Eleven

Great Dive Bar and local Music scene. Great staff… Thanks Zippy! It is in an interesting location, which is nice to get out of the norm that you can feel like when you drink around downtown or hillcrest. i also remember the drinks to be a little stronger than most places which excites me. Cheers.

Great little El Cajon Blvd bar, small stage in back, but the sound is pretty damn good for the size and acoustics are decent.
Had a friend from Austin come across and play her yukelele, yes yukelele solo and she ROCKED!!! Little Brave is the name of her band, who dissed her and did not show, so she rocked on her own! go Stephanie
first time I ever rocked to a yukelele!!! unforgettable — even the «biker guys» loved the show!!! got into a conversation with a Diablo about the show.
great place to see a good band

This is one of my favorite places to watch concerts. Staff is friendly, quick, and Its small enough to really feel the music but not hot and uncomfortable like some other venues in town.

Dive on in to this Divy-​est of Dive Bars. I live right around the corner from this bar so I might be a little biased.
The Good: The bartenders are great. Justin is cool guy who kind looks like an older version of Skrillex. They have great beer selection and their Bar11 Lager is pretty darn tasty. One of my favorite things at Bar11 is DAS BOOT!!! You can buy a boot of beer for $ 20 (about the equivalent of 3 beers) and the night you buy it, you can refill it for $ 5. It’s a great value. Sundays are karaōke, and there’s live music there almost all the time. They load their walls with local art that can be purchased and local people there are pretty darn cool.
The Bad: The only thing I don’t like about Bar11 (and Soda Bar too for that matter), is the cover. Sometimes we’ll come looking just for a quick beer and find out they are charging $ 7 cover or something ridiculous for a band no one has ever heard of. I’ve been to amazing concerts downtown for $ 20 admission. It was worth it. Paying $ 14 for a band no one’s ever heard of is beyond ridiculous. This isn’t always the case obviously but when it does happen it’s definitely a deterrent.
Overall: This bar is my go-​to because I live around the corner but if you are on the Drinkabout (a free ride pub crawl, look it up on facebook) it’s a great place to stop and hang out.

Cool dive and the bartenders have always been polite.
Live bands and karaōke (sorry don’t know the days)
Super cheap AND support local artist which is pretty awesome!

Dive bar with cool musical acts!
Spacious for a dive bar! Bigger inside than it would seem from the outside.
Great crowd of interesting people. Came here and saw my first metal show. Would come back just to have a night out that’s off the beaten path, being around different people and listening to music that I don’t normally listen to. Hurray for Eleven!

Love this place! Such a small dive, but good beer and good peeps. The double chocolate porter was absolutely delish! And the bartender got all the patrons and the staff pizza from a local pizza vendor. Check this place out if you are in the neighborhood.

Saw my friends band play last Saturday afternoon (Mark aka Harpo).
I felt out of place because I don’t have a ZZ Top beard or a hipster hat…

The acoustics are quite good for such a small venue. A few good craft beers on tap, but also has large cans of PBR.

Eleven
SD: Normal Heights
Friday March 16, 2012 at 12:30a.m
Four Stars
There were open late on a Thursday night. This relatively new bar (1.5 years old) is super nice but they made it look like the divey-​est music venue that you can find –Ultra-​Dark, and Very Simplistic. You walk in and there is: the bar on your right, booths to your left, a fooseball table, and a small stage in the back. The bartender was friendly. We ordered a Whiskey with Lemon on the Rocks and a Eleven Hefeweizen (Firestone Brewery) = $ 11.75.
We sat at the booth and played that Perfection Board where you have to match the shapes in under 60 seconds or it explodes.
Note: the management should probably remove the strange homeless lady that sits out front or give her a raise for being the best sort of security — Non-​intrusive but ready to pounce.

Good beer of course but nothing special that you wouldn’t find at its sister bars or other good S.D. beer bars.
The staff can be pretty hit or miss as Leslie G. mentioned. If you don’t like getting paid way more than you deserve to fill people’s glasses with beer, quit. There are plenty of people that would love to take your job.
They get some decent bands here every now and then. The best was the Menzingers back in June of 2010.
Pants karaōke rules!

Eleven is my local. My home. My watering hole. The love of my San Diego nightlife.
All beers — $ 3 on Mondays. A happy hour that doesn’t end before I’ve managed to get off the freeway after work. Decent burgers from the truck out back. Bar staff that is knowledgeable, unpretentious, and remembers who you are and what you like to drink. A killer jukebox. I could go on, but I’m worried that other people might actually show up.
I will miss you when I’m gone, Eleven.

Because it’s too loud at Toronado.
Because I can’t find an open table at Toronado.
Because I can’t decipher the beer menu at Toronado.
Because I can’t digest the mediocre food at Toronado.
Because it’s MNF — Monday Night Fermentation (Toronado = $ 3 California pints, Eleven $ 3 = all pints). I still love you Toronado.

Hamilton’s and small bar are way better than this place. This place just didn’t have the vibe like their brother bars. Perhaps its the location that attracts a different crowd.
They still have good beers on taps, so that’s always a plus.

VERY enjoyable! Stopped in Saturday night to meet a couple friends. I love a non-​pretentious establishment with well priced beverages.
Overall a very friendly crowd and experience. Although I didn’t enjoy getting bumped into as much as I did, it comes with the territory of being in a smaller bar on a Saturday night. That being said, everyone who did bump into me was very courteous and apologized or excused themselves.
There was a food truck out front that I didn’t have the opportunity to patronize since we had just came from dinner. I must say though, the food did look delicious.
I strongly recommend the Eleven Lager, it was light and delicious. I think I shall return to this fine establishment. :-)

I’ve been going to Eleven for trivia every other Sunday fairly regularly. Pouter does a good job on trivia — he gets five stars. The woman who works at the bar who is super nice and friendly also gets five stars.
Several times, though, other employees have been rude to me for no reason. Once, the website said trivia started at 5, even though it always started at 7 before that. So, I called to ask what time trivia started, and the guy who answered acted like my phone call ruined his LIFE, and how dare I be so stupid as to call and ask such a question. Whatever. (Oh, and it turns out the website was wrong, and is quite often wrong on the times for stuff.)
Another time, I called to ask what time they were going to tap their cask, since there is no information on the website, and the guy who answered was a total dick.
Another time, I walked in, and some employee sitting at the bar said «We’re closed.» And, I was shocked, so I said «What?» And, he repeated, «we’re closed.» Maybe he was joking, but he did not say it with a smile, and did not laugh after, just said it straight-​faced like a jerk.
But, even though all but one of the employees seem to be trying to keep me from ever going to Eleven again, for some reason I keep going back for the trivia anyway.
And, it sucks the only vegetarian stuff the food truck has is fries.

It’s like the Casbah, but much smaller, divier, worse parking situation, and with better beer. With that said, it doesn’t excel at being a rock venue as much as more spacious places, but the cover charges are reasonably low. This is definitely a bar where there’s no «beer snobbery» elitism.
And for the low price of $ 2 for a can of Seven Kings beer or $ 4.50 for a tall boy of PBR any time of the day, this place gets two hipster thumbs up from our hero.
PROS:
— Pretty cheap rock shows from no name bands most days of the week.
— Decent beer selection on 18 taps or so.
— Most of their custom cocktails have dirty names like the «Donkey Punch» and the «Money Shot».
— Service is pretty good at the bar and there’s zero attitude.
— $ 3 for all drafts on Mondays, which is mighty fine when they have the likes of Allagash Black on tap.
CONS:
— Pretty big on the hipster scene if you’re into that kinda stuff. Bring your own beard or indie band T-​shirt.
— A little cramped inside.

Same owners as Hamilton’s. Much more bearable crowd. While not as extensive as Hammy’s, a great beer selection which changes regularly. I’m trying really hard not to sound like one of *those* people who has been everywhere «back when it was still cool, dude» because I’m definitely not that cool :) However, has anyone else noticed that the Hammy’s crowd has turned into le douche central on Friday and Saturday nights AND it’s crazy packed?
I’ve been to Eleven throughout the week as well as on a Friday night and Saturday during the day. Friday night it was blissfully uncrowded and we saw a good band on the recommendation of friends. The only reason it was so crowded the Saturday I was there was because of the Bike The Boulevard event… and ummm… we were the reason you had to wait forEVAH for a beer but that seems atypical. We opted to stay behind while the rest of the bikers descended upon Soda Bar and there were maybe a dozen folks in the place? I *love* that they have live music going on regularly AND have calmed down a bit FB’ing about it. Seriously, I almost un-​liked them I was getting so many direct messages about upcoming shows.

I was a huge fan of Liars Club back in the day so I was excited to hear that Louis was going to be running another SD bar.
Although they dont have food inside the bar the truck is a fantastic idea. We picked up some beers from the fantastic beer list inside and threw a few bucks in the jukebox.
Its mainly a music venue now and what a great mix it is with great beers, music and food outside to get your drunk-​ass right after a night of rockin and drinkin.
The Truck serves a few favorites from the old Liars club menu and even has the same font from the old bar which I picked on and it took me back.
Nothing has changed about the Fuego Steak Melt, its still real serious with tons of jalapenos that will wreck your ass literally and figuratively. The burgers are amazing as well and they serve the famous sweet potato fries.
Places like this make me miss San Diego so make this your regular bar if you live here. Its a great joint.

Awesomeness, Coolness, Excellencenesss… that’s right, if you drink beer here, you will piss excellence!!!
Note: Bar opens at 3pm. Owner, please update your Unilocal business page. Luckily, I read one of the reviews and it said it opens at 3.
So I took advantage of this 3−8pm happy hour here at Eleven; $ 1 off all drafts and $ 1 off all cocktails/​wells. I went with the vodka/​pinepple/​cranberry. Hard 2 oz pour for only $ 3.25. Yah, pretty strong stuff. Talking with the bar dude, Justin, said that’s the standard hard liquor pour for this place. They want to maintain the dive bar experience, and motif to ensure patrons come back on a regular basis. This place is also owned by the same people who own Hamilton’s Tavern and Small Bar. And although I have not been to Hamilton’s yet, I did enjoy my time at Small Bar.
No food license yet as of 9.23.10. So what does that mean to you? They’re serving out free crock pot stuff during happy hour. Today, Justin served out some kickin gumbo. Good stuff with chopped up hot dogs, beef, rice, ocra. Awesomness. And it will vary day to day. Weekends are even better; Justin says they open earlier on Sundays and have matinée bands around 3pm’ish and they start serving out BBQ. again for free due to the pending food license registration. So they are not allowed to sell food, but nothing says that they can give away food for free. Ha. cool loop hole. But you need to buy at least 1 drink to get the free food. So not sure how long this meal deal will last. Justin is not aware when they will get there food license. Maybe today… maybe tomorrow. But the BBQ from what he told me sounded pretty good with burgers, dogs, carne asada and chicken.
And with the bands… they generally don’t do cover charges. They might have 1 or 2 super cool bands from England coming in which will require some cover, but other than that, Eleven will cover the costs. Coolnessss.
Décor is super cool for a dive bar. As soon as I walked in, the juke box was playing with speakers set up to maximum. And it was just me at the time. I had to yell at Justin a few times, because it was that loud. Finally, the music stopped and he told me the brief history on the name Eleven. So they just opened up, less than 2 months already. The name Eleven comes from some Spinal Tap movie where 10 was the highest amplifier setting. So they wanted above and beyond that… and Eleven was born, which is why the set up their speakers that loud. They totally re-​modeled the stage from the previous owner and and added sound buffers to minimize reverb… ultimately better sounds everywhere.
They also have a pool table, ATM, and a couple of tv’s. They have nice band posters on the walls, and some old vintage record album covers too for design and stuff. He told me that they are open to all musicians, bands etc with the exception of reggie and rap.
Recap…free peanuts… free crockpot… free BBQ on Sundays… cheap and even cheaper drinks during happy hour… plenty of beer on tap… Excellencenesss!!!

My new favorite bar.
Solid beer selection, an unrushed happy hour (I’m almost certain that it runs from 3pm — 8pm), supplies hidden by curtains of red velvet, bar tops lined with bowls of peanuts, and free chili with all the fixings (well, except cheese)? I’m there in a flash. What makes this place even sweeter are the hidden purse hooks, which can be nonexistent in the seedier bars. What can I say, I’m a lady. With a purse.
Props to the lovely C, our unofficial social director, for yet another excellent find.