San Diego Reader

• Bar/Club | Liberty Station

The Hole Bar

• 2820 Lytton Street, San Diego, CA 92110 | Directions
• 619-226-9019 | Website

The Hole calls itself “a pretty much world famous dive” and — having proffered stiff ones since 1934 (then Murphy’s Beer Garden) — it may well be true. If the name doesn’t give away the tongue-in-cheek flamboyance of this Liberty Station–adjacent cocktail cabana, perhaps the placard nailed above the bar will. “Only sailors get blown offshore,” it reads — a wink and nod to the military/gay crowd that lend the Hole its special charm.

Previously dubbed the 19th Hole due to its proximity to the Sail Ho Golf Club, the bar sits in a depression dug in the early 1900s to access an aqueduct that ran between Mission Bay (then called False Bay) and San Diego Bay. Now, the stairs at the Hole’s entrance descend into a tropical garden patio complete with tabletop firepit, towering ferns, and a Buddha head poised among the foliage.