Tequilahoppers in Upland, CA

In my last year or so of undergrad (about 2004-5, just when I started to get into craft beer), my friends and I frequented a place about a mile down the street called Tequilahoppers. After having been to this place weekly for over a year or two span I stopped going. The scene was just not my thing (think 909 bros) and I had moved to LA, but they did boast 80 taps, about 50 of which are macro swill. Yeah, seriously, they somehow fill about 50 taps with macro crap. They have about every Michelob, Bud, Coors, and domestic or import fizz water you could ever think of. In additon there are nights you can get pitchers of Vodka/Monster for $9 or Vodka/Cranberry for $6. It's a 21 year old's dream. But being that I'm long past 21 and almost never go out with the purpose of just getting shitfaced, they do have some other taps occupied by the likes of Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Firestone Double Barrel and Walker's Reserve, Stone Pale Ale and IPA, beers from Kona Brewing, Sierra Nevada, and Anderson Valley. The picture to the right was taken at one of the Wednesday Bud Light nights a handful of years ago. I didn't know better, lol.

So after about 3-4 years since the last time I was there I decided to go check it out again. The place is the quintessential 909 sports bar. About 100 tv's, lots of tattoos, waitresses with 5 lbs of silicone in them (yeah!) and lots of Fox Racing or Skin shirts. But with a couple of nice cool pints of Stone IPA I was happy. This place has a new theme every day. It may be karaoke one night, or gothic night another, but at least in the late afternoon it's just plain old happy hour- half off everything, and that's pretty cool with me.

Upland is your standard just-outside-of-LA suburb, but it really doesn't have much in the way of beer. We have an English pub a few blocks up with a few good beers on tap but occupied by tons of people you went to high school with and wish to never see again, and a bunch of other really lame dive bars.

I must say I am excited to go have a beer and cigar at a newer place that is in old downtown Upland at the Metrolink stop. It's where I buy my homebrew supplies and it's called Pacific Wine Merchants. It's a store specializing in a lot of wine, a good amount of cigars, and a little bit of beer. They mostly have wine there at their bar but every time I go in they always have 2 drafts, and one is always Alesmith. I'll be checking that out soon.