Lula’s a Pub

Bill is my favorite bartender. Knows his whiskey and how to pour a pint of Guinness. I miss this place!

We LOVED this place, how can you not enjoy a friendly bar in the basement of a haunted building?! The bartender was knowledgeable and friendly, and quite on top of things. It does get loud and a little crazy the later it gets, but that’s a good thing! We’ll go back every time we stay in Wilmington.

This is a great dive bar. You have to look for this bar to find it but it was a cool find. Very chill vibe and great place to hang.

This is a bar I can see myself spending a lot of time in. It’s small, it’s dark, it’s tough to find, and half of those who do find it decide it’s «not their type of establishment» and head back up the damp, claustrophobic tunnel they braved to get down there in the first place.
And for all of these reasons and more, I instantly loved it. This is a bar where you come to hide out, to talk shop with the bartender, to drink beers (or wells), to not be seen in the scene. An easy Wilmington favorite in my book.

One minute, I was playing Apples to Apples with locals and one of the bartenders…
next minute, woke up on Wrightsville Beach under the full moon. So I’m assuming I had at least a 4-​star night here.
What everyone else is describing about tunnels and stairs (and I remember ivies on trellises) is now coming back to me. I’m also recalling that I didn’t sense that it was a true dive, but that’s probably because I’m coming from the NYC perspective, where most things are dirty and thus impart a divey vibe on just about everything, leaving legit dives in other towns looking like family restaurants.
But if by «dive» you mean a bunch of characters (i.e. army men on leave, spooky yet harmless locals, married couples who seem very available, sunburnt Southern boys in polo shirts), then Lula’s certainly has that.
My conclusion is that this is a friendly, quirky safe haven and authentic drinking hole loved by Wilmington and their people. I cannot, however, speak to that unaccounted period of time that lapsed between being at the bar and ending up back on WB.

One of my local spots. Great dive and great people. Lots of history in this pub setting with the owner living close by and host to friends and good spirits.

We have never eaten here but have been here several times to try and enjoy the entertainers on the outside deck. The service there is horribly disorganized and wait times are so bad that after the third time, we left after waiting for at least 20 minutes and not once during that time, being acknowledged by the wait staff or even being offered a drink or food menu. NOT a good way to service local customers!

One of the very few downtown bars I’ll go to. Great staff, great prices and a great hideaway spot.

Lula’s is a great locals pub with a low-​key atmosphere and friendly faces. This underground hidden delight is one of Wilmington’s oldest downtown pubs and has not changed much over the years, making people feel right at home. It is the place to go if you want to relax, talk, listen to music, play some games and meet some cool people. The outside patio is great for added space and comfort. It really is Wilmington’s best kept secret.

Great place for regulars and newcomers alike. Their slogan is «If you can’t find us, there’s a reason…» It’s located beneath the Little Dipper on the corner of Front Street and Orange Street. Very small but very friendly, with an outdoor patio area for smokers.

I’m hesitant, really, to write a review, because I don’t want Lula’s suddenly overrun by out of towners (no offense, except, well, some offense). I myself am technically an out of towner — a Durhamite — but I visit one of my best good friends — a Wilmingtonian — with increasing regularity, so I do not consider myself a tourist.
Lula’s, a haunted part of the Underground Railroad, is a tiny, divey, hot subterranean joint with a decent beer selection and reasonable prices. When crowded, expect to sweat, because the place becomes a veritable sauna with very little air circulation.
Local steampunk-​types play movie trivia and various other games here. They’ll dominate several tables. Since I’m as avid about cinema as these film geeks were, I thought they were a’ight. I found myself whispering the answers to my husband (also a film nerd) before the teams called them out, kind of wishing I was playing …
Surprisingly tidy toilets, a friendly bartender, and a killer jukebox really tied the room together. Oh, and the eerie atmosphere underlying the jubilation did, too. I could just tell the place was haunted before I’d even heard anything about it. I won’t go into details here, because you may very well think I’m nutters, but the joint is haunted, yo.
Upstairs and outdoors you’ll find a covered patio area where the smokers and drunkards congregate and, even back in this little alley off the main drag, you’ll experience that delicious ocean breeze on warm summer nights. On this particular evening, sitting near us outdoors was a weepy, drama-​magnet drunk girl loudly sharing her dark night of the soul with some sensitive steampunk dude. I hope they found true love and all, but also wished they would’ve kept their voices down.
I wouldn’t bring your crew of bachelorettes or frat bros here, causing a bunch of ruckus in this laid-​back joint. You’ll be a nuisance for sure. But, if you’re just chillin and looking for a place off the beaten, give Lula’s a go.

I love Lula’s. I always have and always will. Great jukebox, great nasty old foosball table, great atmosphere. It’s a dive bar and will always be, but in the best possible way. Wait– maybe the bathrooms are too clean to be classified as a dive bar, but oh well.
Even after many years, I can walk in and it’s still the same place. Not many places in Wilmington can say that.
Oh, and you can always tell by how drunk/​buzzed you are by how successfully you can navigate the tunnel to the stairs when you go to leave. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

This is the epitome of the dive bar. Hard to find, lots of history, dark cavelike, good drinks, jukebox, interesting people, and just a great vibe.

Lula’s kills. I take everyone that visits on the dive bar crawl of Wilmington and Lula’s is my 2^nd to last (penultimate?) clincher before closing at Satellite. This is the place to knock back whiskeys, rock the juke, play it cool and blennnnnnnd in.
My first review of Lula’s somehow violated the Unilocal guidelines (giving 1 stars to legit dive bars/​reverse dive bar scoring system is apparently not cool). I still think I don’t want the Raleigh tourists to find out about this gem and I would debate this decision to my death.
Go there while Lula’s is still cool.

I hope no one finds out about this gem.
This place isn’t easy to find and looks like you’re heading into the dungeon of hell. All of which makes it awesome. The bartender was awesome, the music was a great mix, and the beer selection was good and cold. A picture of this place is in the dictionary under Dive Bar! The best!