GENERAL DESCRIPTION

O’Rourke’s World Pub & Shisha Garden has a lot of possibilities as a watering hole in Old town. From the street, it looks simple, even a tad tacky, but inside it comes alive. When you first enter, it is a traditional bar, nothing special, nothing to make it noticed. Then, if you keep walking you enter a magical garden where comfort and pleasure are obviously the goals. The food at O’Rourke’s is good. It’s a little on the high side in cost, but you can’t miss on the quality. The same can be said for the drinks. Most mixed drinks are 55 pesos. Shots are from 30 to 75 pesos. Wine is 40 to 55 pesos. Beer is 24 for Corona, etc to 48 a liter of draft and 35 to 42 for microbrewery and up to 65 or so for assorted imports like Guinness and then on to assorted British brands at up to 82 pesos. Irish coffee is 55 pesos.

GENERAL INFORMATION

• ADDRESS: Olas Altas 485, Colonia Emiliano Zapata
• WEBSITE: orourkespubpv.com/
• EMAIL: barmexicano@gmail.com
• PHONE: 044 322 1357904, (322) 223 41 53
• HOURS/DAYS: Monday to Saturday, 5 pm to 2 am
• HAPPY HOUR: 5 to 7 pm with a different special each week (2 for 1)
• FOOD:
• Mexican and International at reasonable prices
• EXTRAS:
• Foosball
• Hidden Garden/Patio

[slideshow id=50 w=486 h=250]

OTHER VIEWS & REVIEWS

• TripAdvisor
• Facebook

GOOGLE STREET VIEW & MAP
(This Google Street View made before O’Rourke’s was)

Updated April 15, 2010

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

With recent acquisition by Heineken of the Tecate Beer brand of Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma from FEMSA, the owner of Coca Cola and OXXO stores in Mexico, a concerted effort (a war, if you will) is being waged to knock the Modelo Breweries out of 1st place in the Mexican market. Part of this strategy is the proliferation of OXXO stores (which sell only Tecate products) and the opening of new “corner bars” called Litros which sell only Tecate products, also). This is called market saturation.

Here in Vallarta 3 Litros Bars have opened in the last couple of months. They are very inexpensive to run (Tecate pays 80% of the rent) and they are flashy and serve cheap beer. The details in each store may vary but the basic design is the same, that of the local litros drinking spots found everywhere in tourist Mexico. You can buy LARGE quantities of beer to go or to drink on site. You can buy as much as a 100 peso 3 liter beer or as little as a 7 peso chica (on special days).

This Litros Bar, according to the current owner, will be called “Goodfellows” in honor of the gangster motif that is so popular in today’s Mexican youth culture. The owner is from Sinaloa and says that he has no clue what this area is like but that he is interested in experiencing it.

GENERAL INFORMATION

• ADDRESS: R. Gomez 150, Colonia Emiliano Zapata
• WEBSITE: None yet
• EMAIL: None yet
• PHONE: ???
• HOURS/DAYS: Daily 2 pm to 2 am
• HAPPY HOUR: Daily Specials
• FOOD:
• Wings, Fries, etc. Cheap
• EXTRAS:
• Hammocks
• Lots of Blue Light

[slideshow id=49 w=486 h=250]

GOOGLE STREET VIEW & MAP
(This Google View Map was made before Litros was)

Updated April 15, 2010

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Hotel Marsol Restaurant and Bar is perhaps the strangest listing in this Bar Guide. Officially, it is not a bar nor a restaurant but, rather, a 120 room hotel, one of the oldest (some say the 2nd oldest hotel) in Vallarta. It is a five story building covering almost all of a city block, built around a central courtyard that includes a large swimming pool. It’s a landmark.

The “bar,” itself, is a very long, spacious room just at the foot of the Los Muertos beach pier. In it you will encounter off-duty beach vendors, time share salespeople, boat captains and anyone who appreciates a good, cheap, cold cerveza out of the view of the tourist hoards. It is much more of a hotel lounge than a bar or restaurant but it’s not really a hotel lounge, although it is, technically.

The chairs are comfortable and the people friendly, if somewhat distant or private since they are probably tired from the grind. To purchase a beer, you go to one of the large beer refrigerators by the hotel desk, take out what you want, pay for it at the desk and open it yourself. There are plastic cups available if you don’t want to drink out of the bottle. If you are lucky, you will run into Jorge, the manager. He will go down in the books as an original Vallarta character.

This place is a treasure for those tourists wanting total immersion and those locals wanting nothing more than a reasonably priced cold beer and a comfortable place to sit. I don’t recommend the Marsol for the unseasoned tourist.

PROMO VIDEO FOR THE HOTEL:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQCwpoqINXc[/youtube]

GENERAL INFORMATION

• ADDRESS: Francisca Rodriguez 103, Colonia Emiliano Zapata, Los Muertos Beach
• WEBSITE: www.hotelmarsol.net/
• EMAIL: hotelmarsol @ yahoo.com
• PHONE: 322 222 1365, 322 222 0453
• HOURS/DAYS: All day and night, 365 days a year
• HAPPY HOUR: Only beer at the same low price all of the time. Corona or Pacifico is 12 pesos a bottle or 23 pesos for a ballena. Sodas or aqua are 8 pesos.
• FOOD:
• Food is available delivered from CyCs
• EXTRAS:
• No extras; the Marsol has no frills….

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OTHER VIEWS & REVIEWS

• TripAdvisor (reviews of the hotel, not the “bar”)

GOOGLE STREET VIEW & MAP
(At the end of the street on the right….)

Updated April 14, 2010