Tony’s Place

Great dive bar tucked away. It’s not fancy but it has a warm feel and friendly atmosphere with unusual characters that frequent the bar. Penny the bartender is so sweet and cool. Well worth a visit.

If crowding around one pool table with one classic rock song every fifteen minutes (because the juke box only plays if there is money in it) while being solicited for change from the homeless is your thing… Tony’s Place is your place.

Opens up at 6am. When still up with my friends and our shenanigans we like to continue at Tony’s place lol

Your looking for a true dive bar in Costa Mesa… Tonys is it. Penny, Heidi, Vicky, and Sam are amazing bartenders. Been coming here for 10 months now and have never been disappointed, always getting a heavy poured gin and tonic. The regulars here are the best I have found around town to talk to, always having great conversations with. Mixed crowds from young kids to the older regulars, I will always be coming back. Also they have a single pool table and darts. My home away from home

I’ve been in here several times since moving back to OC 7 months ago. I’ve met most of the bartenders by now and am always treated with courtesy and super friendliness! Penny is legendary! The welcoming atmosphere at this great little bar is just what you need to go with your beer or cocktail. The staff and regulars are out of this world!

One of the greatest little dive bars ive found in socal. They have the friendliest most awesome bartenders ive met so far from a small family type local bar. The drinks are priced right and they have every type of beer or liquor you can think of. If you name the cocktail mix, then they can make it for you or they will find out how on the spot. You dont get that kind of service from just any bar. Thats why this is my spot, come check it out and make it your spot too. Maybe ill buy you a drink ;-)

Love this bar. Affordable and always great people here. Forget the stupid pretentious OC bs, this is where people go to be themselves and let go. And, let’s talk about Penny. Best bartender. Always smiling, always ready with your drink.

I love this place! The bartender is nicest person I’ve ever met and everybody is friendly here. Cheap delicious drinks, pool, relaxed atmosphere. Definitely recommend this place! I love Penny!

I love Tony’s Place its definitely my go to bar. Penny is an awesome bartender she is very generous and friendly. I have been going here for 20 years and i have always had stellar service. Its definitely a gem and one of the last of its kind in Costa Mesa. If unique experience definitely come to Tony’s you definitely not be disappointed.

A nice place to watch football on Saturday. A mix of age-​groups, but mostly over 50. The music machine is at a nice level and the beer is cold.

Rolled in here last night… after driving by a hundred times I figured it was time to check it out. I’d been hoping to find a small, dark, close to my house dive bar, and boy… I wasn’t let down.
It’s dark inside…6:00 on a Thursday. Not crowded but only a few seats left at the bar. We made our way over to the end and sat down. Ordered a vodka tonic and a jack and coke.
$ 3.50 for a vodka tonic and $ 5.50 for a J&C? Wow, doesn’t get any cheaper than that. The bartender, Penny, was helpful and enthusiastic. Drinks were strong and it wasn’t more than a minute or two till the patron next to us struck up some conversation.
You know what? I’ve never been to a friendlier bar. Hell, by the time we left about 2 hours later… we were laughing and chatting with the regulars like we were all old friends.
Great jukebox, pool tables, friendly staff and patrons and divey as they come.
I’ll be back.
But if you go… make sure you bring cash cause they don’t take credit cards.

Ahhhhh Tonys Place! What to say, what to say. This bar is near and dear to my heart. Lived within walking distance for 2 years and frequented it a lot. Do not let the regulars scare you, they love talking and telling stories! The well drinks are 3 bucks and you can stumble on home for 10 – 12 bucks; spend about 20 and you might not remember the night. They pour a stiff drink; there’s always music goin-​usually sappy country music but it fits the atmosphere. Play some pool with some serious pool sharks, play a little keno and chit chat with people from walks of all life. There’s no judgement when you step foot in here, hence the 2 tooth min ;). Sometimes I even see cute old couples slow dancing. Friday nights do bring in a younger crowd as the older regulars are out by 9 or 10pm. Yes this bar attracts all kinds, even the occasional homeless, but hey, they gotta drink too! There used to be one who brought his dog, the dog chilled outside, I miss that pup. I don’t go as much anymore bc my favorite bartender moved out of state, she rocked! She hooked me up with OC Fair tix this summer-​what a sweetheart! My only question… Who is Tony? When I first started going there was an old man always sporting a beach type hate named Tony… rumor had it that he was Tony, but then some people said Tony was no longer alive. I’d like to sit at the bar and have a drink with Tony if he’s still kickin!
Edit: June 2014. Invest in some security. Let him drink for free if you don’t want to pay him like the cleaning lady who comes in a cleans for free drinks at about 1am till close. She is always on a good one, super high. She definitely loves to clean! I did witness a man punch a woman there once, and more recently 2 men got into a fight.
The short bartender had to deal with it, get in the middle of 2 men throwing punches. Get a few big guys– let them drink for free and have security. I love a cheap drink but besides the old alcoholics who are harmless, there is a lot of shady business-​hookers, drug dealing, and once I witnessed a drunk homeless man in a wheelchair wheel himself back in after getting kicked out and they had to call the cops. It ads to the ambiance and personality of this place, but this is not a bar where any woman should be left alone without a bar back/​bouncer/​security. Not going back again; with the 2 girls I personally found to be super sweet, down to earth, no stick up butt gone I don’t enjoy the service as much. The rest seem to hate life, and hate being bartenders. I’d probably not like it either, although the crowd is beyond entertaining, I doubt they tip well. I always chose it over The Goat or Sutra, but the bartenders sort of need to love life a bit more.

Still the best, its a real dive bar, not a cool guy bar saying its a dive bar!!!

As a PROFESSIONAL Boozer & Cruiser, I should have LOVED this funky little dive, but it was boring, boring & boring. I tried top chat with a few of the «regulars», but they weren’t very friendly. There was that crappy, brokeback mountain, «hairspray country» music on the jukebox the whole time. Never any classic rock. What ??? NO DRAUGHT BEERS !! ?? OK…
The nice bartendress (Penny), brings the only redeeming quality to this dark pit. She’s very nice. Seriously, I’d rather buy a sixer & go home & watch a movie than blow my money here & be bored to tears. If you need a fun dive bar in this area to drink away the worries, check out Madeline’s bar about a half mile up Newport Bl.
Drink On, My Drunken Drinkin’ Buds !!
KROTCH HAMILTON (Professional Boozer)

How I can tell this place is a legit dive:
–Boxed wine in the fridge.
–A VCR connected to the TV.
–The VCR has a ‘Blockbuster’ tape hanging out of it.
–Grizzled bartenders.
–Did I mention boxed wine?
–In a strip mall.
–Car in the parking lot, owned by someone who is day-​drinking, has a bible on the dashboard.
–Gross carpet.
–Yea you heard me, a fucking BLOCKBUSTER tape.
I like it. Why? I have no idea. My homie and I rolled through here to get a bit faded before a big tattoo convention slash punk show we were going to, and Tony’s suited the need. Tequila, whiskey, beer, DONE.
Would I roll out here on the regular? No, it’s far as fuck from where I dwell. If I lived nearby though… hmmmm… maybe. Just to catch some real bar flies in their natural element. Like watching Animal Planet, but instead of lions on the plains of Africa I’d be watching alcoholics get sloppy all over themselves and the questionable carpet.
Tony’s is alright in my book. Next time, if there is a next time, I’m going to rock that box of wine just because it’s hilarious. Franzia!

It’s a dive bar in Costa Mesa. If there weren’t such a thing, this place would blow your socks off with the cheap drinks, questionable patronage, and bartenders. Check it out since they usually just get regulars in their doors. The dirty floors, the pool table, the weird neon lights, just scream dive. Awesome people watching.

I came here once with my rowdy Unilocal buddies a few weeks ago. Things were reaxing from the start. Within minutes of arriving a male
patron greeted me and told me his name. It was a cool place to have a few drinks with friends.
For a bar they had no draft beer. I understand not having somewhat of a selection but at least have a domestic run of the mill beer on tap. C’mon I recently
went into a converted restaurant that was once a taco bell and they had two beer selections on tap.
The tunes or lack there of sucked ass, your at the mercy of whatever is chosen on the jukebox from the seasoned patron cowboy. From 8:00 p.m. one of costa mesa’s finest sets up shop in the car park and pretty much kills whatever buzz you may have had.

C’mon, a dive bar with an overall 4 ½ star rating? I have read and heard about this place for years, even back when it was Hazel’s, but had never been.
Upon entering our party of 5 were greeted by one of the regs seated at the bar with a shout out: «Hey we were expecting more of a rough looking crowd than you people.» That brought much laughter from his fellow bar stool jockeys. Guess they don’t get too many hot mamas and as nicely coiffed as Mary R and Laura S. And yes Nino, Robert, and me were showered AND shaved, so I guess we did kinda stand out. Def a friendly bunch here.
The bartenders were very cool to us as well, and boy do they pour a stiff shot of Jaegger. Yikes! Especially when Laura ordered, hmmm. They have a great juke box to better appreciate the heavy pours, and once the Alan Jackson and other country faves expired we put on more danceable (which we did) and sing-​alongable (which we did) tunes.
In contrast to other dive bars with a loyal following, these ppl loved us upsetting the normal semi-​quiet ambiance. Some even joined us from time to time, and Laura spent a lot of time hangin at the bar with some of her new friends, quite the party.
Yep, Tony’s def deserves those 4 ½ stars.

I looove me a good dive, and leave it to Augusta S to show me one of the best in Costa Mesa… hell… one of the best in OC. Dirty floors, grumpy old lady bartender, super cheap super strong drinks, erotic photo hunt… and did I mention dirty floors? Man, this place would be one glaring exception to the 10 second rule, I’d be afraid to even go one millisecond. But, hey — it’s a dive. Dirty floors are part and parcel.
The bar is pretty tiny, but they’ve got a good-​sized parking lot. Annnd — they’ve got pinball! Sopranos pinball, one of my faves. They’ve got pool! They’ve got some other weird beanbag toss arcade game. They’ve got erotic photohunt — let’s just say there’s no shortage of entertainment at Tony’s Place.
Look, I’m an old married fogey, so I thoroughly enjoy a good dive like this. If you’re lookin’ to catch some action, it’s probably not the best spot in town… unless grumpy old dudes who spend seven hours a day drinking Budweiser is your cup o’ tea. But, a cheap drink in a good ol’ fashioned dive? Yep! It’ll do the trick.

«If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.»
I am convinced that Charles Bukowski lives amongst the incarnations that keep the barstools warm at Tony’s Place.
I disappear into the shadows… amongst the other barflys looking for the Great Escape at the bottom of a hi-​ball glass…
Bars like this are far and few… and admittedly, it is with a tinge of reluctance (all the way to the fingertips) as I type out this review…
I love my dives and well… I prefer them sans hipsters or douche bags… the last thing I want is an overcrowded dive bar full of the aforementioned which seem to run rampant (like cock’a’roaches) these days.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older… I don’t mix my Irish whiskeys with different flavored carbonations… I prefer them neat or on the rocks… gone or the days of sugary shots and wicked hangovers… I pop a B12 before I’m out the door and one as soon as I get home so I rest well and enjoy the time off between work weeks…
Yet sadly, there is many a bar in my hood suffering from the annoyance of über hipster/​d-​bag infestation… which is why, more often than not… I’m drinking at home or in another zip code altogether.
Tony’s is unpretentious… not hipster cool. Nope, it’s where people drink with conviction. Unimpressive décor consisting of wood paneling and vinyl advertisements strung up to remind us of past seasons Super bowl winners and to drink Bud Light…
And lighting that only a blind man would find appealing… this is not a bar to hook up in… and you probably shouldn’t hang out here if your recollection of childhood includes Ninja Turtles or boy bands… because trust me, it’s not for you… there are other places for you… down the way… somewhere else.
Tony’s is truly the place where ‘drinking is the way of ending the day” and my soul calls for another round…