While out biking the River Walk to the Missions a couple of weeks back with my BF, the sky turned black, and we knew a storm was a comin'. We needed to find shelter from the storm. My BF hopped on Yelp and, after just a minute or so, confidently stated, "I found the place." BF proceeded to read the reviews aloud and, I too, was sold. We would wait out the storm at Mustang Sally's.
We docked our bikes at the Mission San Jose and began our steady march toward good ol' Mustang Sally's. As we approached I spotted the not-much-to-look-at establishment that was our shelter. The plaquard on the side of the building read, "Mustang Sally's: Beer, Mixed Drinks, Pool, Darts, Karoke, Dancing". That's right - KAROKE. I have found that misspellings on permanent signage are always a good indicator of the levels of drunkenness that can be found in a place. We snapped a couple of pictures of the signs featuring Mustangs - the equine and the vehicular types, and moseyed on in.
It was 12:05 pm. Mustang Sally's had just opened moments before. The place was dimly lit, dingy. Cheap plastic backlit signs provided some of the limited lighting. As we approached the bar, I took it all in: the pool tables, juke box, electronic dart boards. We took our seats at the bar and each ordered a Dos Equis. Our bartender, was friendly and provided us the beers with a smile. She even slid used cardboard coasters each of our ways moments after placing our beers in front of us.
We clanged our beers together, toasting the fact we had escaped the impending storm. Moments later, the sky opened up. There would be several more beers consumed before we the rain would stop and we'd be able to continue our biking journey.
The minutes turned into hours; we drank beers, had interesting conversations with several regulars and employees of the bar (including the owner, the bartender, the handyman/security guard, and the bartender's husband) while eating the trail mix I had packed in my purse; and even got in a couple of good games of darts.
For the folks who have said, "Place is trashy." and "This bar is a good place if you want to have a beer and not run into anyone you know", you are correct. The place is a bit trashy and I can't imagine running into anyone I know there, but I don't at all think those are bad things. It is a true dive, staffed by good people, with interesting stories. They serve cold beer at astoundingly cheap prices, have quality electronic dart boards, pool tables, and were very kind to us during our more than two hour visit to their establishment.
Eventually, the rain subsided. As we departed, the bartender gave us a couple of trash bags to keep us and our phones dry, in the event that storm began raging again as we biked back north along the Riverwalk. Luckily, we didn't need to wear them, but as we biked, it did begin raining again, and I used one to wrap up my purse that was holding both mine and the BFs phones. Big thanks to the bartender for helping us keep our electronics high and dry.
I dug Mustang Sally's. read more