Newport Beach & Balboa Island’s Most Famous & Legendary Bars

Dive Bars & Locals’ Legends Southern California Watering Holes

Few places in Southern California have as many long-standing and legendary bars as Newport Beach. Perhaps it’s because this beach community has a long history of having colorful characters.

Here’s a list and descriptions of the most famous of these legendary watering holes.

The places are listed in alphabetical order but if you’re looking for PubClub.com’s “best of the best,” start out at Mutt Lynch’s, then when properly buzzed move onto Cassidy’s and then Woddy’s Wharf. Then perhaps back to Cassidy’s.

Balboa Saloon

This one’s a dandy! Located by the Fun Zone off the Balboa Island ferry, it brags of being a place for “cold beer and darts.” Photos of sportsfishing and local memorabilia fill the walls.

Address: 700 E Bay Ave.

Beach Ball

Who can’t just love a bar that opens at 6 a.m.!? Certainly a new bar can’t do that today.  This small dive has a juke box, photo booth, pool tables and the golf video game. And it’s right across from the beach with a view of the Pacific. No need to get dressed up to go into this place.

Address: 2116 W Oceanfront

Blackie’s By The Sea

Nothing fancy about this place, down to the peanut shells (tho they ask you not do dump them on the floor). A classic afternoon drinking bar it’s right next to Beach Ball across the parking lot from the beach and the pier. Not surprisingly, this is a cash-only bar.

Address: 2118 W Oceanfront

Cassidy’s

This is one of those dive bars that gets in a good – and often good-looking – young crowd. It’s location is such that you may stumble right into the place half by accident; it’s on an “island” in the middle of the different lanes of Newport Blvd. This long bar is nothing more than stand around and drink but it’s a standard watering hole with good pick-up potential.

Address: 2603 Newport Blvd.

Mutt Lynch’s

Long voted the #1 dive bar in Orange County, Mutt Lynch’s is the place to get your beers in schooners. It’s actually undergoing a new look on the inside but the legend continues, and will continue as one of Newport’s best legendary bars. It’s located near the Newport Beach Pier.

Address: 2300 W. Oceanfront

Stag Bar + Kitchen

On the surface, Stag Bar looks like your standard modern-day bar (it even has that modern name with the + Kitchen) but in reality it’s been around since 1908.  As such, it’s one of the oldest continually-operating bars in Southern California. It once had hotel rooms above the bar and it’s rumored they were used as a brothel. Check out the historical photos on the wall.

Address: 121 Mc Fadden Pl.

The Village Inn

Over on Balboa Island, a nice tiny community that brings Amity Island of the Jaws movie to mind, is this place where you’ll likely to meet all kinds of Newport Beach legendary characters catching late afternoon and early evening drinks at the bar.  The place jumps at night in the summertime with a much younger crowd but for many drinking (and otherwise) local legends, this is their watering hole.

Address: 127 Marine Ave., Balboa Island

Woody’s Wharf

 

Once the top pickup bars in Newport Beach, Woody’s Wharf is a nautical bar (it has a ship’s wheel and a small fish tank) is a single’s person’s institution. It gets packed at night and in the daytime captains of boats and yachts pull up to the dock and pour into the bar. As far as being a modern-day pickup place, well it still gets in it’s share of girls and guys, so it’s always a stop to make while bar hopping in Newport.

Address: 2318 Newport Blvd.