best sandwiches I have ever had. Served with cajun fries. And only about $7 for what probably amounted to a pound of food. Simply amazing.

V: As is common with SD, things are cheap. And Friday night after 5PM is local beer night - pints of local brews for $2.50! Yes, that's right. Pints of Alesmith Speedway Stout for $2.50. That's about half what it would cost if you bought the bottles. This is one of the best values around.

In case you hadn't guessed, this place rocks. It's a must stop in San Diego. And hey, it's right off of Mission Beach area, so you can chill on the beach in the day time, and walk right over to Liars Club for the night.

01-29-2007 05:12:34 | More by rallison

sleazo

New York

3.8/5  rDev -13%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3.5 | $

The Liars club is a great place. There are always great locals and a few Belgians on tap. The local part is the big thing as SD is home to so many interesting breweries. On Fridays you can get a local pint for $2.50. That cannot be beat. There are so many places where you have to pay over $5 for a Corona or something else crappy. The Liars Club is the antithesis of those places, so it is my type of joint. Its basically a dive with a nice local vibe, punk music on the jukebox and always an interwting tap selcetion most of the time with a cask offering.

Foodwise i would say this place is overated. The famous fuego melt really is just a grease bomb as are the fires. Still as far as bar food goes, it isnt bad.

i highly recommend this place to anyone in or visitng Sd.

12-23-2006 07:08:59 | More by sleazo

MDBEERMAN

Maryland

4.33/5  rDev -0.9%
vibe: 2 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | $

Visited 10 December 2006 and tried 12 beers (2 taster sets of 6 each at about $12 total for all):
1. Alpine Pure Hoppiness
2. Alpine Bad Boy
3. Ballast Pt Dorado
4. Green Flash IPA
5. Green Flash Tripel
6. Gouden Caroulus Noel
7. Alpine Irish Red
8. Port Brewing Lil Guy
9. Russian River Damnation
10. Russian River Pliny the Elder
11. Chimay Cinq Cents
12. Port Brewing Old Viscocity

All the brews were on draft and local (San Diego area) except for 9,10 and 11. All brews were in excellent condition and the service by Chris Fischer was friendly, knowledgable and efficient. There were few patrons in the bar on this Sunday night, so your service may vary at busier times and they may not be as happy to serve so many tasters then. The reviews below seem accurate, but I wanted to emphasize the availability of the taster sets and the friendly service by Chris. Will definitely return to this place when I return to San Diego!

12-19-2006 14:23:49 | More by MDBEERMAN

LethargicAvenger

Florida

4.33/5  rDev -0.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

I was out in SanDiego on business and decided to give this place a try...great choice. It's rare to find a dive punk rock bar with decent food and such a selection of beer. It reminded me of the old Rat in Boston except with better beer, better food and near the beach -- never mind it was nothing like the rat.
It was a quiet monday night but the place still fairly busy -- full of that stange west-coast sucidal tendancies type of punk-chico guys that really confuse me.
I don't really remember much about the food but Im positive there was lots of avacado cause I found some on my shirt the next day... the beer was excellent, though. Must have tried 8 or 9 local (west coast) beers dont remember much about them either other than that they were tasty -- go figure.

10-19-2006 22:34:12 | More by LethargicAvenger

Goldorak

Quebec (Canada)

4.56/5  rDev +4.3%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | $

We made it to San Diego, well Mission Beach to be more precise. Our hotel was great, clean and right by the sand. The sun was out in all its fiery glory, so Mel was thrilled. After years of enduring my Beer-fueled vacations to not-very-tropical destinations like Belgium, Germany and France, not to mention the dozens upon dozens of road trips to visit bars, breweries and brewpubs all over the northeast, she finally got what she wanted. At last, at long last, she got her chance for some fun in the sun. I even got her a bottle of sparkling wine (I respect wineries like Mumm Napa who don’t use the term Champagne, they don’t need that ploy to sell, their product quality does it for them) to make it that much more enjoyable for her. She had a big shiny grin and her eyes twinkled like a kid at Christmas. Sure, she enjoyed her trip so far, but this was the money shot for her, the cherry on the sundae, the two-point conversion that wins the game.

She got huge sunburns and spent the rest of the trip in long sleeve clothes, even in the desert.

Yeah, I chose that hotel specifically for her, but I always keep an ace in the hole. It just happens it was only a few blocks away from Liar’s club. We stumbled across it while we went shopping for beach towels and stopped in for a quick pint.

To summarize the décor succinctly, it looks like a 50’s deli if it were owned and operated by the Ramones. Tin and vinyl booths and bar stools, a lot of them with big rips on them, with classic black, red and chrome colors. Laminated album covers and old publicity posters, the spoof ones in the bathroom were hilarious. Coors tap handles on the pig feeder urinal are a fun touch too. The bar section was more cluttered with trinkets than my old bedroom when I was 16. The grill is right there next to it, and smoked up the place. We sat outside on the elevated patio tables. Jukebox was blaring some Rocket from the crypt, Pixies and She Wants Revenge. It was early and pretty deserted, only a few craggy beach bums who seemed to be regulars were having a brew. The minute I walked in, I felt like home, as if I’ve been hanging out here my whole life, sat on every stool, ate every item on the menu, puked in both men’s and ladies’ toilets and lost my virginity in the back room. Like a rockaBeery Valhalla. Pretty ironic for a pasty French Canadian who lives 4000+ miles away and hates the sun and sand.

Of course, right on cue, Mel picked up on my vibe and immediately had an allergic reaction to it. “This place is a dive, it smells funny, it’s dirty and I don’t like it.” She would rather eat at the Hooters next to our hotel (that’s a whole other story). We left after a pint, but I came back 4 more times in two days, alone most often than not. No worries, I got to watch some football while she was zonked out on the bubbly. Once in the evening, a guy at the door asked for my ID, but a regular who was having a smoke outside recognized me and told him to forget about it, he’s seen me here all day!

Summer, the waitress that took care of me most of the time I was there, was an absolute sweetie, had great taste in Beer, was always around when I needed a refill, bought me a few rounds and was just a lot of fun.

Beer selection was awesome too, some leftover New Belgium La Folie from the Stone 10th anniversary brew-ha-ha was reason enough for me to come back here, along with plenty of great local beers. Pints were nice and fresh.

Could it be my favorite Beer bar in the US? Urgh, hard to say. Moan and Dove is still right up there. Honestly, I’d say it’s a toss up. Although M&D has an appeal and I felt right at home there too, I like the fact that Liar’s club isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. You’ll just have to go and find out for yourself.

10-06-2006 18:59:41 | More by Goldorak

Morris729

Texas

3.38/5  rDev -22.7%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

Laid back dive atmosphere with a very nice selection of west coast beers as well as, according to the menu, some “other sh*t.” Service was very bad, but this was due to the fact that they were not at all prepared for our very large afternoon crowd that took over the bar as they essentially only had one waitress available for us. Food was pretty good. My fuego melt pushed the use of peppers in a sandwich to the extreme but would have still been bearable (again going back to the service issue) had beers been coming more expediently. Parking was an issue, and I can only imagine the nightmare it must be on a Friday night. Still, we enjoyed our visit here, and I’d love to go back and give the place another try.

10-06-2006 15:48:44 | More by Morris729

Jason

Massachusetts

3.45/5  rDev -21.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 1.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3 | $$

A- This place rocked ... punk all over. I was really digging the vibe and the selection in the juke box ... but is there really a need to have so many fucking TVs!

Q- All my pints were fresh, the glassware was the typical American tumbler bullshit but at least they were clean and I was not served a chipped glass.

Serv- The service, to be blunt ... it down right sucked. But in the defense of the staff on 9/08/06 they had no clue there was 20+ BAs coming. Seriously, they need to check their email. You guys ever think about updating your tab system? Who the hell still hand writes tabs ... lame, nothing like waiting 45 mins for you bill. The service was a little slow on 9/10/06 as well until they realized we were sitting with a well know beer industry icon.

Sel- Impressive selection of west coast beers ... I saw a few cases of Mexican beer in the back, that was the only crap they had I guess.

F- Food was hit and miss. Our first visit the burger and fries was awesome. The second visit the veggie fuego sandwich tasted like it had been cooked the day before and the fries were stale as well.

All in all a great beer bar to hit ... just order two rounds at a time and you will be all set. ;-)

09-12-2006 02:38:59 | More by Jason

sloejams

California

3.9/5  rDev -10.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 2 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

After a much needed few hours of sleep after the Stone 10th Anniversary Festival, the missus and I headed over to Mission Beach, as it was the closest area to our hotel. The area is nice, something I wish LA had more of in it's beach communities. Parking wasn't all that easy, but we finally came upon something within 5 blocks or so.

The bar itself is a bit dingy, something that didn't bother me at all. Great jukebox playing stuff from Pixies, Elvis Costello to Chuck Berry. Seeing that it was a Saturday night, I expected to see a lot more people in there at 9PM. Even stranger that the place thinned out considerably more by the time we left at 10:30.

The beer selection is outstanding: TONS of great local offerings (Alpine, Alesmith, Stone, Pizza Port) and others (notably: 3 different from Russian River and some harder to find Belgians). Not terribly hungry, we just ordered an appetizer - hush puppies served with a chipotles aoli. The food was quite good and the spiciness went well with the Alpine IPAs I was enjoying.

The only setback was the service. Our server (pale, kinda punk rockish red headed woman) was terrible. She was particularly rude when the missus asked which appetizer was better. Her boyfriend / husband was there and they would start "making out" (I use this phrase to indicate how high school they were being about it) by the bar quite distractingly. Yeah, it was pretty gross. Not only that, after ignoring my girlfriend's order for Russian River's Lil White Lie, she returned asked if we wanted anything else. She politely reminded the server that she ordered that and I ordered another beer for myself. About 10 minutes and a few make-out sessions later, without our beers, we decided to just get our check. Mind you this all when the bar was, at most, a quarter-full.

The rest of the staff seemed nice, so I will come back. I'll definitely avoid this server's area. We didn't let this terrible server get us down - so we still had a good time and I would definitely recommend going here. If a pale red head comes to take your order, might wanna see if there are seats in another server's section.

09-11-2006 19:32:48 | More by sloejams

dbalsock

Vermont

4.6/5  rDev +5.3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

This is the kinda beer bar I want in my neighborhood. The atmosphere is wonderful, with a grate jukebox, good seating arrangements, and friendly beer lovers everywhere. The quality... hmmm... well, everything about the place is quality. The food, the beer, all of it is wonderful. The service is good, but what makes the servers great is their abundant knowledge of the beer they serve. The selection is also incredible; so many fantastic beers. The food is also much above average for pub grub, and they try to make it somewhat special with nice sauces (like maple sour cream). To top it off the prices are pretty damn good for the food and especially the beer.

09-04-2006 03:27:27 | More by dbalsock

bennetj17

Arizona

4.38/5  rDev +0.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

This place was all I had hoped for on my recent visit to San Diego. It's a lazy little beach bar in Mission Beach, nothing special if you weren't here for the brews. What a tap selection: Pliny the Elder, Damnation, Chimay, Stone RIS, Ruination, Pure Hoppiness, Pizza Port, and more. Even Speedway Stout was on tap except they were out for the moment. Our waiter was easy going and did a fine job of serving us. The food was pretty good overall, including my tuna sandwich. Not very expensive at all. I have to recommend this place as the selection is tops, a beer advocate's dream...

08-25-2006 06:24:23 | More by bennetj17