Blue Chalk Cafe

8/4/2010

Blue Chalk - I'll miss you.

Probably have been here 25 times in the past 13 years and it was a large comfy place to get together with friends over drinks, shoot some pool, or play a silly game of drunken shuffleboard on their shuffleboard table.

Sad to see the bars on this place locked for good.

Bottom line: Thanks for all the memories. RIP Blue Chalk.

11/29/2009

Awwwwww yeaaaaa clubbing in palo alto!!!!!!

Waiiiitttt...

That doesn't sound like it would be that good...

Oh wait. It isn't...

It's not that bad, but i shouldn't have to pay cover for a place like blue chalk and they need to open up another bar in there because it's sort of a ridiculous ordeal to get a drink. I could understand the difficulty at somewhere like XS in Vegas but not anywhere in Palo Alto

2/19/2009

• ROTD 6/13/2009

4 stars for HAPPY HOUR, 2 stars for clubbing... 3 stars seems like a happy medium.

There's happy hour at Blue Chalk from 4-9p with $3 beers, $3 well drinks, and half off appetizers!  It's a huge place, so it's really fun to come with co-workers or a big group.  It's usually not too packed for happy hour, so it's really chill -- perfect after a long day at work.  There are two pool tables upstairs, and there are plenty of widescreens around if you want to catch a game.

Going to Blue Chalk for clubbing is another story.  $5 cover, always way too crowded, drinks spilling everywhere, sweaty people pushing past you, and LONG LINES FOR THE BATHROOM (worst thing ever).  We usually bar hop in downtown Palo Alto at night, and this stop is the one I always dread.  The good thing is that other bars and clubs are right down the street.

• 

  Beers on tap at the upstairs bar

  Beers on tap at the upstairs bar
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  Pool tables

  Pool tables
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  The upstairs bar

  The upstairs bar
• See all photos from Mee-Sun Y. for Blue Chalk Cafe

5/9/2009

Bar food gone wrong
Lots of BEER PONG!
Usually crowded
Especially during happy hour

Come to drink and play
Hop over to NOLA to eat
A rowdy Thursday
Let's play some pong the next time we meet
Kindly accept the defeat

The whole first floor was filled with many tables of beer pong. I've only seen college students playing it on their front lawns on a Sunday afternoon. I definitely enjoyed the atmosphere here last Thursday! It felt like a massive beer pong competition! haha

However, their food is another thing. I don't recommend coming here to eat. I wouldn't even want to give it ONE STAR. The appetizers are 1/2 off during happy hour, but when the food turns cold, it's unpalatable!! The spinach dip solidified and so did the nachos!!! blehh -.-

Without the beer pong and happy hour this place would be dead!

7/14/2009

WACK

not much else to say about it

11/5/2009

Came here one night with a friend because we thought the dance floor would be packed and would offer a good time. It was definitely packed, but once again, we were probably the tallest people there in our heels, and definitely stood out being blonde and all.

Spent 5 bucks cover, which is fine because at least theres good music, and didn't have to spend any money on drinks...I guess it does pay off to be tall and blonde. who knew?

Eventually though, people were getting a little creepy/touchy feely/far to much for me, so blue chalk looses a star or two for that. Not their fault, just got annoying.

Overall, blue chalk is pretty fun. No idea how much their drinks cost, but they're good and strong so you can guzzel em down and dance the night away.

11/26/2008

I went here with my hubby for a 3DO reunion, (didn't have dinner though.)

The drinks were pretty cheap(it was happy hour), and we hadn't eaten in awhile, so we were forced to order something to munch one.

After perusing the menu, the healthiest thing I could find was grilled chicken skewers.

They were (luckily for me and my guy, since we both hate dark meat) white meat, and the sauce that came with them was pretty good.
If it hadn't been for the sauce they would have been pretty tasteless.
But, they weren't dry, and they tided us over until we went to dinner.

Mission accomplished!

I probably wouldn't ever come back, unless someone else wanted to.

While this place is ok, there's nothing outstanding about it. Basically, no reason to venture down to the Peninsula for the sole purpose of a revisit.

9/9/2009

I came on a Wednesday night, I thought it was cool that they had beer pong there. Seems like a lot of college kids were there having a competition or something. So my coworker and I decide to challenge these two girls in a friendly game of beer pong, loser buys winner shots. The beer was only $12, but the amount of fun we had was incredible. My coworker and I ended up winning and those girls bought us shots of Jagerbomb. It was definitely a fun night. They also had beer specials for $3 and a $3 special drink.

I don't even know if they do beer pong often, but I'm glad I went on that night because it definitely made my night.

6/18/2009

Friday and Saturday nights, after 10:30PM.

Downtown Palo Alto is not really known for its night life so there aren't that many venues for dancing. Blue Chalk is in downtown PA and is convenient to go to if you're eating at one of those bourgie places.

Quickie:
$5 for cover. Plenty of dancing space and on bumping nights, fills up quickly. Friends liked the drinks and there are plenty of options. To avoid the smoke, I'd dance elsewhere...

Constructive Criticism:
1. Smoking is allowed in the front of the establishment. Unfortunately, there are no windows and fans to dilute the 2nd-hand smoking. Since the dancing space is near the entrance, the smoke often seeps through. It's HELLA ANNOYING for people who don't like the smell of smoke and want to deal with the negative externalities of it.
2. The deejays do kinda suck - most of the music is too retro without a healthy dose of contemporary dance stuff. Occasional DJs will play recent stuff but it's usual to hear music from way-back-in-the-day. This is okay, but it gets...old.

6/12/2009

I think if you go clubbing in vegas too much, you'll realize that all the other places just don't compare.  We went here for an after-party for a friend's birthday and it wasn't too bad (considering most places in sanjose totally suck!)

So this place is a 2-story place..the bar's upstairs and I see that most people stay around there because they don't want to bring their drink to the dance floor (thank goodness because I hate it when people spill their drinks on the dance floor).  It's a cool place to mingle and enjoy the music, but when the music sucks, it just SUCKS.  The one time I went was just a-ok.  The music was good for a good 15minutes, then it got really bad and that lasted about 10minutes..then it went back to playing good music, then bad music..then half an hour before I left it was ALL bad.

I guess this place is a hit-n-miss place because my other friends were bragging about how great this place was...I guess I didn't have a very good first experience here..maybe I'll try it again!

Oh and of course, parking sucks around here so you have to walk a couple of blocks unless you get lucky. . .And I'll probably think Fri/Sat/Sun are the best nights to go.

7/2/2008

• Listed in Happy Hour in the South Bay

I can fully announce that the DJ sucks and the place...ghetto. Bathroom is filthy. Dancefloor...wtf? Drinks...you should definitely have the bartenders take a class because they came out watered down. Renovation please?

HAPPY HOUR INFO:

When: Mondays-Saturdays, 4pm-9pm

Drinks:
$3 well drinks
$3 beer
$3 Sangria

Food menu:
1/2 appetizers

10/21/2008

Great place to come for happy hour!!!  But the bartenders (esp one lady) are not pleasant at all.

As for a Friday/Saturday night, I'd recommend staying away....it gets super crowded (with sleezy/creepy guys). Worst part, $5 cover and $6 if you wanna go IN AND OUT??? not worth it. If you wanna dance, go to Rudy's, at least then it's free for girls... :)

2/12/2008

Having been here three too many times with my friends, I have to say I don't like this place at all. Supposedly the go to place in Palo Alto for dancing, the entire place needs some work.

Lets see... the Dj enjoys changing tracks randomly and constantly, the dance floor is dirty as hell with spilled drinks and my god the stairs, what a mess to even walk on. Bathroom for men is pretty disgusting, its as if no one working there even cares to try to clean up anything. Drinks are all served after 10pm in plastic dinky cups. Not a very enjoyable place overall and the crowd hardly makes up for it.

1/11/2010

This place is lucky to get ONE star!!!! I went there on a Friday night and it was a disaster. The hurricane I ordered wasn't made well so it tasted bad.
I then watched as another patron tried to explain how he didn't order two of the drinks on his tab and watched the blonde female bartender curse at him and call him a f**king @$$hole... The manager came over and wasn't very helpful to that patron. I thought the customer was the more important aspect of a business?
After that, there was a fight between a group of girls resulting in the cops being called.
Overall, way too much for me. I wasn't able to just go out and have fun there.

7/15/2009

I am not exactly sure why people hate San Jose so much that they run off to places such as Campbell, Los Gatos, and Palo Alto for their (drinking) nightlife experiences, especially since this venue is just downright awful.

This is easily the worst bar/club/lounge I have ever visited. Let me list a few reasons as to why this place sucks so much.

1) The layout: This is my main issue with the place. They have one bar in the center of the entire two-story venue. Yes, you read that correctly: There is one small place to buy alcohol in an extremely large venue.

With that said, the lines can get super song and you end up waiting in line for a drink on stairs. It's dangerous, and not to mention annoying that you have to wait as long as 30 to 45 minutes for a refill. What a buzz kill.

Did they ever think to set up some other places to buy booze around the venue?

2) Price of drinks: Wow. Are you really going to charge me $9 for a Jack and diet Coke and the put it in a plastic cup?

Whenever a venue puts their drinks in plastic, it says a lot about their clientele.

3) Clientele: A bunch a morons, buffoons, and floozies. Yawn.

I think those 3 reasons are good enough. Go ahead and enter at your own risk. When it comes down to it, this place is another mediocre stop in the crappy place called Palo Alto, which is like Santana Row's bastard cousin as it features overpriced and mediocre food and drinks; yet, has plenty of douches to go around.

I will never come back here. Ever.

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

Basura!

2/15/2010

This place has had it's ups and downs over the years. Way back in the day, it was a good place for you and the co-workers to chill, have a drink and pool. Had gotten to know one of the server/bartenders for a while and it was always a pleasure to have her slinging our drinks. It soon evolved into a heavy meat market vibe and then they started charging cover and doing these horrific dj nights. As you might expect the douche level rose astronomically and it was just no longer a good place to go. Now it's closed it's doors for good. Hopefully it can be reinvented into something cool again, because it is a nice space....

10/20/2009

id give it 2.5 actually.

Decent music

but other than that this place is just dirty.
dirty in all the ways a dance club can be dirty.

and the fact that a dirty ass bar in PALO ALTO is charging a cover is just mind boggling for me. Especially since much nicer bars/clubs in SAN FRANSISCO (a large CITY, where trend and fashion flourish)  DON'T charge you a penny to get in. I mean come on blue chalk....You're like a block away from IKEA, palo alto HIGH SCHOOL and facebook. Not walking distance from 5th ave.

but hey, if ur in palo alto and feel like dancing, and dont mind getting grinded on by ur local mechanic (who btw, came straight from work).... do it.

9/18/2009

2 WORDS! BEER PONG!

I came here on a Thursday night, I must say the place was so much fun with beer pong tables!  My fellow yelper Margaret and I were initially having an 1on1 grudge match of the century.  
.......
..........
Just right when I was about to beat her (yes : ] )
...............
....................
Two random dudes decided to challenge us, so we took upon their challenge and the free beer.. We ended up beating their A$$, and backed our shit up!

Overall it was a incredible fun place, the place could get really messy, but definitely go here if you want to play beer pong!

To all the bars that want more business:  Start putting in more beer pong tables!!!! woot!!!!

10/4/2007

I don't really know what it is about this place that makes me cringe, but every time I walk in the door I shudder.   Why I've been more than once I don't know.  

1 star for the Shuffleboard upstairs.

11/19/2009

Blue Chalk is a college bar. Sure you get some of the tech intelligentsia from nearby South Bay Area towns, but the clientele is basically comprised of younger folks interested in living a frat-boy lifestyle which they never did the first time around (since, everyone knows, engineers do not party hearty). I'm sure there are Stanford students who do go to Blue Chalk. Hey, even nerds need beer and shuffleboard.

When you walk in Blue Chalk, located on a somewhat remote area off the trendy University Avenue, your first thought is that Viking meed halls were cleaner and prettier. Thereafter, you are struck by the smell that falls somewhere between wet leather, dead fish, and stale barf. Thankfully it's none of the above, it's the calamari and nachos, which are delightful heart-attacks on a plate. Though, I've never seen so much fry coating fried squid. It's like they fried the squid, then fried it again just to thicken the crust. Yum.

Still, I love Blue Chalk. It's a terrific, low-key place to get together where the waitstaff are friendly and stay out of your way to the point where you have to waive your arms in the air and yell to get their attention.

This is now my favorite watering hole in Palo Alto. Reminds me of my college days when I studied and wished I were a frat-boy.