The James Joyce

Racist! First i went in there, they took my ID, then they took my beer, and kicked me out at 9:00pm on a monday. I left cause i didnt want to cause trouble… no one of another race got kicked out but us, only mexicans.

Looooovvvveeeee this place. Emmet is my favorite bartender and their Irish coffees are on point! Kudos! Oh, and great karaōke!

James Joyce is the greatest bar I been met amazing people all over the world France, Germany, Brazil, Romania, Poland and more oh yes my best friends are coming from this place I love it ;-) my 5 starts for this place

Can I leave less than one star, this place was the worst place/​bar I have been to! So unbelievably rude. DO NOT GO HERE! Awful service and rude bartenders. Major effing assholes

pint and a powers to recharge the afternoon. the keep yo nuts off the bar tee is great.
isn’t it sacrilege for places that boast authentic motherland status to sell irish car bombs? the ucsb kids love those here. ive witnessed a bartender near faneuil hall once flat out turn down a round of those and said next. sure its turning away money from a customer whoms supposedly right but he played the reserve the right to card and it was great
an ok option when passing thru as i wouldnt mind coming back at night for live music

Nothing special in the afternoon but a nice cold bottle of beer. Nice bartender though. Looks like it gets super busy at night– throw your peanut shells on the floor. Their t-​shirts say «keep your nuts off the bar» ha ha

Trendy club, but kind of stuck up patrons. Good music and the staff was pretty friendly and busted their hump to get drinks out.
Over all I would avoid mostly based on the patrons not the place or staff

Probably the most authentic Irish pub in Santa Barbara. I am basing this and pure atmosphere and ambiance. I love the name… a great Irish reference. When inside, all the wood makes it feel real comfortable and reminds me of some of the pubs that I visited when living in Ireland. The beers are on the pricey side but that is to be expected.
It needs to be noted that this is a great place to catch some live music for free. This is a known thing in Santa Barbara and as a result solid local bands along with good crowds turn out. Not a place that I go to on a regular, but can be a nice spot to spend on a random Saturday or Friday night.

I’ve only been there once, and don’t remember everything vividly (surprise, surprise), but I really liked it. It was packed on a Saturday night, but this is the kind of bar I can easily see myself visiting on other nights. I think it is set up well for live music, and crowds. I loved the attentive bar service even when they were busy, and you can’t go wrong with Stella drafts.

Always love going to the James Joyce on State Street when I’m in town. The bartender was nice and took care of drinks quick and knew what he was doing. We played a game of darts there as we listened to some very… um… bad drunkin Karaōke. But, everyone had fun. Then we went next door and had some awesome french fries covered in cheese, bacon and jalapeños.
Always good here.

Sure, it’s a grand Irish bar. Live music some of the nights, great staff, Guinness which tastes suitably terrible by comparison to the stuff back home, but still necessary sometimes. Jesus though, lads, don’t sell «Black and Tans» or «Irish Car Bombs» to Irish people. For comparison, that’s like us having «Al Qaeda» and «9−11» cocktails. Stahp.

Karaōke night. There were some decent singers. When we walked in it was a duet between the host and some woman who signed up. Pretty good harmonies; everyone that went up throughout the night was pretty good.
Peanut shells on the floor; I eat peanut shells so that novelty was lost on me. To me it’s like dang need a broom much (cause I eat the shells did I mention that)?
If you’re sitting at the bar, look into the mirror behind the bar for a better view of the stage.
Bucket of peanuts in the back. It’s a big barrel of peanuts with some wooden bowls in it. You grab one and scoop some peanuts. Watch out though it’s by the hangout/​dartboard zone over there, so it might surrounded by people.

Had a few Ice cold Black and Tan’s on one of the hottest days in Santa Barbara this afternoon. They play great music like The Jam, and The Clash. Very nice Irish lady bartender. Well done James Joyce Pub.
Cheers!

Spoken in an Irish brogue:
I stumbled upon this pub of sorts
It’s focus drink and darkened wood
Sitting here amongst the snobby cohorts
In a Santa Barbara neighborhood
The barkeep was amiable
In an offhand way
And served the drinks
That quelled my stay
I spoke to her of the namesake drink
Expecting it a frequent choice
But visitors may not highly think
And order in their lowly voice
And so it was I had me drinks
And stumbled on me rambling way
Into the salty air
To stumble ’round another day
FYI, here is The James Joyce Cocktail, order it up:
* 1 ½ ounces Irish whiskey
* ¾ ounce sweet vermouth
* ¾ ounce Cointreau
* ½ ounce fresh lime juice
And now to close with an actual poem by Joyce himself which is fitting for the central coast:
All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters
All day I hear the noise of waters
Making moan,
Sad as the sea-​bird is when, going
Forth alone,
He hears the winds cry to the water’s
Monotone.
The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
Far below.
All day, all night, I hear them flowing
To and fro.
James Joyce
@SBJamesJoyce

Bar is cool but the heavy metal music is so awful you can’t stay in there for 20 mins without getting a headache… Fire the DJ, they blamed it on the juke box but that was bs!