Shout out to Maxine for all the best recommendations and peak info regarding the brew and story…read morebehind each drink! The taste of each is so unique i am most definitely coming again specially after my friends boasted about the service and ambience being so welcoming and uplifting!

The location is inside of a food hall. Saturday afternoon was bustling with lots of activity in the…read morearea. There were plenty of open places to sit at the bar. It was a little tricky for our group of four to talk since we were all seated at the bar. There were a couple of areas to stand with your drinks if you wanted to stand across from someone to speak while enjoying your drink. Cocktails were unique and fun! Everyone in our party enjoyed our cocktail. The bartender was friendly, not overly attentive (bonus), very knowledgeable and patient with our questions.

3% fee for credit cards…read more I highly recommend the distillery tour. Book it in advance. It's super informative and fun. Afterward, there is a tasting of each spirit; however, the pours are very small; about 1/4 ounce of each spirit. It's such a small taste that it's not much more than "smelling" the gin. Which is fine. They make a total of 21 spirits, including 7 whiskeys. Highlights: For their gin, they use Lambic potstills; they have no column stills with baskets. Since they only use potstills, they macerate all the botanicals; it's a "wet" gin. Gin 01 is the flagship, and loaded with lavender. They sell 10000 cases per year. It's available at Whole Foods state-wide, and at the Santa Cruz Costco. Costo sells Gin 01 for $28, a significant discount from the $34 price at the distillery. Gin 01 works best with floral and citrusy cocktails like a corpse reviver #2. Gin 02 is a lightly barrel aged gin. It's aged for 2 months, and each barrel gets used twice. The gin is infused with bay leaf, sage, and fennel: it's more savory. They use bay leaf foraged at Delaveaga park, and they get sage and fennel from a farm nearby. I detected a cedar flavor. It's better with heavier cocktails, like a Paper Plane. They do seasonal gins: One for each season. For gin and tonics served at the distillery, they make their own tonic: it has a lavender note. It also uses chinchona, bitter orange, grapefruit, and elderflower. They have blue agave spirits. They get agave from farms in Yolo county. The farms do the pit roasting for them. The blanco tequila uses champagne yeast. The reposado spirit is aged for 11 months. Their mezcal is more peppery, less smokey. For whiskey: - They have a Port barrel finished whiskey that is really tasty. - I thought the rye was very sweet. - For their peated whiskey, they use malted barley imported from Scotland. Their single malt uses a crystal malt. Overall, it was a very fun visit.

Today I stopped by Venus on the Westside. Admitably, I was starving when I approached the door at 2…read moreminutes to opening. The hostess and waitress kindly let me in. Unfortunately it went downhill from there. I spoke with my waitress to inquire about dairy free vegan options. Not much but I did order a Ba mi sandwich with mushroom. What came was a pork version ~ definitely not vegan. If it were my call , the sandwich I then had to wait for would have been on the house. No such luck. This is not all. Where I was seated by hostess was definitely the world's worst table in the absolute flow of an onslaught of wait staff delivering everything from the kitchen and busing dishes. It was awful. Since my order had already been messed, I did not have the heart to ask about moving. This was an all time worst dining experience. I will never return here again. I have enjoyed the other Venus in Seascape. But these folks were inattentive and lacking empathy. Even their martini was sub standard. Not so at the other Venus.

We can here for dinner before a night visit to the boardwalk. The service is great and the ambiance…read moreis awesome. I love tikki bars, vibes, etc. and this place has it down. We didn't see the rotating bar, but it sounds awesome since there are good views of the water from many spots in the restaurant. The food was decent. The poke tower was everyone's favorite. Good flavor and everything tasted fresh. My wife enjoyed her tamarind pulled pork. The rice, pineapple and mac salad were great. The spam musubi was good, but it comes with a lot of spicy mayo on top. I would ask for that on the side next time. The bulgogi beef plate was just ok. Certain pieces of meat were tender, but some were chewy and overall the flavor was on the bland side. I liked the spicy cucumber salad and slaw that came with it. Although some mac salad in place of the slaw might have been good for flavor/texture variance. The drinks were good too. My wife enjoyed the painkiller as it wasn't too thick and had good flavor. Overall, a good experience and we will be back to try other dishes next time we're in the area.

Being on the water and the aesthetics of the place made us feel like we were in Hawaii for an hour…read more I got the poke bowl which I really enjoyed after I picked the lychees out (I wasn't a fan, but you won't know unless you try). The drinks were tropical and really flavorful. The waiter said Blood Moon was one of their popular drinks, and it sure was tasty. Overall the service and food was great. We'd come back.

Our fave bar. Cool vibe, pool table, great bar selection, great tenders…read moreThere's no food, tho, so plan accordingly

It's a Dive-ish bar with top notch drinks, and always a pleasure to pop in for a night cap.read more

Was my fav in college and now a must when I'm in Santa Cruz. The red room is pretty chill, although…read moreit does get busier on weekend nights. Friendly bartenders, ideal red everything vibes, and two rooms for seating options.

There are two floors! Downstairs and upstairs…read more Upstairs lounge is bigger with more tables and sofas for large groups. I like the red lighting throughout the whole place. It's a fun and unique vibe

A restaurant dedicated to The Cheese. Cool…read more I moved from Santa Clara to Santa Cruz in 1972 and thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I bought my first website from the O'Neill dive shop at the Harbor. Learned to surf at Cowells Beach, wearing O'Neill Seal Suits and Super Suits and Animal Skins, chasing Jack O'Neill around in his balloon with Mad Mike driving. Timmy O'Neill pushed me out of a dingy in the harbor channel once but I've forgiven him. They called Jack "The Cheese" but apparently I've been gone a while because I wasn't aware there was an entire restaurant, bar and lounge dedicated to The Cheese. Went there on a Thursday night in June and didn't have enough quarters to pay the parking meters on that uphill. Got lucky and found a parking space at Cowell's and used the change machine to get $5 in quarters, which is what it cost to park for a couple hours. Walked past a mural dedicated to several decades of Jack O'Neill going back to the 1950s: wetsuits, boats, hot air balloons, smiling girls. The air smelled like stale fish and salt. Inside was a clean, well-lighted place somewhere between funky and luxury .But closer to luxury. They've done a nice job with this place. The prices are reasonable in a city and a state and a time where prices can be unreasonable. Sat at a table up against the window, with a view over Cowells and the wharf and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and the lights of all the fishing boats in the bay I ordered the loaded fries with avocado, which is kind of like french fry nachos. And they were good. Lots of Cheese. It's a smart idea to dedicate an entire restaurant to The Cheese, as this place is over the dirt where the first O'Neill Surf Shop was in Santa Cruz was way back when starting around 1959 when Jack moved his business and his family down to Santa Cruz and was perfectly positioned for the surf boom lit by the movie Gidget that exploded into the Beach Boys and Frankie and Annette and everybody went surfing. Only glitch was when I asked the bartender for the bathroom code and he looked at me askance and wouldn't give it up. He said it was for hotel guests only. Aren't food establishments required to provide bathrooms to customers? If I had any friends, I would take them to the Jack O'Neill Restaurant and Lounge. It's got atmosphere. P.S I've interviewed around a dozen white shark attack victims. I get their stories and tell them: "You had a rough day. I'll see if I can get you a new wetsuit. Look at the O'Neill catalogue and tell me what you want and I'll call Pat O'Neill." And Pat always comes through with quality neoprene, so maybe a restaurant for him some day?

Popped into here for a light dinner. Had a bowl of clam chowder, and a Caesar salad with chicken…read more The clam chowder had an odd taste and it was really paste-y. The salad was surprisingly small. The chicken was good but the dressing was nasty salty. The sardines? That is what I get for not asking for dressing on the side. Great view but the food sucks, especially for the price.

We came here for a pre graduation celebration dinner and this place satisfied a variety of…read moreappetites! We ordered - the summer on the porch cocktail: more cardamom forward than most cardamom lattes! I can't stop thinking about the balance of flavors - Korean short rib: good, but we were hoping for one more strip of meat - Crab curry: well balanced sauce (non of the weird gums-in-coconut-milk flavor) and not actually that spicy - Jawaain jerk pork plate: actually pretty spicy (for someone with medium-low tolerance), so the plantains, coconut rice, slaw (not overdressed, lovely crunch and zing), plantains, and Johnny cake (a savory molasses fruit bread thing) helped calm the flavor. But delicious! - Seared ahi with lemongrass sauce. The sauce was delicous but this was the worst piece of "seared ahi" I've seen in my life. I know ahi is served seared/raw but usually the raw part is of high quality (like a plummy color). This hunk had obviously been frozen and thawed badly so it was an icy pink raw ground meat texture - so unappetizing Logistics: - indoor and outdoor seating - Limited street parking in front but close to the main paid garage in downtown - It's popping for happy hour! Adjust wait times accordingly - Nut allergists: the rice that comes with each entree is cooked in coconut milk. This was not specified when we asked if a dish contained nuts. Beware!

Always delicious. I've been coming to Hula's for maybe 10 years now, and I keep coming back for:…read more- the shrimp rolls (huge rolls served in halves with a pineapple dipping sauce) - the tiki drinks (so many stellar drinks) - the Hawaiian Fish Soup (coconut milk broth - YUM!) - the Hula Pie (vanilla macadamia nut ice cream cake with an Oreo crust) On top of that, the service is typically great and the restaurant has fabulous Tiki vibes. This time I ordered what was mentioned above (tiki drink was the Pain Killer - good balance of sweet, boozy, and creamy), and my husband ordered Duke's Luau Pork Plate- he said it was one of the best pork plates he has had. It was served with rice and coleslaw. PARKING SITUATION It has been about a year since the last time I visited, and I was SHOCKED that the parking lot right across from the restaurant is completely gone. Fortunately, we came before the dinner rush, so it wasn't an issue today... We will definitely be back for happy hours to avoid parking headaches!

Really nice spot to chill with friends. Enjoy live music entertainment and the patio fire pit…read moretables. The drinks were really good! Had a nice time.

We had a really nice date night at After Hours! It's a neat place, part coffee shop/cocktail…read morebar/dumpling house/chicken joint. Their official names are: 11th Hour, After Hours, Full Steam Dumpling, and Chubbs Chicken Sandwiches. I definitely want to come back and try the dumplings (they weren't there that night)--and more cocktails! The cocktails were solid. Better than I've had in awhile. The vibe was chill and Allen, the bar manager, was really friendly, passionate about what he does, and gave us some good, local recs for food and drink. I got two cocktails: - Chanel Vintage: Sencha Vodka, Matcha Venus Aquavit, Lemon, Blackberry, Blueberry, Housemade Mochi (not too sweet at all and the housemade mochi was fun) - Limerence: Citadelle Gin, Kina L'Aero D'or, Passion fruit, Lemon Vanilla Sherbert, Side of Prosecco (I've been wanting to try a Porn Star for awhile and this is their version of it. I'm a fan. I also automatically love anything with a side of prosecco.) Allen also gave us housemade lemon shortbread and chocolate to try. Fun stuff. I am all for this baked goods + cocktails combo. Super inventive. Will definitely be back for more cocktail talent!