Happy Hour:
Mon – Fri 5-7 pm
Drinks: $1 off draft beer and wells,
$2 Hamms, Olympia and PBR,
Food: $5 wings, tempura fries, $2
friesPool tables: $4 per hour during happy
hour
Whiskey Wednesday: $5 Jameson or Jack
Daniel or $10 Whiskey Flight
Monday: burger and fries for $7
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Julie's Review
The Surf City
Billiards Bar and Café is located above the Blue Lagoon on Pacific Avenue and
is fast becoming a hot spot in town.
They offer pool, darts, shuffleboard, ping pong, foos ball, a full bar,
good eats and excellent service. This is
a fun place!
Happy hour is
daily Mon-Fri from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. I
always appreciate a happy hour until 7:00 p.m. and since I was delayed on
Highway 17, I really appreciated it this time.
We were
quickly served at the bar by Kelley who is the manager of Surf City. He offered
friendly, attentive five-shot service all night. He is obviously proud that the bar and
kitchen have tripled their sales in the past year when the new management took
over.
Their happy hour
specials are $1 off beers and wells (wells are normally $5). According to the sign downstairs they also
offer $2 PBR, Hamms and Olympia. In addition Wednesdays is whiskey night and
they offer a $5 Jameson or Jack Daniel and a $10 whiskey flight.
I decided to
start off with a glass of water and a rum and diet coke. Kelly asked if I wanted lemon in my water and
lime in my coke. It is nice to have a
bartender paying attention like that.
The drinks came quickly and we moved on to ordering food.
The happy
hour food items are: $5 wings – spicy buffalo, honey siracha or teriyaki; $5
tempura fries: zucchini, green beans or dill pickle and $2 French fries. I always appreciate a healthy choice on happy
hour but this is a pretty basic burger, wings and fries place – so don’t come
here if are trying to diet – Oops!!
We both
wanted wings so Jo ordered the buffalo wings and I tried the honey
siracha. Kelley recommended the zucchini
tempura fries and I wanted to try the tempura pickles, so we got both. The full menu also includes burgers and sandwiches
ranging from $9-$13. Jo had come on Monday
when the burgers are on happy hour for $7 and said she was quite pleased with
her burger.
The other fun
thing about their happy hour is that pool is ½ off, so only $4 dollars per
hour. They have a ping pong tourney on
Thursday nights and a beer pong tournament on Sunday nights. The best news is the darts, ping pong, shuffleboard
and foos ball are free all the time – can’t beat that!
Our wings and
tempura arrived. The buffalo wings were
delicious. Jo had them on Monday night
and came back for more and we all know what a buffalo wing connoisseur she is! The honey siracha wings were tasty, sweet and
spicy, but I liked the buffalo wings better.
Since it was
Whiskey Wednesday I decided to try a whiskey drink. Kelley whipped up a Kentucky Mule
–lime-mint-ginger beer with their well whiskey – 76 Rye. He was out of mint,
but it was a delicious, refreshing drink.
Jo turned to beer at this point.
The pool
tables were quite busy during happy hour, but the dartboards were free. We got some darts from Kelley and had our
choice of boards. Jo and I played Around the World trying to hit 1 then 2 then
3, etc.
We decided to play up to 10
because we didn’t want to be there all night.
It had been a long time since either of us had shot darts – but we
warmed up and did progress around the board.
Next was foos
ball. A few years back Bill and I had a
foos ball table at home. Nothing can make you feel more spastic and
uncoordinated than foos ball, but it also makes you laugh so hard, it’s worth
the frustration. It was the same with
Jo. If you had four players it might
have been easier, but our little guys spun helplessly in circles while the ball
rolled futilely under their little blue feet.
I’m bad at this game, but love it is because it’s so much fun and a great metaphor for life. Spinning in place, not quite in the right place at the right time, but every now and then you get your shot and it feels great!
I’m bad at this game, but love it is because it’s so much fun and a great metaphor for life. Spinning in place, not quite in the right place at the right time, but every now and then you get your shot and it feels great!
In sum – I
loved Surf City (now don’t get it confused with the Surf Rider Cafe, which
almost happened). Surf City offers excellent
service, good drinks, great wings and zucchini tempura to die for. Free darts, ping pong and foosball, what’s
not to love? Head on down after work
when you need a giggle and tell Kelley that J & J sent you!
Julie’s Rating: 4 shots
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Jo's Review
Well I had a groupon for the Surf City Billiards that was
about to expire so I ended up going on a Monday night by myself, spent my
groupon and left. I had a burger and took home some chicken wings. Both were so
tasty I told Julie we have to review this place so here we are on a Wednesday
to try out happy hour at Surf City Billiards & Café.
I got there a little early and Julie was stuck in traffic
so I started taking pictures of the outside. While I did a number of people
started pouring into the place. I’m
thinking, wow what’s going on tonight. So I head up the stairs, the place is
above the Blue Lagoon. So you turn the corner and enter a large open area. To
the left we have some tables and chairs, ping pong, darts along the wall and
high windows that look out onto Pacific Avenue.
The bar is straight ahead and
on the right, almost 2/3’s of the room are pool tables, with a shuffle board
and one fuse ball table thrown in for good measure. The pool tables are busy and
we settle in at some seats at the bar.
One of the owners Kelley is behind the bar and he gives us the lowdown
on happy hour, Monday – Friday 5-7pm. The have $1 off on beers and well drinks,
$5 wings and tempura fries, $2 regular fries and $4 a hour at the pool tables
which explains why they were all full.
So it seems that Wednesday nights are whiskey nights and
Julie decides to try out some fancy whiskey drink while I start out with a well
cosmo. The owner is very friendly and is very service orientated. He has
co-owned the place a little over a year now and it seems to really be working
out well for them. He presents a very welcoming feeling and it gives the whole
place a good vibe. Since I’m a wing fan I go for the buffalo style and Honey
sarrachi wings. We decided to try the tempura fries which are zucchini fries
and Julie spotted tempura pickles on the menu so we had to try those too.
The drinks are going down just fine and I decide on beer
after my cosmo, an amber draft, Julie sticks with the whiskey theme. Once the
food arrives we dive right in. The wings are just as good as I remember. Juicy
and spicy with the blue cheese dipping sauce.
I missed the celery a little though; they should probably add a few
sticks of that to the plate.
The honey sarrachi ones were good too but I like
the buffalo ones the best, that’s what I grew up on. Julie who likes things
more on the sweeter side liked the honey wings, but I’m pretty sure both of us
preferred the buffalo style ones.
The hit of the show though were the tempura
fries. Those zucchini fries got soft from the deep fry and the batter was
light. They just melted in your mouth. I was not as impressed with the tempura
pickles. I think it’s mostly a matter of taste for me, I don’t think I like
fried pickles. These pickles were the wedge kind and I think they would have
been better had they been thinner. Maybe cut that wedge in half again then fry
them. We were having a grand time eating
and drinking, the happy is alive and well here.
After we had filled our bellies we started looking around
at the activities in the place. Julie and I both suck at pool and most of the
tables were taken anyways so we decided on darts. Well what a wonderful
surprise to find out that darts, ping pong, shuffle board and the fuse ball
table are all free to use. Since I’m such a cheapskate it appealed to me quite a
bit. We got ourselves another round and headed for the dart board.
Come to find out we suck at this too but it
was fun. Julie ended up winning (I let
her wink, wink), and we moved over to the fuse ball table. Julie has fond memories of fuse ball from her
earlier days….I do not, never was good at it, always was trying to grab the
other poles because they kept darting our towards me.
It was a laugh a minute though. Turns out
were not very good at this game either. We laughed more than we played it seemed
and we were starting to get some looks from laughing so loud. Didn’t matter
though because it was fun.
So all in all Surf City billiards and Café is a happening
spot. I enjoyed the food and drinks and it’s nice to actually do something in a
bar besides just sitting around eating and drinking. I always enjoy throwing
darts even though I suck at it. Perhaps next time I will try my hand at the
shuffle board. I definitely recommend this place for a fun time. It has the fun
and friendly atmosphere you’re looking for in a billiards activities place and
the food and drinks are great. Looking
forward to trying out other specialty nights at this place, and they have quite
a few different nights of specials.
Jo’s rating: 4.5 shots
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