Duffy’s Tavern

Not bad

The best little dive bar in Chico! They actually get five stars in my book for vibe, juke box and beers… but on paper they get four stars because their bathrooms are ick — hope you have strong thighs, cause you’ll need to hover.

Great place, good music on the jukebox, pool table in back, pleasant company, overall great experience! We came for one and stayed until two!

Don’t know if it was the Jameson coursing through my body or the atmosphere but I loved this place! Drinks are strong, ball games are on, what more could you ask for?! They make a mean Irish Mule!

Best Jukebox in town. Most eclectic crowd.
Washed up alcoholic attorneys and unemployed contractors discussing politics by day: hipsters, addicts and other assorted weirdos talking about themselves at night.
Check out one of three co-​Ed restrooms where no one bothers to lock the door, ever. Cleanest is in the back by the pool tables.
They used to be covered in sticker art but have been repainted and stickers are sadly being removed regularly.
Decent shows on occasion, and the live Irish music on Fridays is fun for 30 minutes, though it lasts for hours.

The ultimate local dive bar. Wednesday night dance nights are always a good time! Nice and cavernous with beautiful bartenders.

Dive bars are a passion. Some day I’m going to cash in the boatload of Delta Medallion Love I’ve amassed so I can tour the best of the best.
And when I do, Duffy’s will be a must do stop.
After a long drive from The Perfect that is San Francisco, I needed to find a place to suck up the local Chico culture, to get a handle on what faced me for the week. A quick Unilocal Check said I gotta do Duffy’s Tavern, so off I went.
For me, the key factor in a Perfect Dive bar is the mix of humanity, and more importantly, the speed with which I can get into some serious Dive Bar Conversation.
Duffy’s hit the clock at about 5 seconds. SCORE!
First for the logistics. The wait staff is superb, attentive, and prompt. My glass was never empty. When I initially asked for the selection of IPA on tap, the answers came swiftly and accurately. What could be better?
The ambience is pure Dive Bar Exquisite. Don’t change a thing. Ever.
The mix of humanity was off the chain. Chico hipsters with PBR? Check. Regular working Joes in to watch the game on the huge number of televisions? Check. Interesting stories and conversations? Check.
My Giants were on two televisions in an epic struggle against the Nationals, the locals were all aglow in Orange. We talked sports. We talked trash. It was if I was already one of The Boys.
For an East Coaster that spends way too much time on airplanes, this whole atmosphere gave me a sense of home, a sense of belonging. A sense that I was one of them. And that is way too rare these days.
Thanks, guys, I had a blast. If you are from out of town and wondering how to spend an hour or two in Chico, think no more and point your mode of transport towards Duffy’s, you will not be disappointed. After a minute or two, you will no longer feel like you are a patron at a bar, but rather a newly found friend with stories to share.
5 Stars and it hits the Must Do List.

As a professional drinker, story wrangler and shooting the shit artist one thing you can tell about the quality of a place is the respect the locals give to each other and the visitors that join them in libation .
Duffy’s is an epic dive bar with a great juke box, cold ass AC, cold ass beer, cool ass patrons and mother fuckin cheap prices .
If you love dive bars don’t listen to the other whiney reviews about this place, it is awesome in awesome sauce located in awesomeville.

Just your local, average watering hole. I usually stop in for a beer or two and head on to other bars during my ventures.

I would like to give it five stars, but as someone who has been in the bar industry for a while, I have to give it three. I like coming to Duffy’s because it is not filled with bro’s and the drinks are strong and reasonably priced. However, if you want anything other than a beer or whisky coke, you might be disappointed. Management has a habit of hiring incompetent, yet attractive bartenders. Hiring someone who doesn’t know how to make a scooby snack?! Give me a break!

The night before my cousins wedding, we had a fun little excursion around downtown Chico. We decided to have this place be our nightcap and we would call a cab from there. We walked in to a practically empty bar and ordered a quick beer and a shot of Fireball. The shot she poured was huge and the beer was cheap. I am definitely partial to dive bars and always have a fun time! The guy at the door called a cab for us and they showed up right away. Friendly people, good tunes on the jukebox, and cheap drinks! How can you go wrong with that?

This place is just a great, classic, country dive bar.

Everyone that says this is their favorite bar just says that because they know a bartender there –_​-​;; My thinking is, why pay Banshee price for a Bear drink? If I want a fancy drink I’ll go to the Banshee, and if I want a «Chico» drink I’ll go to the Bear, ’nuff said

After all the stories my boyfriend recounted about his infamous pub crawls I had no idea what to expect from Chico bars. With a «though the drinks are cheap, they are also mighty» warning as we set off for Duffys, I was surprised to find the bar both clean and friendly. The rumors proved to be true as we watched them fill our glass with 90% vodka and 10% soda water and demand a whopping $ 3.50. We whisked our cocktails to a quiet room in the back with open seating and a pool table. After the 8 ball fell in and our glasses emptied we venture back to the bar for round two. The bartenders were friendly and patient, even after the liquor began to set in. With friendly patrons, competent staff, stiff drinks, and cheap prices– Duffy’s is the perfect place to start the festivities or bring the evening to a close.

I’m not cool enough nor do I think myself more intelligent than everyone else… I also don’t like hiking my pants up to my knees to wade through waste and water to squat over unisex toilets. The staff is nice, I am not a fan of a lot of the clientele. The place often reeks of a combination of vomit, cat box and arm pit. An interesting mix but disgusting at any rate. Way too many people for such a small bar. Clearly I am in the minority with this opinion but oh well!

Dive bar that has a rougher crowd and not many places to sit and talk when full.

I made a return visit to Duffy’s Tavern recently to see if ownership has gotten rid of skanky psuedo-​intellectual girl bartenders. This has long been the problem with Duffy’s — the girl bartenders at this place all think they are Uma Thurman, they spend what seems like hours «eyeing» you over before they deem to wait on you. Most of the time these bartenders are in an animated conversation about some serious academic topic they pretend to know something about. Last year one of these drip tatooed lady bartenders was waxing on about «Long Days Journey into Night» and I felt compelled to lash out, «you know nothing of Eugene O’Neils work. You are a complete idiot. How about serving me a cocktail, isn’t this a bar? After this remark this awful lady bartender — festooned with tatoos that had been strategically placed on her body to hide the fact she wasn’t shapely — she had the nerve to 86 me from Duffy’s! She actually kicked me out of the bar. She lashed out, „We don’t serve frat boys here buster. Why don’t you go to Normal Street you big fat –frat slob!“. After that comment two members of the Pub Scouts — who are local homeless guys that play bad music at Duffy’s frequently — wrestled me to the gound. As I was being pulverized one of them said, „We don’t like guys coming in here who critisize the intellectual abilities of Duffy’s psuedo-​hipster girl bartenders. They are an essential part of what makes this over-​rated dive work. What Duffy’s is all bout is rude bartenders, and our bad band — the Pub Scouts, which plays bad music, over bad conversation being made by bad –boorish intellectual types. Got it buddy!“ With that the Pub Scout — his name was Boris as I recall — got in two really good punches. I then crawled out of the bar bleeding profusely.
On this visit the minute I entered the bar I was immediatly escorted out, I didn’t even get a chance to wait five minutes to get waited on. Apparently they have my picture on the wall, and there are standing orders to keep me out.». Geez, all I ever wanted when previously visiting Duffy’s is a cocktail in a timely manner delivered by a friendly bartender. Is that a lot to ask? I guess so because I’m on the permanent 86 list. So yes, I have a serious difference of opinion on Duffy’s. Many believe this is a really cool bar full of cool people, but I think it’s a hideous gyp joint that features terrible bartenders, bad music, and junkie looking décor.
Duffy’s makes me want to barf.

A. There is a velvet print of Elvis behind the bar.
B. There is a block print of Jesus with a baseball bat to the right of the bar.
C. A & B are empirical proof that this is a rad bar.
I grew up in Chico but moved to the Wine Country before I came of legal drinking age. This weekend I lived out a long-​held dream: I had a Goose and soda with my cousin at Duffy’s. Okay, I had two. Or was it three…
Duffy’s pulls off being a dive bar without being terribly dirty and scary. And that, my friends, is a delicate balance that I truly appreciate.
People were friendly, bathrooms were reasonably clean, and the drinks were probably expensive in comparison to other places in Chico but about right for where I come from. Oh, and the door guy was nice and even suggested what «signature» Duffy beverages I should have since it was my first visit. Nice kid.
Duffy’s will be my new go-​to bar when I’m in Chico.

This.
Place.
Where to began?
I often call Duffy’s «The Back 9 of drinking» because its the sort of place you go when you are severely inebriated or you’re an alchie. Both states of mind kind of signify «the end of the game». Know what I’m saying? Get the metaphor?
Anyways, this place does have some positives. They are:
*Cheap cheap cheap cheap drinks
*STIFF drinks
*weird cult like following
*They do music venues & all sorts of events. which is cool
*You can take ANYONE in there to hang out with– old, young, normal, dirty hippy, crusty old whatever, upwardly mobile professionals, not really that much fun friends, whatever, they all fit in!
*If you’re really trying to get that pseudo Chico hipster/​bohemian look down, Duffy’s IS WHERE YOU NEED TO HANG OUT. Well besides Naked Lounge
Cons:
*full of gross nasty people who make come up and bother you, or worse, creep out on you and try to seduce you (*shudder*)
*and yeah yeah yeah its kinda a dirty filthy place, but I think if it was clean it would lack that certain oh um «yeah its filthy but I’m just focused on the BOOZE and music and company vibe its got going.»
*lets be honest here, hipsters (whatever you want to call them) in Chico can be really FUCKING ANNOYING. I don’t really like to hang @ their liquor destinations. You’re not that cool just because you don’t shower and you read Falkner and listen to Cash and drink Pabst. OH and you’re not entitled to EVERY CHAIR in the bar even when you go outside to go smoke your American Bugle you roll-​yourself ciggies. dicks.
Sooo Anyways, that place is what it is, I wouldn’t change it, its just not really the sort of place I choose to spend time and my money. There’s a place in San Luis Obispo that is kinda similar, but a bajillion times cooler than Duffy’s, its called McCarthys! its an Irish bar that not crusty and @ least the hipster there have done there research and actually seem like real hipsters– they’ve got that Rockabilly thing down! I think it was invented there?
But yeah, Duffy’s…
its
just
not
for
me…

Ahh… what a dive bar was MEANT to be:
*sometimes sticky floors
*old and dusty – and that’s just the patrons!
*Look at the walls, too. eek! dusty! And I lurve it… adds personality.
*a Jukebox
*pool tables
*drunks
Mmmm… Duffy’s. I miss you.