Nick on the Town

B is for Backdoor Lounge

August 18, 2008 at 8:47 pm 3 comments

The Backdoor Lounge
1112 Firehouse Alley
Old Sacramento

The Backdoor Lounge is an Old Sacramento landmark.

Conveniently hidden behind a restaurant with much pricier drinks, the Backdoor is a popular post-dinner spot which often turns into an all night spot without you even realizing it. Tourists lucky enough to find it mingle with the regulars as they all enjoy a little step back in time.

If you love hip, modern and contemporary don’t even bother with Old Sacramento let alone the Backdoor. This lounge is 100% vintage from the fuzzy wallpaper to the well-loved barstools to most of the folks who drink there.

I was fortunate enough to visit on karaoke night and if you’ve never seen an 80 year-old sing Secret Agent Man then you’ve never lived. Much to his pleasure, he was quickly surrounded with women half his age go-go dancing around him. We should all be so lucky.

While I love a dimly lit bar, it’s not the best situation for taking pictures…especially with my not-so great camera phone so I apologize for the lack of photos.

However, if I had taken photos what you would have seen was a lot of dark red, some shiny stuff and some real 1960s charm. Also, if I had taken a bunch of rapid fire photos of myself while I was talking and you assembled a flipbook out of them you would have seen me mouth the words “This place is awesome.”

Highlights
* The aforementioned 80 year old singing Secret Agent Man
* One of the last real jukeboxes in town…not one of them Internet numbers.
* Lots of old-timers

Price
* Very reasonable for Old Sacramento, but it’s easy to find cheaper drinks outside the historic district. Of course, I made a friend buy my drinks and, if you do that, it’s totally free.

Clientele
Experts who have been drinking there for years and a nice assortment of other folks who found themselves in Old Sacramento after 8pm.

Entry filed under: ABCs of Drinking in Sac, Bars, Nightlife. Tags: .