The Community Bar

mai pham Scout

Joined 6 years ago

A great place to chill with friends. Got here around 6pm on a Thursday nice and had the entire place to myself. Front row parking, full attention of the bartender, seats to choose. The sun was shining through the windows and although I could have chosen a spot on the patio, I decided to stay inside an chill. Happy hour prices are great ($1 off the regular menu of drinks), which are reasonably priced around $4-6 regular, which means happy hour will only set you back $3-5/drink. I ordered one of the wells for $3 and waited for my friends to start trickling in. The bar menu had some surprising choices with Asian influences, and on the recommendation of the bartender, Bridget, I ordered the dumplings for about $7. A large plate came out with at least 10+ dumplings, a tasty treat and surprisingly delicious for this small understated joint. Turns out the bar owner/chef, named Bob, who I spied at all corners of the bar in a white chef's jacket, has a flair for food creation, and on this particular night we were treated to some of his off the menu efforts: crispy spring rolls with chicken and goat cheese (can I just say YUM?), chicken quesadillas, cute little mini tacos with a spicy pico kick, and chicken curry spiced flatbread pizza were on our sampler menu. By the time the sun set, the ambience definitely turned up a notch with minimal lighting casting a glow on the patrons surrounding the bar. "It's definitely what you make of it," one of my friends said, and it was. Community bar is not going to be packed to the hilt with pretentiousness - this is a place to come and relax with friends for surprisingly good bar eats that aren't your typical chicken wings or heavy fried food, good reasonably priced drinks (the pineapple martini was perfect), a nice patio if you feel like it, where you can focus on your company and just have a great chill time.