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Man oh man this place is cool. So cool in fact my group ended up here 3 times on Saturday. Great happy hour specials, great drink prices every other time, I was a happy booze hound.
In the dimly lit basement of the Monte Vista Hotel, there is just enough entertainment for everyone to go around. Between the TV for sports, pool tables, juke box, and live music on weekends, I could stay here for hours.
The best part of this place? The people. Patrons of all types come here to meet, and if your social like I am, they can end up in some pretty good conversations. Next time I'm up in Flagstaff, the Monte Vista will be my first stop.
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This place is great. I'm don't live there, but while in Flagstaff a few days while visiting the Grand Canyon this was a great place to chill at after a long day at the canyon.
The drinks are great and the vibe is just right. The bartender is attentive and the music he plays is awesome. I heard some BRMC while I was hanging out there.
Oh Monte-V, how I wish I were still young and could stand the crazy busy nights you entertain. These days though I am content with a drink here and there mid-afternoon. Bartenders are always fun and friendly in their own right. You can meet characters of all shades at any time of the day. The night crowd is simply too much for me to enjoy it here anymore. Always a struggle to get a drink.
Sadly, the Monte V's famous Bloody Mary's no longer carry the torch of glory...what happened? Base mix is still the same, but no longer any elaborate and yummy garnishes which really made the drink fabulous here. Last time I ordered one I had to ask for olives. They used to come with a giant spear loaded with olives, lemon, lime, celery, pickle, green bean, asparagus, mushroom...seriously a salad in a glass. I mourn this loss.
This, and Mia's are by far the best bars in Flagstaff, simply because they get the mood right.
First off, you need to step down into the Monte V, which is a positive. Broken couches, high tops, and a long wooden bar with the perfect lighting help complete the experience.
Good selection of alcohol, and entertaining/talented barkeeps make this place excellent.
We stopped by the night of the Big Gay Festival, an hour before last call. It was too crowded, sticky, and just not my scene. The bartenders were grumpy, but that could be explained by an unusual rush with a few big events happening that weekend. The drinks were a bit more expensive by Flag standards and weaker than our last stop. I'd rather be at Mia's with the hippies, but the Monte V certainly isn't a bad place to hang out.
I was sitting in the back corner with two female friends, a couple of nine years. We were approached by a very drunk man in his late 20's:
"So.... Are you normal or one of the freaks?"
All I had to do was flip my wrist at him and he wandered off. Problem solved.
Rather than announcing any last call warning or even saying "Hey, we'll be closing soon", they just started shouting "OUT! NOW!! WE'RE CLOSED!!" and began pushing people out the narrow hallway. Not cool.
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Love the V.
You don't go here for the fancy drinks, or historic atmosphere. You go to the V for music and to tie one on. Since the smoking ban, stale beer is the prominent assault on the olfactory senses. Still, it's got that dirty, dive feeling that you either love, or hate.
There is a small stage and some pool tables upstairs if you need entertainment with your booze. If you need any more entertainment, the OTB should help you piss away the money you don't spend on cheap drinks.
This place is just random. Total dark, dive bar. It's hit or miss with the crowd, but it's the most diverse crowd in town. Going here kind of feels like visiting a different town. It is a different world, for sure.
The bar below the Monte Vista Hotel is probably the best bar in Flagstaff. If only because of its atmosphere. It has a leisure room with pool tables, foosball, videos games and a second bar. A stage that supplies the locals with music and karaoke (Tuesday nights). And my favorite, a traditional sit down bar with Jukebox and video poker. The staff are friendly and generous and there is almost always a beer and drink special. For those, who like me, drink on a budget but still like to quench their thirst.
The Monte V has become my favorite bar in downtown Flagstaff.
There persists the "never know what you're gonna get" element, which they play off as a strength as well as any bar I've ever seen.
The live music is usually strange collections of NAU kids and locals. It is interesting, if nothing else, and the drinks here are stiff and cheap. Covers are almost a non-entity, and there are plenty of ways to entertain yourself once inside.
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A bar, with a skilled (cute) bartender, a stage and dance floor, a game room with eight pool tables, video games and Dance Revolution, everything you need for a hotel bar. The place gets busy about 10pm and most tables are taken, "seating karma" helped and we found seats "up-front", too bad we had no "band karma". Two bands on the playbill; the first, Dry River Yacht Club, never got off the dock, after what seemed an hour of tuning up. I would suggest a baseline,however they did put out a good Marconi "cover". Couldn't wait for the second band.....no really, we couldn't wait. We put on our coats and, come to find out did what the locals do, headed to the next bar, then the next. Overall a good hotel amenity.
Great place to hang out with friends and get hammered.
Pretty decent bar with a nice selection of beers, though they seemed to get a little snarky when I asked if they had any Oak Creek on tap. Um, okay, I'll take a Sunshine Wheat then. Granted, we were here about happy hour time on a Thursday, but it just seemed a bit boring. Maybe because it had been built up so thoroughly by my fiance as a bar i would loooooove. I would certainly give it another go. Perhaps on a Friday night when the scene kids invade. The long bar and the impression that you are sitting in the galley of a submarine is way fucking cool. So is their jukebox ... and on it i put a threeplay of Willie, The Cure, and Franz Ferdinand. Solid options, except that their volume was set at about level 3 and it was pretty pointless for anything other than background ambient noise. Oh well.
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Best bar in Flag, I'd say, whether you're a local or visiting for the weekend. An eclectic crowd, cheap/stiff drinks, I've never paid a cover (when they do charge I believe it's like $5) and there's always a live band(s) on the weekends.
I came here to see a friend's band play, and while they set up, I bellied up around 9:30 with a $4 vodka/cranberry with an alcohol-to-mixer ratio that was worthy of the Time Out Lounge. The bartenders were just how I like them - pretty, sweet and efficient (don't forget that heavy pour, too!). A girl about my age struck up a conversation with me by complimenting my necklace (Flagstaff has such a different vibe than Tempe!) and we chatted until about 10, when the crowd started picking up and it became standing room only at the longer/larger of the two bars.
This place is roughly made up of three rooms - the first contains the aforementioned bar and is the first room you go through in this L-shaped bar. Once you get your "walking around to check out who's here drink," you sort of filter through to a larger, open area where the small stage is - there are a couple of tall tables for sitting or setting your drink on while you watch the band play, or you can stand right in front of the stage.
Hang a left and head up a small set of stairs into a more lounge setting, with low tables/chairs, couches, pool tables, darts and a smaller bar.
The juke box before the live music started was, from what I recall, a good and eclectic rock mix (maybe I heard some Clash and then someWhite Stipes?) and the live music were both out of town bands that were completely different from one another, but rocked just the same. The first was an all-girl electronica/pop group (a la Le Tigre) from Seattle, the other a rock/country joke band that favored songs about the Devil (or meeting girls at the county fair and taking a romantic drunken drive) from Tempe.
If this sounds like the strangest mish-mash of people, music and atmosphere, just remember, it's Flagstaff and it just somehow all comes together for good times that you vaguely recall through third party renditions the next day.
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OK, it is kinda smelly, but not as bad these days now that there's no smoking allowed. I miss the V.
The Monte V is a pretty cool place. It can be really crowded at times but they usually have something going on. The bartenders aren't bad. The prices are pretty good and the drinks are never tiny. I like the decor but it's getting really shabby and needs to be redone. There's always a wide variety of people and it's pretty big, though if it's crowded you're kinda screwed on seating or anywhere to stand that isn't in the middle of the floor in the way.
Monte V was one of my favorite bars when I lived in Flag. You almost never have to pay a cover, the drinks are cheap, and you can usually find interesting area bands playing there.
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I poked my head in. That was it. There was no time to stop in to check the place out before dinner. But, there wasn't any cover and they had 2 bands playing that night. Cool atmosphere, plenty of people already chattering away around 8 p.m. I could hang here.
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We drank there one Friday night and had a great time. Interesting crowd, good bartenders. The martini I had was definitely one of the best I've had in America. The door guy was a bit of a bitch, carding everybody (even people clearly into middle age); and I saw one Latino guy get thrown out in an unnecessary way (the guy had too much to drink, but he was aware of this and was getting ready to leave - he certainly didn't need to be shown the door in the way he was). So basically a nice dive bar experience, but tainted by what seemed like a little too much agro on the part of the door-bitch and perhaps a certain intolerance to friendly drunkenness (whether there was any racism involved I don't really know, but I did get the impression that a white guy wouldn't be thrown out so quickly - but I hesitate to say this as it was only an impression).
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Monte Vista Lounge is a bar at the bottom of the historic Monte Vista Hotel in downtown Flagstaff. This is the place you will see the most diverse crowd of any Flagstaff bar. The popularity of the "Monte V" waxes and wanes, but on some nights it can be the best party in town. They have some great live music, usually a DJ or some sort of rock show. There are two bars, pool tables, foosball, and comfy couches and tables. College kids go to this bar, but it does not have a college bar feel. If you hate that "college bar" feel, maybe you call yourself a "hipster," then the Monte V is the place for you. Oh, they do not accept plastic here, so bring your cash.
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Flagstaff, AZ
Category: Pubs
Flagstaff, AZ
Category: Lounges
Flagstaff, AZ
Category: Hotels
Flagstaff, AZ
Category: Pubs
Flagstaff, AZ
Category: Comic Books
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