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Bourbon Street Pub
Categories: Arts & Entertainment Music Venues Nightlife Music Venues Nightlife Bars Pubs Music Venues, Pubs
50 Cordova Street WVancouver, BC V6B 1C9
Neighbourhoods: Gastown, Downtown Eastside
(604) 684-4214
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- DJ, Live
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Thu, Sat
- Happy Hour:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- Outdoor Area/ Patio Only
- Coat Check:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Very Loud
- Good For Dancing:
- Yes
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
25 reviews for Bourbon Street Pub
25 reviews in English
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Review from Kam P.
Burnaby, BC
5/9/2012
This is a country bar
Let me start by saying I don't listen to country music and the only reason I went to the Bourbon country NiteClub on a Sat. Night was because a friend of ours made us go.
So, I'm a good sport, I said sure after she told me they had a mechanical bull and cheapish drinks.
I had a blast on the mechanical bull (it's free)! Most of the crowd was younger(under 30s) and pretty much all white people. That made me feel a little self conscious as I was pretty much the only brown person there. However, the bartenders were great and quick with getting me my drinks.
I don't think I'll go back as its not really my kind of crowd or music and if I do go its only for the mechanical bull and cheap drinks!
My recommendations: Get on the guest list and/or get there by 9pm as the line up starts early. -
Review from Christian H.
Vancouver, BC
4/17/2012 1 Check-in Here
What can I say? When you are gay and you go with a group of your partners friends to a bar that has signs like, "If you shirt sparkles more than your girlfriend's eyes, then you are in the wrong bar" and "The only people carrying purses in this bar are women" you tend to not really care to be there. I felt very offended by the signs as if they are implying that all gay guys wear sparkles and carry purses. And here I thought Canada had forward thinking. As I stood there all that was going through my mind was, "I moved out of central small town Illinois for a reason." I do have to say that the individuals in the bar seem to not feel the same way as the bar decor implies. The bartenders are horrible. They are not friendly and the woman bartenders didn't appear to want to be there.
The bar had a $10 cover (still trying to figure out why - there wasn't a band or any special event). They looked at my ID just outside the door and then again inside the door. Crazy... I wanted to see the two girls in the front that were checking IDs ID... They didn't look more than 12 years old.
On a good note, they have a mechanical bull that was fun and though I hate country music, they had a good variety of country music.
Can say I had fun, but you might..
So...
As always, Have Fun!!! -
Review from Kwoky L.
4/14/2012 1 Check-in Here
I never thought of The Bourbon as a place to hangout for me. I don't listen to country music and I am definitely not a fan of anything country. I once was petrified when I found myself surrounded by a bunch of red necks with four wheelers and ginormous trucks around a bonfire in middle America. Don't even ask how I got there; it's was a long story.
Despite all that, I gotta say I enjoyed riding the mechanical bull ride, even though I didn't get past level 3.5. You have to get me a little drunk first though. The music was standard country stuff but with such a large floor space and a stage area, you can go wild to town dancin' all night long. Sadly I barely knew any of the songs except for Shania Twain and Taylor Swift. You consider them country music?
Drinks were kinda blah. There's some selection of bourbon whisky but the beer on draught was severely lacking. Budweiser, really? Bud's one of the reason why I left America. Overall, it was very pleasant place. At least the staff were very friendly and nice. -
Review from Shaggy M.
Vancouver, BC
12/23/2011
I've always had a good time at The Bourbon. It has always been my plan B place, and it has yet to disappoint. But I'm also a country boy who isn't a fan of yuppie bars.
If you're one of these wannabe ballers who wants their bar to be overpriced and sterile, this won't be the place for you.
If you don't like country music or country bars then this place won't be for you either.
But, if you like to leave you ego at the door and have a crazy thing called fun. The Bourbon will be perfect for you. -
Review from Namit M.
11/17/2011 1 Check-in Here
Was forced to go here for a Birthday party. Wow this place is a real dump.
First things first STAY away from the draft beer. The Pale Ale was sour and rancid.
Country music bars have never been my thing, but on this particular night the torture reached epic proportions as they were hosting a Country music Karaoke night.
Second thing Stay away from this place. -
Review from Katie S.
Vancouver, BC
9/30/2011
Sure it's a little bit of a dump, but I'll be damned if I don't have a great night every time I go. It's an awesome country bar and them cowboys really know how to party.
It's got a good dance floor, pool tables, and tonnes of people just looking for a good time. And for the most part, the staff aren't pretentious like so many other downtown clubs. Good times, all around.
And, hello, it has a mechanical bull on Friday and Saturday nights! (The guy who runs it seems really surly, but I met him outside of the club once and he's really nice. He just gets grumpy with all us silly drunk people, so if you're there, cut the guy some slack!)Listed in: After Hours
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Review from J H.
3/29/2011
Honky tonk probably describes it well.
Watered down drinks, long inexcusable wait in line, sticky floors, drunkards trying to dance to 80s country music, lots of plaid and cowboy hats in the house too.
$10 Cover is overpriced when entry should be free given the place.
They had a mechanical bull at the back end of the room and a medium sized dance floor with a cage-like area for split level dancing. Neither of these were appealing.
Yep...not going there again. -
Review from Mathieu Y.
Vancouver, BC
11/1/2010
Although open until 2 or 3 am all week, the bourbon is still a dirty bar with filthy, loosely clothed pool tables, a few ancient pinball machines, and a lot of domestic beer. Sunday to Thursday there are more staff than patrons on shift, although they really don't seem to care if you're there or not.
If you happen to come by on a weekend you'll be treated to an ID scan, a cover charge for a cover band and DJ (all night) of between $6-10 and a lot of over priced drinks. Just don't think about dancing on the stage, unless you want to be given the boot out the door by one of their many cowboy hatted security. I'm pretty sure the cowboy hats are curtesy of their newest sponsor, JRFM.
So really, don't expect anything special from this place. For a dive, it's not the friendliest nicest OR cheapest in the city. For what it wants to be (and what it wants you to want it to be), you could easily go somewhere nicer, like the Lamplighter or the Met. Or even the Cambie for crying out loud.Listed in: Dance to this music, Dive drinks
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Review from Jenn L.
Vancouver, BC
11/14/2010
The problem is not that the Bourbon is a dive bar, but rather that it is not. The Bourbon, in fact, is a country dive bar the way spray cheese is cheddar- in name and decor only. Dive bars are not clubs. Dive bars are lovely little places where old mechanics drink beer and watch local lesbians play pool. Dive bars have bed bugs, old people, and character. The Bourbon, alas, has none of those things.
I am giving it two stars because the staff were polite and the joint was clean. If I were to rate the overall experience in terms of value for my $15 cover, however, this place deserves a -1.
Oh- and the band was beyond bad- but they were pretty nice looking. -
Review from Gale L.
Vancouver, BC
2/16/2011
No reason to go there anymore.
No more talking with Virginia on one side of the bar while she admired her striking daughter on the other side.
Perfect place for us all to celebrate Victoria Leeming's life.
Last night at the Bourbon was a roller coaster ride, no cover no frisking, just Gastowner's and friends getting our heads around a loved one's life lived way too short. -
Review from Bev H.
Vancouver, BC
4/27/2011
Let's face it, the Bourbon is a dump. Nice enough staff though (I have always found) stale smelling interior, crappy bathrooms with dank smell and sticky floors. Got violently ill drinking their draft, I would not drink anything here, off the gun here! Stick to bottles, and you'll be fine.
But, the bands are ok, and my friends and I have been pleasantly surprised how much fun we have had here. Not our kind of place at all, but good times nonetheless. Not the every weekend place to party, but we will go if we see a friends bands listed~ and have always had a great night out...As for the $10 or $15 cover for the band? Supporting the arts, in my humble opinion, and beats an overpriced night club. -
Review from Crystal H.
Vancouver, BC
2/10/2009
While this used to be the "cheap seedy place" a crowd of us would go for a birthday or some other "get your drink on" event - this past weekend proved the Bourbon is now the place to go to check out a "seedy place."
There for a birthday party - I had no choice but to pay the ridiculously priced cover ($12), get frisked at the door (I had heard there had been a stabbing in the area the night before - so it was granted) and then subjected to 2 terrible bands playing "whiny" sets.
But all that was supposed to change when the DJ got moving. I guess listening to club songs from 3-5 years ago could be considered retro to some, just not me.
...I'm probably just miffed because he kept saying he'd play the song I was requesting for my friend's birthday. I left at 2 am - and he still hadn't played it. Although, it is entertaining to watch a "laptop" DJ pretend he's spinning records!
Oh, and coming from a strictly hygienic and beer connoisseur-ish place - I wouldn't recommend drinking anything on tap. -
Review from Sheila W.
BC
11/17/2008 3 photos
When I was first tricked into going to the Bourbon to see a band play, I took one look around and decided this was not the type of place you really want to drink out of the glassware. A bottle of Keith's, please!
My next decision was that this was also the type of place where I wouldn't want to use the "ladies" room. Finally the time came and I had to wait in line to use a toilet that was covered in what could only be described as "college vomit," as the chunks of KD were easily identifiable in the mac-n-cheesy splatter that I had to gingerly squat over. And this stall was actually the better of the two, since it wasn't plugged.
It's also not the kind of place that a girl would want to walk any distance from. We drove through the back alley and saw huddled groups of zombies shooting up and numerous less-threatening urinaters.
The live bands were actually a lot of fun to watch and played some great rock music. Lions in the Street were worth the $12, but I could have listened to them for a lot longer than the half-dozen songs they had time to play. The crowd that turned out early (9-midnight) was pretty mixed. But the sets were really short as they jammed in quite a few bands and had them all wrap by midnight so a DJ could go on. The DJ played hip-pop/top-40-club music that was totally disjointed from the 70's-style rocking that the bands were laying down live. It was a strange transition.
The DJ thinned the mix down to the college crowd whose attempt at sexy-dancing was so impaired that it looked like a group of toddlers flailing to the latest Lil Wayne et al. When N.E.R.D came on with "Everybody Nose," with the chorus "all the girls standing in the line for the bathroom" I was ready to warn them all to beware... -
Review from Susanne J.
Hope, BC
5/13/2009
It was about 2am and I was pretty wasted so I shouldn't really have cared where I ended up, BUT... any place that mixes Iron Maiden with 99 Luft Balloons (and George Michael I think) deserves to be berated. The place, large and cavernous, did compel a few people to get their freak on, BUT... not me.
We payed $6 for cover and then my bf (who may've been taken for a ride) handed me a drink saying he "couldn't believe they'd charge $7.50 for a vodka tonic in a dump like this place." He headed for the pool tables while I just stood and stared in aww. I decided to take some pictures of the lacklustre place (I'm such a good little yelper) when one of a group of guys tugged on my sweater and then said something I couldn't decipher.
"What would you give this place out of 5 I asked?" "2 and a half" he said. Because I was drunk I was probably feeling generous and said "I'd give it a 2" and shot up a convo with him and his friends. Well, at least the people there are friendly. -
Review from Alex D.
Vancouver, BC
4/26/2010
The doormen pushed aside the heavy oak door with a polite smile and as we strode into the bar. The impeccably groomed maitre d' took my coat and with a welcoming, 'This way please sir', we were ushered inside and past a congregation of gorgeous women in stunning cocktail gowns, distinguished looking men reminiscent of 'Mad Men' sipping Old Fashioneds, and eventually to our private booth.
The seats were adorned in a plush red velvet, and as we took our seats the waiter deftly slid a bespoke leather coaster across the mahogany table and placed a glass of vintage champagne upon it with all the grace of conductors hand. The smokey tones of a jazz singer echo softly in the distance as I look across at my date and asked "shall we start with some oysters".
Whoa! I snap out of that dream and I realise I may have passed out on the toilet again. I push open the stall door and stumble across the graffiti covered bathrooms, tripping on sodden hand towels and pushing past college kids blabbering to their inebriated friends about the semi comatose girl they are planning to notch up on their Ikea bedposts before dawn. I head out into the bar as the sound system pumps out a sound track that reminds me of that annoying guy at a party who is trying to make friends with everyone.
A young girl runs head on into me. Earlier in the night she probably spent hours preening and running through a montage of outfits with her friends as they laughed and drank, but now her ruffled appearance makes her looks like she might fit all too easily on the streets of the downtown east side. "I am drunk and I lost my friends" she garbles at me squinting and swaying slightly like their was perhaps a strong breeze in the room. Before I can say anything one of the guys from the bathrooms swoops pasts and grabs her in a way that reminds me of a recent documentary I saw where giant eagles grabbing mountain goats from the cliffs in their huge talons and dragged them to their fate.
I stumble back to my seat to find my friend being accosted by a girl that looks like she might turn from Gwyneth Paltrow to Jaja Binks before dawn in some kind of cruel reverse Cinderella story. He gives me the 'lets go' look and I down the rest of my lukewarm beer, that tastes disturbingly like licking a battery, and head home. I don't know how I ended up here but somehow I know I will be back. -
Review from Emily H.
Vancouver, BC
11/4/2008
Blastramp Thursdays are awesome. Drinks are super reasonable-- less than $5 for a double, if I'm not mistaken? I can't speak to any other night. I saw Gang Violence here and they were hot like fire. On top of that, the DJs always kill it-- I'd say that Blastramp, over any other regular event I know in Vancouver, takes the cake for consistently making me dance dance dance. (Could there be more than a correlational relationship between this fact and the aforementioned cheap doubles?) Seriously though, their mixes are dope for dancing, and impressively ecclectic as well-- Return of the Mack, anyone?
It's also the perfect size-- big enough to avoid someone who you hadn't planned on running into....but small enough so I don't lose my friends. -
Review from Simon R.
BC
12/17/2008 1 photo
Really, the worst part of going to the Bourbon is when you show up after 10pm and you have to wait in line. The line-up isn't so bad; it's just that it seems so ridiculous to be waiting to get into such a lowbrow filthy party bar. It tries to be classy, with lush circular leather couches and long tables in the front and back, but it can't hide the fact that the floors are stickier than wet cement and there's a long trough for peeing in the men's washroom.
But once enough of the cheap booze has sunk in, everybody gets sloppy enough to have a good time. Management seems to have a personal preference for danceable classic rock, and it does get people to work off their Jagger bombs on the dance floor.
Somehow though, this place gives off a creepy machismo vibe, staffed by huge upper body gorillas and the overstated cleavage of waitresses carrying ammunition holsters full of shooters. It's a hotspot for prissy West Side girls to find a man with an expensive shirt and make out with him in the hobo filled alley, and for drunk guys with a ton of gel in their hair to not wash their hands after peeing. -
Review from Richard S.
Vancouver, BC
6/28/2011
This place opened early purely to get the game 6 crowd in to buy drinks. What was really cool about the staff is they had absolutely no problem with outside food because the bar itself doesn't offer food. People were having pizza delivered to venue. It was awesome of them to allow this for the patrons since they knew full well they had nothing to offer other than the small bags of chips they have to have behind the bar by law.
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Review from Emily C.
9/13/2009
Again, this is a place where I can totally see people hating on it! It's in a questionable part of town but has hella colourful characters. And rarely boring.
I had my 25th birthday here couple years ago. My less than adventurous friends called it: "skeezy".
My first time here was when I was just a young girl of 20. There was a short line up. We asked if we could cut the line and the bouncer told us to wait 5 minutes. He then proceeded to let this 300-pound older lady in first (who was waiting in line before us), who was also downing a super-size bag of McDonalds fries.
I like that. I loathe the places that cater to Vancouver girls who think they "don't have to ever stand in line!" It shows character.
The place is pretty big, and awesome for live bands. They used to have a smoking section outside, but I think that may be gone. Drinks are cheap and the dancing area is really cool. Awesome hard wood floors. -
Review from Luisa S.
Vancouver, BC
11/4/2008
The Bourbon is one of Vancouver's growing live musical venues. It's located right on the cusp of Gastown (just before it segues into the sketchy bit... well, sketchier, anyway) and right next to that huge parkade where the number of people urinating outweighs the number of cars.
I came here for a Halloween event just last week and while queuing was necessary, it wasn't nearly as long a wait as some of the other neighbouring places. Everyone seemed in good (and ghostly) spirits. Given the nature of the night, it was hard to get a good feel for what this place is truly like.
What I can say is this: the acoustics are good. The stage is smack in the middle, making it literally the centre of the show whether you're hanging by one of the two bars, playing a game of pool or lounging at one of the tables in the far corners.
There's usually a cover charge but price fluctuates depending on the type of event. -
Review from Cameron M.
Toronto, ON
12/17/2008
The Bourbon was always our watering hole during my first few years of University. While it's not a very nice place or, in fact a classy place at all, it had the best mix of quietude, cheap drinks and atmosphere that most places in the area had to offer. It wasn't as disgusting as the cambie and it didn't have the line of the Blarney Stone.
Things haven't changed much since then to the last time I've been there. They have pretty tight security since a weird accidental shooting years ago. But the drinks are still the same price, the tables are still a little sticky and the urinal is still some sort of trough.
This isn't a sweet club to head to with friends, it's not a nice pub to relax in but as a place to simply get the job done, it's suitable. You can bring a big group and get tables and from time to time there's good music or DJs working the minuscule dance floor.
Whenever we're hard up we consider the Bourbon and it usually suits our needs and you can't ask for much more than that. -
Review from Luke L.
3/2/2011 1 Check-in Here
kind of a dump, beer's cheap, and you get pensioners on a tuesday afternoon. thing is, some tuesday afternoons that's exactly what i'm looking for, and if you do too, then maybe the 50 Bourbon is the place for you.
i guess it gets busy friday/ saturday nights when they have live music sometimes, but that's not why i go there so i can't really speak to that. -
Review from Sarah O.
9/6/2009
After spending hours liquoring myself, I stumbled in here to watch a friend's band perform. Walked into this poopy little stink bar and was forced to pay $10 cover, fine. Went to the bar and ordered beer on tap. BAD IDEA. All of our beers smelled, excuse my french, like fart. Then we paid $10/hr to shoot pool in their tiny, crooked table, all the while drunk idiots came up to us asking if they could join. NO. This place is all bad. Avoid at all costs.
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Review from Chaz G.
Richmond, BC
4/3/2010
While I was unable to stay long enough to write a fair review , I will say that yes the place is located in a bit of a dingy area , it was a down to earth pub. I was enjoying myself and drink till I had to leave .
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Review from Nicole L.
Vancouver, BC
8/27/2008
It's nice to go to a club and not have to wait in line for an hour just because I don't leave my house at 7pm for a night out on the town. An added bonus is that this bar has never been insanely busy when I've been there, so you have room to move and may even have a place to sit down if you want. The music is a range from pop to indie to alternative to live bands, and certainly offers many opportunities to bust a move on the dancefloor. Although don't bother trying to smuggle that last bit of your wine into the club hidden in your purse - they do bag checks. And they will take it away. I'm just saying.
