Mai Tais And A View Overlooking Petco Park
While patrolling around Petco Park looking for a good pre-Padres watering hole, I naturally found myself – almost without thinking – in Bub’s By The Ballpark.
That’s the natural place because it was packed with people in jerseys not just from the home team but the visiting team, as well (they were most likely transplants living in San Diego). Bub’s proved to be a beer bar, a basic watering hole of a place to go beforehand to have a pint or two while meeting up with friends.
However, I was looking for something different (okay, one with more girls!). After poking my head into several places and being unsatisfied with what I found – most places were surprisingly empty despite several people filling up the streets in the Gaslamp by the ballpark – I wound on the rooftop of the Fairweather Bar.
A friend had taken me there a couple years ago during a non-Padres game and I recalled having a good rum drink. Being lover of good rum drinks, I figured at the very least I could have that and be satisfied.
What a cool bar! It’s all outside and with plants it has kind of a garden-type atmosphere. It also looks down onto the grassy area of the ballpark between the gate and centerfield, and on the evening I was there, a free concert was playing right below me. I actually started with a beer – it was just six bucks – and I found a spot to lean against the railing and take in the show.
This was great. I was drinking a $6 craft beer in a lively bar (there were some cute girls on a bachelorette party around me and they were getting kind of silly) with a band playing below my feet.
I then ordered a drink that promised plenty of rum and it came – Hawaiian-style – with an orchid as decoration on the side of the glass. The drink could have used a floater of dark rum, quite frankly, but there must have been more rum in it that I first thought because it had somewhat of a delayed affect I felt later while cruising the Gaslamp.
Someone then walked bywith a Mai Tai that did have that floater of dark rum, and I made a note to have that drink on a future visit.
In fact, with the Padres playing tonite, I’m heading there as soon as I hit “publish” on this blog post.
I better hurry too, because it’s 5 o’clock (somewhere!) and it has Happy Hour until 6. So I’m hoping I can get the Mai Tai for a couple of bucks cheaper than the $10 regular price (which is still really good considering the location and the coolness factor of the bar).
It should be noted, by the way, that Bub’s By The Ballpark does not offer Happy Hour during Padres games.
Fairweather Bar is not necessarily easy to find or get to; you enter right by the gates on J Street at Seventh Ave., go into a tap room (look for the sandwich board on the sidewalk), and go thru the tap room to an elevator in the back.
Another cool pre-Padres bar, by the way, is right next to Fairweather. It’s called Social Tap and it’s kind of like a beer garden (tho nothing like what you find in Munich).
Oh, there’s so much to discover in San Diego.
San Diego Blog update: The Mai Tais are $11, almost $12 with tax. They are not on the Happy Hour menu, tho for $7 you can get a margarita and Pina Colada, which the bartender tells me is quite good. On my follow-up, pre-Padres game visit, the stage was gone and in its place was a kids’ diamond. Still, a DJ was playing and it was quite nice to be outside overlooking the pre-game activities happening on the grassy area below the bar.
#sandiego
#sandiegorooftopbars
#padres
#gaslamp
#nighlife
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