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.

Amazing drinks and vibes. Get a reservation to ensure no wait time. Rotating bar is amazing as…read morewell. I come here every time I visit SC. 10/10

The rotating bar & all the tiki decor are nice. We were disappointed to see that the Mr. McKay…read more drink came in the zombie cup, not the one pictured, since we ordered based on the picture. The AC was super cold (had to go get a jacket). It's very nice on the water side of the rotation, but dark on the other side. The Drinks were slow coming out. The crab dip was amazing. The chips that came were super crispy and delicious. The triumph and disaster cocktail was good and strong. Overall decent experience, but need more light on the back side of the rotation and need to serve drinks in tiki cups, as pictured on the menu. I've been to tiki bars all over the US, and proper tiki cups can add to aesthetics/experience

First place we've experienced after a disappointing full day in Santa Cruz, finally found a place…read morethat was dog friendly. The Oak & Ale was worth the stop. The bartender was chill, the beer was delicious, the music was very psychedelic and our dog was welcome. Our vibe totally! And the beer was a reasonable price!!

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

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

Came here for drinks after an afternoon at the Boardwalk. We'd had some not so good drinks already…read moreand were looking for a nice cocktail for a change of pace. The drinks here did not disappoint, they were well balanced and hit the spot perfectly. We perused the bar menu since that's all that was open at this point, and while so much sounded good, we ended up doing a custom order for a regular side of fries and the onion dip that normally comes with chips. Fries were good, not my favorite kind, but still good, and the onion dip was really great! The bar and surrounding area was open seating. We got a table close to the bar, so some ocean views just from a far. Service was friendly and even though it was pretty crowded, we never had to wait too long to be checked in on.

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?

Dinner here on June 29th was great. We made it in time for Happy Hour and ordered some apps and…read moredrinks. Both flavors of wings were excellent and their Mai Tai was one of the best I've had in a while. I've been here a handful of times over the years and I almost always order the Spicy Thai Chicken Bowl. This time, it was a bit bland and seemed like it was missing an ingredient in the sauce. The plantains that came with it were amazing though. I'll have to try a different menu item next time. Service was good and everyone was friendly and helpful. Ambience was nice and islandy. We had no problem finding parking on a weekday. There is street parking and a couple of parking garages nearby.

This was great, quick lunch stop! I stopped in on Friday during a holiday (Juneteenth) around…read more2:30pm and we were able to be seated right away. We got our food pretty quickly. I had the Jawaiian Jerk barramundi and I loved the level of spice in the jerk sauce. The fish was cooked well and was tender. My boyfriend got the Jawaiian Jerk pork plate and because he has a lower tolerance for spice he asked for the sauce on the side, which they were able to accommodate. He liked the sauce too, but used far less of it! The place is definitely Tiki-themed and the ambiance was casual and matched it. The lighting is pretty yellow which isn't too distracting inside but is why the pictures are very yellow--the food looked tastier in person!

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!