Part of the Gay Costa Mesa Guide — bars, events & things to do.
Costa Mesa, California
Orange County's oldest LGBTQ+ bar, a swanky Victorian-style lounge.
Orange County's longest-standing gay bar, with roots that reach back to the 1950s, which makes it one of the oldest continuously LGBTQ+ spaces in Southern California. The Victorian saloon interior gives it away: red pin-and-tuck banquettes with brass foot rails, velvet-flocked wallpaper, ornate gold sconces and hardwood floors, all of it a world away from the warehouses and breweries around it in Costa Mesa's SoBeCa arts district. There's no dance floor here, and that's the point. Tin Lizzie is a pool-table-and-jukebox kind of room, built for conversation and a properly made drink rather than a late-night crush. Karaoke and drag bingo keep a few nights on the calendar, but the real draw is a low-key, mixed crowd of regulars who've been coming for years, a neighborhood bar in the truest sense. For anyone south of Long Beach who doesn't feel like driving into LA, it's the anchor of the local gay scene.
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