I first started going to The Garage about 2.5 years ago. I didn't know anyone there, I just needed to get out. Since then, I've made... more friends than I can count. Genuinely good people. One of the bartenders even ended up being my roommate for a time (and we would dance together in the living room). It was a hard time in my life when I first went there and I've grown and become, hopefully, a much better person just from experiencing the wonderful friends I've met. I could tell so many stories, but my point is simply this: This is THE BEST bar I have ever been to in my entire life and I cannot say enough good things about it and the people who run it, the regulars, bartenders, etc. Just genuinely awesome people. Even just the other day, a couple came in and they hadn't been there before, and we were just talking and they said "This is such a nice place." It's like Cheers. I walk in the door and end up hugging like everyone before I even get my name on the pool table (they also have a really nice pool table. I've been playing for years now as a result.) The owners Big J and Dave are awesome... I'm kind of overflowing with compliments here but it's just... it's the best place. If I had to choose what I was going to do with my night, my day, whatever, just getting out, it would be The Garage. Absolutely awesome. (I'm honestly just disappointed with myself that I didn't give them a Yelp review sooner. I cannot recommend this place enough. 5 stars just doesn't cut it). read more

Fun times and great bands on the weekends! Great neighborhood bar with pool tables and darts! read more

The Garage - Beer on tap! - Pool Halls Near Me - Ventura, California

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Great bands and dance floor What's not to love about this chill place? Go Check it out read more

The drinks were great! I had a Malibu Coke. My friend had a margarita. JD, the guitarist from JD and Fam (@jd_and_fam) is phenomenal. He can really shred. We hope he comes back soon! He used to be in the Heart and Soul band, but now he has moved on & he has his own band and we follow him at jdandfam.com. Pls have him back soon. That would be awesome! read more

The Garage - Jarold (JD) Davis from JD and Fam on lead guitar. - Pool Halls Near Me - Ventura, California

Good place to chill and catch some live music on a weeknight. Really fun bands and strong drinks. Your classic dive bar. Bathroom very tiny but clean. Bartenders were both pleasant, friendly gals, please remember to tip well. read more

New in town and decided to try this bar based off a late night Yelp search. I was not disappointed! The DJ played 80's music which I had been missing the 80's nights from the early 00's. They've all seemed to disappear, so it's nice to find a place still doing 80's nights. There was an older crowd here, which I love. Watched a woman completely annihilate a guy in pool lol. They had a few tiki drinks on the menu. I will definitely be back! read more

Mai tai is 10/10. Dave (owner) made us drinks and wow, they are strong and delicious. Potluck and karaoke on Mondays btw. Highly recommend this bar! read more

The Garage - Pool Halls Near Me - Ventura, California

Looks like we unlocked the most racist bar in town. Had to cancel my card after seeing one transaction for $32 I did not authorize here. Update: Never did I once mention that the bartender profiled me, I appreciated her service and she did great. Your patrons created a very hostile environment and made our group very uncomfortable. My partner and I were harassed twice (and yes, it was race related) I appreciate the clarification on what's reflected on my bank statement, however I find it strange that it would appear as two different charges if my tab was left open. Thanks for your reply. However I did leave your establishment feeling very unwelcome. read more

We had our class reunion at the Garage and it was a great time. David and his staff were amazing! It was a great location. Everything was great!! A+++ read more

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We've lived in the Ventura area for ten years and can't believe we just found this spot. Best bar in town! It's right down the street from our favorite Chinese restaurant, too. Can't wait to go back for some live music! read more

The Garage - Good drinks & good vibes. - Pool Halls Near Me - Ventura, California

Great neighborhood bar. Great people. One of my favorite spots to shoot a game of pool.

Great bar for live music! Fantastic place to see rock bands and have some beers. Fun local hang for people trying not to go downtown for the night. read more

What a great surprise! We wanted to go have a cocktail somewhere we have never been before. We thought we would give this place a try. We are so glad that we did! We were greeted by a super friendly bartender named, Clark. He recommended the Raspberry Unicorn for me and made my husband a Manhattan. Both of these drinks were delicious. Every Tuesday they have trivia night so that just made things extra fun! I would highly recommend checking this place out! read more

The Garage - Raspberry Unicorn. Majestic and refreshing. - Pool Halls Near Me - Ventura, California

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A hidden gem!! Great spot for an impressive tap line-up or ridiculously perfect cocktail...you need to go. Service is small bar perfect, hard stop. Do this. read more

I love this local bar. The upgrades and renovation make a huge difference. Clean, welcoming, fun bar. The bartenders are amazing, especially Ashley! The place also has a digital jukebox box which keeps the night entertaining. Great place to connect with locals, great drinks. It's a true gem in this part of town. read more

The Garage has come a long way since the new owner David has completely remodeled it from the old days. Super friendly neighborhood bar. I really enjoy swinging by after a work to have a cold one or two. read more

The bartender Ashley is hands down amazing! She is so sweet and makes a great atmosphere for everyone there. We go on trivia nights on tuesdays and it is so fun! It's the gem of east end Ventura ! read more

Love this place!!! Good vibes and great bartenders!!!! Clarke is the greatest! And jay does a great soul Sunday!!! read more

The Garage - Hurricane! - Pool Halls Near Me - Ventura, California

Awesome dive. Bartenders are attentive, and kind! Lara is usually there Sunday's, and she's the best! Crowd is small, and consistent. Its always nice to run into some familiar faces! Music is good, and just all around fun. This place is the tits. read more

Update 8/11/22 local cruising through Ventura, The Garage is a must stop! Check out these bartenders, Ashley & Alex, they will take excellent care and make you feel at home. read more

The Garage - Ashley - Pool Halls Near Me - Ventura, California

Great bar with a very cool vibe and friendly staff. I went there on a Saturday night and they had live music. I would highly recommend.

I love this place! It will make you feel like home. Please come in and enjoy the home town ambience!!

I went here one time like 4 years ago, never came back.. it was nasty asf smelled like old ass.. but came here recently and saw that they have really renovated the entire place it looks really nice and clean on the inside now and the new owner seems like a really cool guy. they were letting me and my homies play whatever music we wanted to play and the drinks for reasonably priced to at that.. I never really liked the crowd that used to come in to this place so I probably still won't come in during the weekends, but it's a cool place to come in during the week to just have a drink, play your own music or hang out with your homies. Over all solid local dive spot during the week read more

This is a great neighborhood spot to stop in for some drinks and see friendly faces. Highly recommend the Unicorn! And the Mai Tais are also amazing. The only tough part is how loud the bands/music can get since it's a small venue. It's great to be able to listen to live music but the volume can be a bit much. read more

First visit. Great vibe. Terrific bartender, Clark. This raspberry cocktail is so worth a try! I never visited before, but am way impressed now. read more

Great drinks, great music, friendly folks. In the weekly rotation. Ask the bartender for his recommendation. Won't disappoint.

Wow what a fun little dive. So hidden I can see as to why I had barley stumbled upon this place. Taken by a friend for the first time and I'm sure glad I followed her because this place is easily missable, located in a small shopping center almost through a residential neighborhood I'm sure I'm not the first to be surprised. Loved the local bands playing this is a great hangout for music lovers. Seems like they get a good deal of punk and metal like bands that id surely go back. Drinks are pretty well priced and plenty of seating depending on the night. Only cons: you definitely feel left out at the bar when not being a "local or regular" felt like it's easy for bartenders to lose themselves talking to the homies and forgetting they have people trying to order a drink. Then again it adds to the feel good vibes of the bar, just make sure your on the end of the conversations or you'll be waiting a minute. Lastly the security could be a little better enforced. Coming with a large group of girls there's always going to be the locals hollering at you, trying to join you at pool despite you politely declining 5 times etc. With that usually comes someone who gets a sense for the situation that intervenes. Instead we were stuck trying to have a girls night with them same 5 regulars all up In out business, one even so overly drunk that he was kind of being an ass. I'm one to be able to handle myself but I could tell my friends felt uneasy. Even on the way out a drunk dude was trying to follow us to our car, luckily I turned on drunk b**** Melissa mode and that stopped him, a little help though would have been appreciated, I mean hell I even get more help In Hollywood and that's just the day to day type of shenanigans. read more

Crappy new staff(maybe new management) have ruined this sick spot. You'll notice most reviews like this spot bc is a chill environment w fairly priced drinks, which I totally agreed with up until last night. I hadn't been back to the garage since last year, but I spent many fridays or Saturday checking out local bands in 2018 and liked the spot for chill bartender, cheap pitchers and good music. Thanks to the crap bartender last night, the average white dude with out a bear, if I ever come back it will be purely to support the local music scene, but the bar is not ever getting my $ for drinks again. First of all they completely got rid of the pitchers, a super solid deal, me and buddies would get a few lagunitas iPa pitchers for 18 or 20 bucks and share em through out the night in our regular 16 oz pint glasses. Now they are only selling these little cheater water cups for draft beer,which I doubt is a pint, probably not even 12 oz- and charging 6-11 bucks for the little crap.Strike one of the night, but I had history w the bar so I shrugged it off. Secondly, the bar tender was so lame to the bands, he was straight up telling em mid song that they're time is up and just overall killing the vibe being a schedule nazi, even though the music was done by like 11 30ish or 12. Now the small changes named above, were probably to try and make some more profit, which I could totally understand, but then the final straw came when I went to order a 2nd drink from thos crappy bar tender(again white dude w no beard, didnt catch a name). Me:how much is your stout? B Tender: 11 bucks and its 11% Me: oh snaps. Alright how much is a well liquor w soda. B Tender: depends on the drink but itll be 6-7 bucks. But the beer is super strong. Me: alright cool, lemme get a well whiskey and coke. *guy walks off to make the drink, comes back, places it in front of me* B Tender: that'll be $9 bucks Me: *look at him confused" B tender: theres a $2 entertainment fee (he says in a rude ass tone after seeing my confusion ) Me: but I just (...asked you how much it was and you said 7) Before I managed to finish my sentence, this jerk face who doesnt belong serving people, take the drink, puts it behind the bar says "whatever" and walks away. At this moment I'm annoyed, but I give em the benefit of the doubt and hope hes asking his manager if it's cool he charges me the $7 bucks he HAD QUOTED me. But nop, I wait for a minute and the guy never turns back to me and is just chatting it up w a coworker. Basically he got mad that i questioned the price of A DRINK HE HAD LITERALLY JUST TOLD ME WAS GOING TO BE 6-7 bucks. Like wtf. Who goes to a restaurant or anywhere, asks an employee the price and then gets charged more at check out? Shits unheard of. And in case they say in our defense, they do have a sign that says $1 ENTERTAINMENT FEE, something I've seen plenty at the garage; however, why Tf would you quote the price of a drink w out the fee? Like what is this, amazon and I'm paying for shipping at check out? That's ridiculous, just be honest and give the total price when people ask. Secondly, idk if the bartender was trying to hustle people, but he tried to tack on a 2 dollar fee to the price. Guy should not be working at the garage. Use to be a chill spot, punk/rock bands and cool people. Now it seems they're trying to just make money by charging like a regular bar in downtown, difference being it's usually not very filled with people and it's a shitty ass location next to homes and literally nothing else open at night around there.They're killing they're vibe trying to make more cash the lazy way, and I'm pretty confident they're going to lose a lot of loyal customers by keeping up this asshole style management(you know like how some tenders are at super packed clubs in vegas, except the garage is not nice looking, in a terrible location and rarely populated).Go back to being a relaxed, cheap dive bar. Being an uppity $9 well drink bar is ultimately going to cost you business in the long run. I for one, am not givin this bar my business again. read more

The Garage is an awesome venue and bar. I've seen some great bands there, most recently Shannon & the Clams and before that the Tijuana Panthers. They've had some other big names there as well like The Spits and Eyehategod, and I look forward to seeing some fun shows there in the future. The drinks are reasonably priced and the bartenders are always cool. Good shot + tall can deals. You can buy your tickets out front even though they usually tell you to buy online. The crowd is fantastic and it's nearly impossible to walk out of an event sober and composed, so plan for a DD or Uber because even if you plan on not drinking, you will. It's a rowdy and super friendly crowd and if you're not into that then it's probably not your scene. There's fights and yelling and pushing and the like. If you're a smoker or want to get outside, you're doomed to a teeny tiny, thin little patio-type thing in the back but everyone I've seen out there seems to get along pretty well and just kind of squeezes together. It's a great way to get to know one another! There's only one bathroom each for ladies and gents so the lines are LONG. Be prepared for at least a ten minute wait; oftentimes longer. Parking on the street typically fills up quickly so get there early or be prepared to walk for a bit. So yeah. Go to The Garage, watch cool music, get drunk, and yell things while you push your friends around. If you're cheap, sneak your booze in as nobody's checking and nobody cares. read more

Literally one of my favorite places to go. Wish they had a vending machine or something cuz I always get hungry here and the pizza place is closed by time I am ready for food. The atmosphere is chill, they play good movies during the week and the restroom is usually clean. Couldn't ask for much more from a dive. read more

What a great little bar. Awesome bar tenders. Great music. And friendly crowd. Local beers on tap. Amazing cocktails and the perfect setup with a karinas Mexican food next door. Soon as I walked in the door I felt welcomed. read more

This place has been recently remodeled and what a great change. The bathrooms can actually be used now. And the feel of it is so chill. It's just a place to relax. We need that here in Ventura. The drinks are good too. The owner is always around and making sure everything is alright. read more

Tempered, and verbally abusive stripper at The Garage in Ventura, CA charges $20 for a hot seat that he never performed on our friend. I kindly requested my money back and with rage he calls me "retarded," and throws the $20 into my hand. After telling my friends about the incident, he comes on stage and states he senses the woman in the room are shy to go up on stage with him. I went on stage requesting the microphone. When I grabbed the microphone he forcefully yanked the mic out of my hands snapping the cord off the mic. He was trying to prevent me from telling the crowd how he treated me. No woman should be verbally or physically abused as this stripper did to me tonight. It's a shame The Garage in Ventura,CA hired such unprofessional and abusive strippers for tonights event. #KTLA5 #ABCNEWS #NBCNEWS #msnbc @ktla5news @nbc @abc7la @univision @vc_star read more

The Garage - Pool Halls Near Me - Ventura, California

I come often, always stay longer than I plan because the staff is always welcoming. They regularly have events that i enjoy to attend. Super fun and comfortable environment. read more

Ghetto dive bar . It's was still fun but I did think the drinks were going to be stronger ! Most dive bars have strong drinks . I also seen someone perform there it was over fun. read more

Love this little dive bar always fun to hang out in. I wish the bathrooms were a little cleaner but then again it is a dive bar.

I have been to this bar twice now to support friends that were playing there. The atmosphere is cool and drinks are good but the security is awful. Needless to say I will never go back. A girl who was dancing on the dance floor accidentally knocked a guys glasses off and he proceeded to exit the dance floor and tell his gf how pissed he was. To which she nodded and rushed the girl dancing, shoving her violently to the ground. I watched the whole thing unfold and was disgusted as to how security handled the situation. After numerous people told the same story of what this women had done, they did nothing and said it was an accident. Clearly not a safe place to enjoy music. Never going back. read more

weirdest experience. This place is located in the midst of apartments and we almost passed it up. Great divey place to come see a band, had a good time even though I had no idea was I was getting myself into. read more

My new "home" bar. Here's the rundown: Monday bingo; free pool Tuesday; karaoke Wednesday; thirsty Thursdays ($1 pints until the keg is tapped); and trivia Sunday. How do you go wrong?! And the bartenders are awesome. Tip them well! I would ask that the jukebox is cheaper, though. Other thank that, I'm a pretty happy camper. :) read more

Great place to check out local bands without having to go downtown. Stiff, cheap drinks, awesome bartenders (Amy is my favorite) and fun crowd. read more