Smitty's Bar

I walk in soberly, visiting my partner’s dad for the first time. I’m a bartender from NYC. The bartender says he will serve me a “half-beer” because I am “swaying in.” My partner orders us shots and he says “not for her” while a woman is falling behind us drunk and he keeps serving her. Awful experience.

Neighborhood bar with good vibes. Brunette waitress is nice but the older blonde has an attitude... She seems to only like locals.

Cool chill place to come an enjoy a nice beer or stiff drink. This bar is a bar where locals hangout. If you are looking for a chill place to relax play some pool and unwind from a stressful day this is the place in Sausalito to relax. Walking distance from Main Street in this small chick city.

Bartenders had it rough with our group. And then some of our group got overpoured and dropped a drink on the floor. They were gentle and quick to clean around, and patient despite our rubbish behavior.

Great service with great beers you couldn't ask for much more. Just get yourself down here and find a place to chill and enjoy the bar games and beers.

Great local bar in Saulsolito. Very friendly bartender, all around excellent watering hole. They have pool table, shuffle board and foosball table

Really welcoming atmosphere for our group as we were walking around Sausalito and looking for something approachable after a long walk across the bridge. Pool tables, juke box, long bar, cheap drinks. They had some special flavored tequilas they were making some nice on-the-fly cocktails with for some in our group, and we were really happy with them.

Its a nice neighborhood bar. Friendly regulars, a great, well maintained pool table, and good beer selection on draught.

Nice little dive bar! The bartender was good too, which is always a surprise at dive bars. Had a great Manhattan and boulevardier!

Said all my buddies IDs were fake when we were all 22, didn't even look at them just glanced at our ids then said they were all fake, did take them though, clearly didn't want to do his job and check.

One night, my girlfriends mom mentioned going to a bar with "shoots and pool." As someone who loves playing pool, I wanted to give this place a go. So, we went out on Friday night. It was my first time going to a bar in Sausalito. Overall, it's what you would expect from a dive bar. You have your stoic patrons sipping on their favorite beer in the back while people watching and extremely drunk party goers. When we came, it was pretty low key and the pool tables were readily available. The bartenders were extremely nice, and the bar had a fantastic selection of beer (craft and not craft). Although we had one funny, but weird encounter with a plastered person, I would come again. Looking forward to playing pool while sipping on some beer at Smitty's again. Maybe I'll chat up one of the stoic patrons in the back.

Amazing local bar! Everything I could ask for when wandering a town. They had multiple pool tables, 3 I think. A shuffle board, darks and pin ball. The bar was open and had a great layout! The bartender / owner was so friendly and wonderful. Such a great chill local vibe if you are looking to play some pool and have a beer or two. The pool tables were $2 a game and the tables were in great shape!

Love this place! It's such an unexpected gem to find in the middle of Sausalito! We always get great service, they have fun music on the jukebox, great ballgames on the TV's, and getting to play pool while enjoying all these things is icing on the cake. The bartender, Dawna, is hilarious and kind hearted. Every time I have gone in there and she is behind the bar, we have a great time. Highly recommend!

My friends and I came across Smitty's after a dinner on the fourth of July. We ordered drinks which were pretty reasonably priced - $6 beers and $9 mixed drinks - but they didn't seem to contain too much alcohol. The pool table was fun though

Great no-frills locals dive with friendly people and pool tables. We started with dinner at Saylor's and walked over and it made for a nice casual evening out.

There aren't many bars in Sausalito. There are some wine bars, and some restaurants with decent bars (the Seahorse, the Trident), but not a lot of stand-alone bars. You're pretty much limited to the No Name Bar and Smitty's. I prefer Smitty's. I started coming here years ago when I had some friends living on boats nearby. The bar dates to 1938. There are pool tables and a shuffleboard. The prices are better than average. The clientele is mostly locals.

Looking for some fun in Sausalito on a Saturday night, look no further than Smitty's. This dive bar has it all: a) cheap booze b) colorful patrons c) fun games to play while you imbibe d) they allow you to bring outside food inside. A Saturday evening at Smitty's usually plays out the same - a few tequila shots with cerveza chasers, a couple games of pool and darts, an Uber ride home, a few Advil before bed, and a late (slow) start on Sunday morning.

I rarely review my usual haunts, don't know the reason for this. Obviously they're all 5 star or I wouldn't come back again and again. But I was randomly looking up a few of my faves to see what yelpers think and as I suspected there are more than a few who misunderstand what this place is about. OK it's a "dive bar" if that helps give it an identity for you. But if you've been around more than a few decades this term really misses the point. Smitty's is still a genuine blue collar bar that has been invaded by nouveau Marinites looking for cheap thrills on weekends. To them it's a dive bar, and slumming is an older and much less dignified term for what these young hipsters are doing. OK no problem, more the merrier and the proprietor needs you to enjoy it for whatever reason. But the customers who were coming here decades before your parents were married didn't see it that way. This was a place where steel workers who built liberty ships or crawled up the north tower to build the Golden Gate Bridge came at the end of a day to down a few before walking home to the old lady. As for interesting weird characters these are the guys you see on a weekday afternoon, not advertising much about themselves but plenty of stories to tell once they get a line on you. But it aint no fern bar or no name neither. This anachronism is the real deal. Highly advise to check it out.

Forget this place. Came by to use the restroom (9 months pregnant) said "hi" and unintentionally scared the elderly female bartender. Apologized and then asked to use the restroom. On my way out she told me "next time start with 'hi' or I'll knock that baby right out of you. Boycotting this sh** hole. What kind of a human threatens a pregnant woman and her fetus at noon on a Saturday? The lowest of the low.

How the night brought us here I still do not know but I'm sure glad it did. I ventured here last night with two of my friends. One of them had been here before and we caught an Uber from SF late last night. We had decided to shoot pool and this was the place she recommended. It's been a while since I've played so I figured we'd kick back a few beers while we tried to brush up our skills on the billiards table. Our Uber dropped us off and warned us that we might have a hard time finding an Uber back to the city. We walked up a little unsure of what to expect. It was pretty empty inside upon arrival and we sat at the bar. Bartender was friendly and got our drinks. Beers in hand, we make our way to a table but realized that it was already taken by a few local guys who had walked away from the table. They walked up and offered to play teams with us. Fast forward an hour later we had finished a few games, got some pointers from our new pool shark friends, and were having a great time. Thank you Trevor and Nolan for the games and good times! I'd definitely go back aaaallllll the way to Sausalito for the friendly atmosphere and friendly people. Btw, we had no problem getting an Uber back to the city. :-)

Used to go here about 10 years ago. One thing has stayed the same. The staff is not always friendly. Definitely a dive bar for the local fisherman. But still can be fun 3/5

The bar itself is a pretty great locale and comfortable vibe for an otherwise upper class area. Unfortunately, the bar tender we were just served by is arguably the most abrasive person I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. I have to assume she owns the place based on her condescending and belittling attitude. To put it simply: My husband and I live in Silicon Valley and we have a friend visiting. We arrived in the bar to catch the last 5 minutes of the Alabama/Georgia game. The bar seats were mostly full so we stood behind a few empty seats and tried to started to order drinks. The lady said "it's a lot easier for me if you all give me your drink orders at once" and proceeded to make us feel super awkward for looking at/contemplating the options. Then when she brought us the beers she rudely announced that we have to tell her the tip before checking out, and said "I assume you all have IDs on you?" (We're 30). We were standing at the bar watching the game and talking and she essentially told us we needed to go watch at a different tv bc we were being too loud. I hope her day gets better, because she was mean enough for me to write my first negative review ever. Definitely don't go to this place if you like to be around nice people.

The bartender was extremely rude. We wanted a shot which consisted of two ingredients. She said they would only make a one ingredient shot out of the bottle. She said they were not a "mixology" place. Her recommendation was that we go to San Francisco!

With relief, I pull up Smitty's Bar on Yelp and find it categorized simply as "bar", not "dive bar", a phrase which is all too frequently misappropriated. Smitty's is indeed just a bar, the old fashioned kind that doesn't charge $12 - $14 for a cocktail nor throw in any mandatory tip. That it's off Sausalito's main drag, away from the hub of tourism, means that it gets a neighborhood crowd and even if you're not a neighbor it still feels like a neighborhood bar. That Smitty's feels like the type of bar that people wouldn't think of when someone says "Sausalito bar" is a compliment. Still, we're within the ring of concentric circles emanating from the Bay Area's culinary force field so you know what that means. Smitty's serves craft beer from Anderson Valley and Pinot Noir from Acacia Vineyards in addition to the usual booze (but not at San Francisco prices). One glass of Acacia Pinot Noir plus two 16-oz craft beers from Anderson Valley ran a completely reasonable $18. With multiple pool tables, a stand-up shuffIeboard table, a pinball machine, a whole mess of TVs, and all that booze you could misplace a whole evening in here. In that regard, it's much like Larkspur's Silver Peso (an equally good choice). It seemed a curious selection, but as I departed Smitty's a stretch limo pulled up and a gaggle of pretty young things descended through its doors. So Smitty's isn't some undiscovered quantity despite its non-Bridgeway location. If it looks like a bar and smells like a bar (it does), it's a bar. The absence of hipsters and tourists and presence of locals, even if the space isn't spiffed up like a preening peacock, doesn't turn it into a dive bar. Yelp has this listing right. Smitty's is a great place to go when you're looking for a few drinks and a little fun.

Why 4 stars? Because it filled the need. --- --- --- We were on a family vacation and looking for a bar with a halfway decent beer selection, that had fun things (i.e. pool) to do to entertain ourselves, while we killed time before our dinner reservations. Oh, and we were also hoping to charge our phones are a long day of Bay Area picture taking :) Smitty's was perfection. Friendly bar tenders, plenty of bar games, some decent beers, and a really great group of fellow patrons. We were in a large group of non-locals, and everyone we talked to was so incredibly friendly. And Smittys didn't mind letting us re-charge our gaggle of iPhones. It may seem like a blip on the radar to some, but to us, it was a really memorable stop on our tour! BONUS: It was here, that I witnessed my mom take the first sip of alcohol that she's consumed since I've been alive.

One of my favorites. You can tell it's a great dive because of all the tone deaf 1 star reviews on here. Doing God's work.

Stopped in here after a day out in the sun kayaking. My friend & I wanted a simple drink off the main road so we would avoid the large crowds. Parking was relatively easy as we found parking along one of the side streets. The bar itself was very spacious and clean. My friend & I both ordered the home made sangria and it quenched our thirst. The bartender was friendly and I could tell she was entertaining her regulars with the games that were on TV. We didn't partake in the pool tables but I will definitely keeping this place in mind as a great kick back place.

Tried going to this "dive" bar with my leashed dog. Opened the door to excited patrons yet despite not serving food the half-toothed bartender told me "no babies and no dogs". Great way to get new residents to never come to your bar again.

This is a fun dive bar after straying away from the bougieness of Sausalito. Rolled 20 deep into this bar.. all less than sober. We put some money into the digital jukebox hoping to hear some tunes but they were so quiet I went to ask the bartender about it.. and her response "do you know how loud you guys are being?" "uhhh.. well, lady, do you know how many drinks we're buying?" I'd be surprised if a bartender was nice in such a divey/trucker bar. I'd come back!

It's a pretty cool bar with pool tables and a dart board. I've been going there for about twenty years. My biggest issue is that they don't allow my Basset Hound puppy or any leashed dog in there even if it's dead (the bar, not the dog). One would think that after Covid, they would reconsider as my friends and I who got new buddies during the pandemic lost our local watering hole.

How does this dive bar have that many reviews? I came here last night with a bunch of colleagues, I asked if there is a change machine as we wanted to play a round of pool. The bartender said he was the change guy, I said cool, can I get 2.00 in quarters. He said "yes, be patient or else I'll come around and slap you". Excuse me? 1. I waited for you to come over to even ask what he could do to help. 2. You do NOT talk to ANY female like that 3. You might be old but let me remind you not allowed to put hands on anyone, we learned this in kindergarten to keep our hands to ourselves this was probably ancient history for you. This is a true dive bar and with a super disgusting bartender speaking to young females in that manner and FYI you old sir, you slap me you'll catch these hands.

Pretty much a locals dive bar that we happened to find cause we were looking for a place to play darts. They have a 4 pool tables I believe a dart board and a shuffle board. The dart board is old school and you have to keep track of the score by hand but its free so you can't beat that. The drinks are priced good and there are plenty of tvs that have sports on. I'd definitely come back.

I would give zeros stars if possible, I am a local in Sausalito and wanted to check out the this popular dive bar I've known since as a kid and now I'm an adult and wanted to check it out and ran into a racist ass patron. This was during the pandemic when they slightly lifted restrictions so I was eager to get out and once you walk in as expected it's a dive bar vibe which is cool but I walk into the bathroom and this white guy immediately walks in behind me and says " make sure you wash your hands" in a condescending tone and slams down hand sanitizer in front of me when there was already soap and sanitizer to begin with, gives me a dirty look and storms off. I am Asian and I took this as a aggressive action that was unnecessary, so really wanting a drink I go to the bar but the bartender completely ignores me talks away with regulars and at one point even makes eye contact with me but just talks away anyway, after this I just walked off, this place sucks

What a gem located off the main drag in Sausalito. My fiance and I were in Sausalito on a particularily hot day and wanted to grab some affordable drinks and food while watching college football. After a quick yelp searched I found Smitty's was just around the corner from where we were walking. Seeing it looked like a standard dive bar with only potato chips as a food option I called them up about bringing in your own food and the friendly bartender said we could as long as we cleaned up, etc. So, we grabbed some sandwiches next door at Drivers Market (highly recommend!) and headed over for a cold one (or two!) Smitty's has that great local dive bar feel. Not at all busy with plenty of bar seating, pool tables, about 6 different TVs all playing college football and a super friendly bartender serving up a great selection of draft beers and cocktails. For the area everything was reasonably priced ($5+ for drafts) and there was a little something for everyone to choose from (Grapefruit Sculpin to Bud Light). Great find for getting away from the main tourist street and hangin with some locals.

Smitty's is the perfect place in the neighborhood to grab a drink with a lot of familiar places. However, I wish this place felt more like a comfortable pub rather than dive bar. This is your average bar where you can grab a cold drink and not expect anything fancy. Pluses are that there is a shuffle board, plenty of pool tables, and plenty of TVs to watch the Giants games.

I love to come here on a Friday night and hang out with the locals of Sausalito. This place is awesome! The guys working at the bar are great. I love how there are FOUR pool tables, a dart board, a foosball table, and (another game that i cant remember the name of). The people have the power of music (there is a music box with lots of music to choose from!) Overall a great place to meet the locals and have some (not too crazy) fun!

Sausalito is a shiny place. It's a world class destination, with world class views of SF, where the likes of Larry Ellison sails & parks his yacht on a regular basis. So, understandably, these rather choice characteristics are surrounded by all the befitting players; art galleries, 5 star hotels, & at least 1 Maserati, or Ferrari, or Lamborghini, in every parking lot. What you might not expect to find in such a setting, is quietly & inconspicuously tucked away off of the main street. It's a little dank, a little dark, & a welcome dose of reality in this very unrealistic setting. It's a real neighborhood bar. In a space that's far more reminiscent of big city underbelly than luxury ocean resort town, Smitty's offers a comfortable refuge from any & all of the entrapments, welcome or otherwise, of your life. Just like a proper neighborhood bar should. It's not fancy. They don't need to know your name. You'll be treated the way they treat everybody else. There are the locals, the regulars, the hard core regulars, & the strictly night-out-on-the-towners. Whatever group it is, they all have one thing in common... they're all here for the good time that Smitty's always delivers. Friday & Saturday nights are a zoo. Young & old, stiff pours & reckless revelers successfully bring all the usual debauchery. But, come by on a sleepy, weekday, early evening, & it's the polar opposite. The bartender will happily try to match a beer, cocktail, or mocktail to your specific taste & preference. He or she will demonstrate the old school & dying art of personable service that is customer driven rather than sales driven. You might share a laugh, or anecdotes about this area, or your hometown. You wind down. Smitty's is a good place to take a breather. And who doesn't need one of those once in a while? 4 stars.

CLEAN! and drinks are inexpensive and the people are chill! The bartender very welcoming and polite.

A bar that's cool. It's not fancy nor does it try to be. Maybe a botanical drink to appease the yuppies, but this bar is made for pool players, shuffle boarders, and beer drinkers. Maybe -.3stars for the small ass knee touching door bathroom.

The most dive that ever existed in one place at once. I am not a huge fan of dive bars because I care more about the beer than how sticky my seat is, which is why the three stars, but if you are into dive bars then this may be a 5 star place for you. The beer selection was meagre, atmosphere extraordinarily divey, and the cash bar was annoying. I would not come again but understand why some people like this kind of place.

This is one of my favorite places to hang out and watch football! Friendly staff, bring your own food, and enjoy Sausalito! Pool tables and a fun place to meet friends!

Great place, great bartenders, would recommend. There are quite a few bar games available to play. Good beer selection, 15 dollar minimum. Spilled a drink and the bartender replaced for free - a sign of a good bar.

A few years ago this review would have been a 1-2 star. I hated the bartenders at Smitty's, mostly because I came in here and had a tendency to cause a bit of a ruckus. Not sure why, but Smitty's was always able to get me riled up. Whether it was drunken houseboat heathens stealing my pool table or stuck up thirtysomething divorcees whining that me and my underage friends were stealing their thunder...we got thrown out of here a few times. It could have just been the underage part but it's more interesting to blame small town scandals. Recently, a friend and I swung through here after brown bagging two bottles of champagne at the new Trieste (I think it's called A Touch of Rome now) and despite the rain and the holiday weekend, Smitty's was on fire. All the pool tables were full. I tried to negotiate a game of shuffleboard only to recieve blank stares from the older dude sanding his lane. I guess my oversized flannel and skater shoes weren't having their usual persuasive effect on these men. So despite the lack of bar games we sidled up to the bar and enjoyed $7 grey goose sodas (this is especially exciting for me coming from New York where they are twice the price usually). The bartender was sweet and friendly plus the patrons were actually not too bad looking for suburban folks. Overall, I was impressed and will now put this back on my radar when I'm visiting the folks. And now that my ruckus-causing days are over, I think they're happy to have me.

Go, just go. You won't be disappointed, that is, as long as you are not expecting a fancy lounge where the creme de la creme of Marin citizens are sipping on pricey martinis. This is a local's joint. Old, rustic, with no nonsense bartenders and enough people watching to last you an evening. My fiancé and I view this as our spot, because when we were dating, this was the only bar in Marin where we could stay for hours, talk all night and chuckle when our favorite, odd local sat down in their usual spot, at their usual time. This is as unique as Marin gets. A fun local vibe in an otherwise typical town.

This is basically the maintenance bar for people living in Sausalito -- both the folks on the hill and the variety of boat-dwellers. Smitty's has a rich history that is worth looking up -- it actually started as a beer and soda pop bottling plant, then became a combination bar and Chinese restaurant in the late 30's. This must have been a crazy place when Marinship, just across Bridgeway, was cranking out Liberty ships and oil tankers during WW2, what with 20,000 or more workers coming off shift at all hours and thirsty. It still is, but it's a different kind of crazy. The boat people are a fringy tapestry of salty mariners, old hippies, FiDi bachelors, and au pairs. And although the people on the hill may have more money, a lot of them are kind of on the loco side too. This makes Smitty's a fascinating place to have a beer on pretty much any night of the week. You are likely to have a conversation or two here that will stick with you for a while. Keep in mind though, that this is their neighborhood place -- it may be a joint, but remember you're a guest. Be respectful and you're likely to have an enjoyable visit.

It may just be the night I went, or the alcohol I consumed prior to arrival, but I swear everyone in this place was on drugs of one sort or another, maybe to help them cope with the big chip on their shoulder. Sausafuckinlito!!! Extra star for strong drinks and pool tables.

The bartender turned her nose when I tipped her less than 15% on a card thinking I was just leaving that and no additional cash. She said she "didn't even want that" and was very rude after making me wait for her to serve the whole other half of the bar when I was ordering over 6 drinks for my friends birthday. I would never come back here and that old coot can go **** herself.

I give 1/2 a star for the being in an extra good mood due to beautiful weather last Sunday, and half a star for the entertaining patrons.... My coworkers used to stop by after work for drinks, always had a good time. The diviest of dive bars, which I'm a fan of. HOWEVER... They have stumbled across the surliest, unfriendliest bartender EVER. Me and friend: How are your bloody Mary's? Asshole Bartender: Spicy, blah blah, etc. Me and friend: Great! Two, please. 5 minutes later..... Friendly bar patrons: Hey, I think you forgot these ladies' drinks? Asshole Bartender: Uh. yeah. OK. (Bloody Mary's: not too bad, Ask three times for olives) 10 minutes later..... Me and friend: What's on tap? Asshole Bartender: I don't know, go down there and look. Me and friend: Uhh. Ok. To wrap this up, we didn't tip. Neither did the other patrons. Then the bartender walked outside and called them cheap bastards. Nice. :~/

My boyfriend and I were visiting San Rafael, getting lost haha. We found our way to Smitty's to watch the Warriors + Rockets game. Played some pool, met some cool people, drank a little. Such a laid-back kind of bar, we really liked it!

Simple local bar with pool tables, and other game stations! Come here often to play pool and challenge friends to games. What's great about this place it's very close by to home and people know who you are. All the locals come here to drink or relax after hard week! What's fascinating about this place is that it gets super busy on random days!

It's a dump and for that I love it. Here's the thing, someday bars like this are going to disapear, or at least they will in places like Marin, hell they're practically gone now. The only one's left are where the people running it own the building, or they have low rent from years back. People can't make it in this business anymore, running a half way house for wayward alcholics, which is sad because they'll eventually all be replaced with Starbucks, and yuppies on laptops, in workout clothing, talking too loud on their I-phones about their spinning classes, and their organic food choices (YAWN). This is a dying breed man, sad to say but it's true. So if you can stand a little color in your life, if you don't mind sitting next to someone who may not have showered in the last 48 hours, and whose clothing really ISN'T Downey Fresh . . . I love bars like Smitty's man, they remind me simpler times. P.S. was back in Smitty's recently one afternoon, there were about 8 guys there total and we were all watching Planet of the Apes, the commentary was classic.

This place was a lot different than I expected based on the previous reviews.... Of course I was there for the 4th of July Parade in Sausalito, and the judging booth is directly outside... and the fact that the Cal Alumni Marching Band marches right on in to Smitty's playing Cal songs.... Perhaps just perhaps this made me real happy.... And Smittys is really cool to Cal... they put ply board on the pool tables so the band could lay down their instruments and in the back they provided free beer to the Bears... I thought it was a nice touch... Or was it that I was with my three best guy pals in the world.... or maybe it was because everyone was happy to be an American today at Smittys..... The Bloody Mary I had was just okay.... but it was just okay enough for me to have two of em.... The bartender we had who happened to be one of the owners was funny as hell.... I really enjoyed myself.... You can tell its a nice mix of people who are probably regulars most of the time. A real cross section of Marin. I'd go back again.... I hope to at the very least go back next year for the 4th. I forgot how much fun it was to watch a small town parade and be with like minded people on a very special holiday. One minor suggestion is "please put hooks under the bar for women to hang their purses and/or men and women to hang their jackets". I am so use to finding hooks that I went on a "feel for one" search and yuck all I found was gum.... Gross!!! (note to self... don't feel. Bend down and look instead)

Great homemade sangria, especially for a neighborhood dive bar. I came into Smitty's mid-day and it was pretty empty and tame. No complaints: service was fine, place was clean, seating was ample.

So, went to Smitty's for a small after work happy hour. They have a decent selection of beers at a good price and 4 good pool tables as well as a fancy digital jukebox. The scene and hometown drunks is what brings this place down BUT if you come with a nice sized group and take over your own area its great plus you can get pizza delivered half price! AWESOME!

Great for watching sports--you can bring in your own food, or you can wait until the staff magically sets out sandwiches or quesadillas. I have watched many a Giants, 49ers, and Warriors game here and then wandered home. Prices are fine, drinks are good, but keep in my that it's a local joint that has been around for decades, and people can be a little surly at times. They also roast a whole pig outside every so often, if that's your thing.

This bar should probably be renamed "Surly sailors and the women who love them." For this reason, this place is AWESOME.

The staff is beyond rude here. Stopped by to ask if they had Sunday ticket and was met with rude answers like "we have TVs don't we" and just an unwarranted major attitude. Glad I checked it out before actually spending any money here.