#4 The Mill Top Tavern

See you at the top. The Mill Top Tavern has, by far, one of the neatest locations in all of St. Augustine. It is nestled in a 19th Century mill and is listed in the historical record (aged from 1888). The Mill Top appears to look very similar to a treehouse from Castillo Drive. There are two entrances into Mill Top, the front entrance is located on the main shopping street, St. George street and the back entrance is off of Castillo Drive across from the Castillo.

The bar is nestled upstairs, and has outside seating on the upper and lower decks towards the back entrance. At the back entrance is on the lower deck is where their live music performs. You are also able to sit inside with open air seating towards the front of the building. The back is where you want to sit though, it has one of the very best views in St. Augustine. I have a favorite seat at the bar and it is a view of the of Castillo de San Marcos, harbor and the inlet. I love looking at the ancient monument as well as watch the sail boats go by.

As a tour guide for the ancient city I enjoy knowing the history and admiring all the work that has been down around this town. It is truly beautiful.

According to their website, the Mill Top has been one of the best known taverns in St. Augustine for the past 25 years. The Mill Top offers live music daily and its not only a bar but a restaurant as well. Here is a sample of their menu, although I reccomend that you do not eat here. As much as a favorite bar of mine this is, the food here is awful and the time it takes is ridiculously slow! Stick to the liquid diet it is far more beneficial especially the way they make their drinks.

The Mill Top offers beer, liquor and wine. If you order a beer you can order up to a half a yard of beer for a fairly decent price. Now Mill Top doesn't really have a happy hour but they do have a list of specilaty drinks. They will also charge you a regular price for a drink and only charge you a dollar extra for a double and let me tell you, they are strong. Little tougher for me to drink personally. I didn't try any of the specialty drinks here because there was too large of a selection. There specialty drinks are actually specialty shooters but for an extra .25 cents they will turn them into a drink and some of the shooters are all liquor. So see below for a sample of some of the shooters:

• Rotten apple- Southern Comfort, amaretto, spiced rum, melon liquor, pineapple and cranberry-4.75
  
• Mind Eraser- vodka, coffee liqueur, soda on ice with straw.

Bartenders Favorite Shooters

• Sheree's Perfect Paradise- Light rum, coconut rum, pineapple, grapefruit and grenadine- 4.75


• Morgan's Blueberry Squirt- blueberry vodka, grapefruit and cranberry splash 4.75

Mill Top has one of the greatest atmospheres in St. Augustine, inside and outside seating with one of the most spectacular views. On my bar list i would give the Mill Top four stars out five, they have a great view, good service, strong drinks and live music. The only disadvantage is that they serve food but I don't find it to be very good, my impression was that it was overpriced bar food, however you tend find that in a tourist town. But don't let the food keep you away, come in for the music and drinks and work your way down to the new Irish bar, Meehans (on the bayfront) and eat their food. I believe that whether your there day or night you will have a good time. Just a side note, they do charge cover after a certain hour, it is only about two dollars just a note in case you aren't one for carrying cash.

The Mill Top Tavern (& Listening Room)

19 1/2 St. George Street, St. Augustine

Phone number: 904-829-2329

Just as side note, i took a majority of the pictures myself but a few were taken of the Mill Top website because the photos had more clairty

# 3 Tradewinds Tropical Lounge

If walls could talk. Tradewinds lounge. If walls could talk, you'd be able to write 100 books. This probably one of the best places downtown St. Augustine has to offer with the best live music. As long as you don't mind fun: dancing, strong drinks, live music, smokey atmosphere and great people, it's guaranted you'll have one of your best bar experiences.

To enter Tradewinds you have to be 21 and don't try to get in if your not, especially if you are trying to use a fake i.d. you just might end up on the Wall of Shame. One evening I tried to go in, under 21, real i.d., as designated driver (yes that is the truth), and I still got kicked out. But many say you haven't experienced Tradewinds if you haven't been kicked out of Tradewinds (even for something as minor as that). Tradewinds, in preparation is loud, smokey, biker dive bar. And an absolute blast. Generally Tradewinds opens at 1:00 p.m. but music wont start till at 3:00 p.m. but it is fun nonetheless.

Tradewinds has some of the best history in St. Augustine here is a brief summary of it that I received from their website, since their history is far more extensive than I'd ever imagine.

Tradewinds Lounge has history that goes farther back before many of us were born. In the creation process of the lounge, it was meant to have the appearance of a sailor, seaside bar. That’s exactly what they did, Tradewinds is full of many island artifacts and collectable items placed all around. Many of them still hang to. It was in 1944 that idea of the lounge came into play, and quickly opened in 1945 and was known as the South Seas Lounge.

Through several business exchanges that took place over a decade and half and finally in the 60s it became Tradewinds. At the time Tradewinds was located at 1 Aviles Street and was known as place to go to hear great music and have a good time. As it was said Tradewinds was “your port of call.” Then in 1964, the city’s historical restoration department discovered the site of the Old Spanish Military hospital that dated back to the founding of St. Augustine. That means it was time for Tradewinds to relocate. Tradewinds moved to its present address at 124 Charlotte Street. With a change on location meant a change in music. New musicians took the stage such as Jimmy Buffet (who was supposedly kicked off stage cause he stunk), the Sounds of Blue Grass and other bands I have not heard of (at least I’m honest).

As time went by the music acts became some of the best ever. It has evolved from the early music to some of the most current music, the perfect blend of rock’n’roll, blue, country and occasional oldies acts. Now, for the past decade, Troy Locke and Matanzas has been the house band playing nightly (Sunday through Thursday). Or you yourself could take a shot at Open Mic on Thursday night, giving musicians the opportunity to have their songs heard. Tradewinds Tropical Lounge has been determined to continue the tradition to have the vest live entertainment in North Florida, and they have succeeded. As they say “Come on in and relive the history and make a few memories of your own.”

There you have a history of a great place.

The Happy Hour at Tradewinds is from 5-8 p.m. every day of the week (always a plus) and the house band starts at 8:00. The hous band Matanzas is truly a party an absolute blast. Matanzas is said to look much like ZZ Top thats up to you to decide, that sings a variety of country, southern rock and of course rock n roll. If your having a good time Matanzas wants to a hear a "HELL YEAH!"

Here is video of Matanzas performing at Tradewinds, the actual song doesn't start till about 1:45 so if you want to fast forward.

Tradewinds is one bar that you do not want to miss. Tradewinds can also be exceptionally dangerous (in a good way). It is always a blast and often the last stop of a great bar hopping experience. They do not serve food however they do have a popcorn machine in the corner or any specialty drinks. That doesn't matter though because of how strong they are, it can said its a glass of vodka with a splash of cranberry. You will thoroughly enjoy it. It also a note that this may one of the few bars, or the only bar that serves beers in can at about $2.50. Make sure you check out Tradewinds Tropical Lounge. For lack of an outside area I will give this bar four and half stars out of five.

Tradewinds Lounge Is in downtown St. Augustine right off of the town Square, if you are coming west over the Bridge of Lions you should see on your right after you cross Castillo Drive.

Tradewinds Lounge

124 Charlotte Street

St. Augustine, FL 32084

(904)829-9336

Visit the websites at http://www.tradewindslounge.com/home.html

Live Music from the Conch House

Here is a YouTube video from the Conch House, a sample of the live music offered on Friday evening.

A Short Hop and a Sudden Stop

What's better than having a large glass of red wine, on a rainy while writing a blog about bar hopping. What's better than that. Plus I'm about to have a pulled pork sandwhich from my favorite barbecue place Park Avenue (South Florida West Palm Beach, Jupiter Chain). Tonights going to be a goodnight...

So the bar hop that was meant to happen on Wednesday kind of happened. It just wasn't quite the bar crawl that we were planning. The crawl started at around 12:30 and the guys started out at the "World Famous" Oasis Lounge near St. Augustine beach then the crawl took them up to Jacks BBQ on A1a beach where they spent a good chunk of time. The Oasis is somewhat of a neat bar, if you sit upstairs at the bar and open the windows the ocean breeze comes soaring in but its not on the water and for being on the east side of a1a I feel like it should be. I still enjoy it for a cocktail but not the first place I'd for drink. It's also a really big stop for bikers especially for Daytona's bike week.

They actually spent so much time at Jacks I was able to meet up with them at four o'clock after I was done with my classes. When I got there a bunch of people had showed up for some time. Jacks bbq is actually a really neat location which I will get into a little more later. When I got there i had a margarita on the rocks with salt (of course) while everyone Else drank beer. Its on a1a across from the beach. It has mostly out door seating, a covered out door bar and a patio area that is complete with its own pool (which I wouldn't swim in unless I had a few cocktails). They also have surprisingly good food, I absolutely love a good pulled pork sandwich and this place offers them. I like a sweeter barbecue sauce but regardless it was still good. Jacks will be a blog topic later.

We finally around 5:30 moved up a1a to stop at a restaurant called Sunset Grill. The food here is okay but we had cocktails in mind. They have a small outdoor sitting area but its a pretty nice area and its a good socializing spot, this is where I had one more margarita. After my drink here I ran home for about an hour to get some study time for a big test i had the next day in my Marketing class (my least favorite class).

Later I met up with everyone at the Conch house lounge and marina, which by now I still haven't learned that this place should be our last stop. Its my boyfriend and I's favorite bar in St. Augustine, good food, great drinks and great people. I love this place, it is right on the water and has so much to offer. Its a smoking bar but you'd never know because of all the open doors and windows. This will probably be the first individual bar that I talk about. It is definitly my favorite place and I can't wait to write about it. We stayed here all night, the lounge closes at 11 but we fortunate enough to have a friend with a small boat down there so we hung out there for a couple hours till we went home and crashed. it was a good day overall not what we expected but no complaints. Next blog to come soon

I'm actually spending the weekend in West Palm Beach so maybe I'll write about an interesting bar here if I decide to go out. Hope you enjoy reading my posts thus far.

The Above photos are of the counch house lounge

taken from the conch house website