The Barflies were out after a long hiatus, so we decided to hit Cotati to see what was happening. Turns out, on a Thursday night at about 9pm, nothing is happening in Cotati.

“Oh, it’s still early,” someone said to me in the bar, “things pick up a lot later.” It’s true – Cotati is a late night kind of place, kind of like New York and Las Vegas. I felt so ignorant.

The first stop on our three bar Cotati tour was The Tradewinds (8000 block of Old Redwood Highway). The Tradewinds, a murky and mysterious cave-like tavern, was nearly empty save for a few older gentlemen playing pool on one of the two pool tables available. But this is not what got my attention initially – a large sign over the bar proclaiming, “$3 Nachos – Served All Day!” did. I like $3 nachos. And I like them all day. I also liked that it was happy hour and my drink was $2.50. I liked that a lot.  So although I didn’t order the nachos (whose little plastic trays of chips were lined up near the microwave, promising molten, processed cheese food goodness), I was still reveling in the glorious possibilities of nachos and cheap drinks so imagine my elation when I saw the printed flier on the door by the bathrooms that said happy hour was from 7pm to 9pm! Nine! I love happy hour until 9. Yes, yes, it was a lovefest at The Tradewinds! Pinball, pool, jukebox, happy hour until 9pm and nachos all day, ALL DAY! There’s also live music in the later evening – the college band (think every college band you’ve ever seen) playing that night didn’t start until 11pm. If God is in Cotati, I bet he’s at The Tradewinds.

Still, Cotati is not a one bar town, no, no, no. So it was across the street to Spancky’s. Spancky’s, well, I struggle with what to say about Spancky’s. The drinks were more expensive but the bathrooms were cleaner. The pool tables were nicer but there were no drink specials on Ladies Night – which it happened to be while we were there. And what do the two diminutive DJs do for Ladies Night? They put up a stripper pole. For the ladies. We were pleased at the thought that there would be male dancers, which seemed natural for Ladies Night, but no. We were informed that there were no men allowed on the pole at all. I believe the exact words were, “no penis on the pole.” So, no drink specials for the ladies and no male dancers – instead, as your special treat, you can buy regularly priced drinks and then pole dance for the men…. wow, what a great deal! Remind me to go there on August 26th.

All that irritation was making me hungry so we went next door to Friar Tucks pub. This, apparently, is where the action is. There was easily 75% more people in Friar Tuck’s than anywhere else in Cotati (which is still not saying much). I’m guessing it gets pretty rowdy because there were two burly doormen checking IDs and stamping wrists.

Whimsical decor

In case you forget that you are in an English pub, there are lots of decorations to remind you, including but not limited to various weapons, stuffed birds, helmets, coat of arms and assorted armor. And plaid.

The menu was traditional bar food and so we ordered a burger and some drinks and sat down to watch the people (by people, I mean college students). I could see some pool tables that seemed very busy and there were clusters of your traditional college cliques milling around. The Tina Fey girls were all clustered together, throwing surreptitious glances at the Frat boys while the popular girls were being adored by them and the token fat friend pretended like she was included in the conversation. Ah, to be young again!

Barflies in Friar Tucks

So to wrap up, when visiting Cotati, the Las Vegas of Sonoma County, for cheap drinks and pool, I’d stick to The Tradewinds and for food, people watching and sloppy hook-ups, I’d go with Friar Tucks. If I just wanted to play serious pool, I’d go with Spancky’s because they have the nicest tables. If I felt like hanging out with adults, I’d leave Cotati and go somewhere else.