Catacombs Bar

Cheap booze. Bar games. And a waitress that starts out acting like a big bully, but ends up being like a sweet Bonny Lass. At least we left with a decent impression of Boulder.

Not one for night clubs or anything fancy… This places suits my taste for dive bars. Pool tables, dingy lighting, inexpensive drinks; all the things a girl could ask for from her local social meeting place.

This place is pretty fun. It has multiple rooms so you can escape the mobs. There are arcade games and a dance floor so you can stay entertained. The drinks are pretty standard, nothing special.

Treated with absolute disprespect from the staff. Drinks are disgusting. The smell is even worse and I feel horrible that the Boulderado guests have to deal with this place. I will not be going back.

Love this bar! My favorite in Boulder.
How do I put this politely…
I’m a college student, but I really like to get away from a certain (loud, can’t handle their liquor, going out to, uh… get it on) type of college kid. I know this isn’t the best bar for avoiding that in the world, the state, probably even the city… But it isn’t as bad as most of the others. Good drinks, expectable prices, and lots of things to do.
If you feel like maybe you’re looking for the same kinda atmosphere that I am, I’d go here and avoid Absinthe House like the black plague.

They ping pong table is back!!!

Cheap, cheap drinks. $ 2 wells, $ 3 cal drinks, and $ 2, $ 3, & $ 4 beers depending on the type. Ridiculously cheap. $ 18 tab when I left? Im from Chicago and that sounds like a tasty drink and a half at a nice place.
Mind you, the stench of stale beer took me a half hour to get used to… once your nostrils have adapted, I really enjoyed the vibe. Bartenders were, a local at the bar (and not a creepy you need to find a job and teeth one) gave us some great advice. Tons of games including pool, table tennis, and air hockey – all a dollar.

Great bartenders and fabulous drink specials.
Please be kind and bring cash to the bar. There’s nothing more annoying than everyone around you buying $ 3 drinks with credit cards.

Jesus Christ, Boulderites, this is not «dive» bar. Dive bars have crusty Vietnam vets and signs that say «No Fighting» or «No Gambling on the Pool Tables». They are full of guys who are regulars solely because they’ve been kicked out of every other bar within walking distance of their section-​8 housing block. Dive bars also have strong drinks, because that’s why people are there: to get drunk.
Catacombs is not a dive bar. No one has ever tried to stab me at Catacombs, and they generally seem to frown upon my open consumption of cocaine. The two dollar cocktails sound like a great idea until you have to drink thirty of them to get drunk. Seriously, that’s not a Dylan Thomas-​esque boast: I once drank thirty of those things and left feeling no more invincible or irresistible to women than when I came in. At least the paint-​thinner they serve at «dive» bars will get you hammered…

Your typical dive bar with really cheap drinks!!!
There’s a foosball table, pool table, and karaōke area. Expect to mingle with a younger crowd — college students and recent grads, mixed with some business people who are staying at the hotel

Came here for a gimmick: $ 1 prime rib sliders on Fridays. They weren’t sliders, since they weren’t burgers. They are more like slices of roast beef in between burger buns. They were good nonetheless. And they came with horseradish cream. This place also has a decent selection of draft beer, and one of the best arcade games ever: Turtles in Time. Although, beware, it only the slot on left took our quarters. All the other slots are them.

Definition for dive bar:
Per Google:
A drinking establishment is a business whose primary function is the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises.
Per Urban Dictionary:
A well-​worn, unglamorous bar, often serving a cheap, simple selection of drinks to a regular clientele.
Per Jeff:
a casual and cool place that serves real beer, real drinks by bartenders that know what they are doing. It could be a little scary or a little dirty, but you know you are going to get a good drink at a good price. A place where you can hide out for a while from the real world.
Catacombs fits the bill — on all fronts.
Staff there is usually a little intimidating, but always friednly once you say hello.
Another nice feature is the various areas and rooms (thus the name).
— You don’t like karaōke? fine, go to another area.
— You want to watch the game on the TV? Fine, go to the area with the TV
— You want to play a video game? they have an area for that.
— Looking for a dark corner to canoodle with the person you just met? I’m sure there is a spot for that too.
So I am sure just about anyone can find a place in The Catacombs that they like. Well, maybe not my parents. But they will be upstairs in the Corner Bar of the Hotel Boulderado having a nice glass of Malbec.

Dropped in for a couple of beers early evening. You’d think it was a shady dive bar, however, upon entering it’s got a nice speakeasy sorta feel. Being from Texas it was comforting seeing Shiner sitting on tap.
What reeled me in was the ping-​pong tables. Who needs pool or foosball when I can slap the hell out of a plastic ball and drink everytime I miss a point.

I absolutely love this place — it’s the best kind of dive bar. Compared to the sketchy-​as-​hell Downer, Catacombs just feels cool.
Yeah, it gets crowded on the weekends (who doesn’t love $ 2 wells on a Saturday?) when the PBR-​drinking hipsters show up early, but the scene eventually ‘evens out’ and it seems like everyone has a fun time here.
If you’re not in the mood to be crammed around the bar check out the games in the back — a nice reprieve from the main area.
I just really love the atmosphere at Catacombs and it’s perfect day drinking spot on Sundays.

Cheap! Rad staff and fun. Don’t talk to Adrian though. He’s a creep.

If this bar was in Denver, I would probably live there.
We went on Sunday night. $ 1 well drinks. Yes, I said $ 1 well drinks. How do they make money, you might ask? I have no idea. And these weren’t the week, watered down drinks I’ve become accustomed to at cheap bars– they were strong and poured well. Moving on. $ 2 microbrew pints. Whaaaa? Again, yes, this is for real.
See also: free popcorn. See also: 90’s hiphop on the stereo. See also: cheap yet delicious food from the hotel restaurant upstairs. To top it all off, the service was great.
I’m going to go cry in a corner now and contemplate ways to afford living in Boulder just so I can go to this bar.

Catacombs was the only bar I went to on a recent trip to Boulder. I had never been to Boulder before (LOVED the city while I was there for the weekend), I don’t know the bar scene, so I can’t compare this place to other bars on Pearl Street. I can just review this place for what it is… and I liked it.
I actually kind of liked the atmosphere. Divey, lots of space, pool tables, dance floor (for those who are into that), arcade games, and booze. And CHEAP booze at that!
I had just gotten off a plane and met some ladies here for the tail-​end of a bachelorette party. Now I’m usually not above drinking well liquor, but I decided since it was near the end of the night and I was only gonna be having a drink or three I’d go with Absolut & soda and they were only five bucks! Well vodka drinks were only two bucks! I bought the bride to be a shot of Maker’s (her fave), and once again… five bucks! The bartender also had no problem serving her, in her penis shot glass!
There was actually kind of a douchey crowd when I was there, and to be honest a BIG reason why I liked this place was the cheap booze (if it wasn’t for that this place might only get three stars). Cheap alcohol is the equivalent to service with a smile in my book. It makes up for shortcomings that a place might have…

As grad students, we need to let off steam during the week. Thirsty Thursdays is how we do it.
Thursdays we’ve been trying the local Pearl Street Pub scene, and we went to catacombs last night. We chose it for the cheap well drinks (some as low as $ 1.50), pool and thursday quiz night.
Early in the evening it is pretty dead, which is nice for playing 10 games in a row of pool. The tables’ felt is pretty beat up, and the cues are thrashed however, so don’t expect it to be a pretty game.
We also enjoyed pingpong and sitting on the huge leather couches they have in the ping pong room. Once we were kicked off the ping pong table, and we got settled into two teams (we had 14 people), we played quiz night.
Despite the projector breaking and few other starting hiccups, the quiz master is pretty fun and quiz night was a blast. Definitely something we will be doing again.

I used to hang out in Catacombs a lot when I lived in Boulder. There were a few reasons for this. The first is they have fast Ms. Pac-​Man and air hockey in the same room. This equals hours of entertainment for me. Second they had drinks specials that seemed to be aimed at getting me good and drunk for a fraction of other bars’ cost. Third, it was dark and divey and kind of grimey. I’m a dive bar girl at heart so between this place and the Sundowner I was set in Boulder.
We went back recently and Pac-​Man and the drinks remain the same, but Catacombs is all bright and redone so it looks kind of respectable. While I appreciate the owners making what can only be seen as improvements in most people’s eyes I shed a little tear for the old Catacombs. I doubt I’d spend half as much time here if I lived in Boulder now. But, it’s still a good college bar.

The theme of catacombs is cheap drinks. Each night of the week is a different special but it is all a variation of «whoa, did they make a mistake? Why is my tab only $ 10?!?
Catacombs is by no means a dive bar. If you think this is a dive bar, you have lived in Boulder too long. It is a college bar, totally packed on the weekends, but a great place to chill with friends on a weeknight. Somehow it seems less sketchy without the smoke haze, but I am glad to see nothing else has changed over the years. Also a great place for pool and old school arcade games.