Checking In With: Goat Hill Tavern makes list of ‘Diviest Dive Bars’

Urban Dictionary — hey, what more appropriate source is there? — defines a dive bar as “a well-worn, unglamorous bar, often serving a cheap, simple selection of drinks to a regular clientele.”

Costa Mesa’s Goat Hill Tavern, which recently made Impulcity’s list of “The 32 Diviest Dive Bars in America,” fits that definition up to a point. Well-worn? Check. Unglamorous? The interior, with its weathered street signs, bicycles attached to the ceiling and other bric-a-brac, would qualify. Cheap? Well, everything in the bar is half-price for an hour each day.

As for the simple selection, maybe not. Goat Hill, which was founded in Santa Ana in 1968 and moved to its current spot on Newport Boulevard in 1984, proudly boasts 141 beer taps. The varieties ought to satiate any brew aficionado, and with names like Dead Guy, Arrogant Bastard, Double Barrel, Old Rasputin, Magic Hat #9 and Purple Haze, they might inspire a poet as well.

Considering the establishment’s down-home feel, it’s not surprising that Robert “Zeb” Ziemer, Goat Hill’s founder, and Kevin Sand, his adopted son and the bar’s co-owner, took the Impulcity honor in stride. Still, they took time on the day after New Year’s to talk with the Daily Pilot about Goat Hill’s history — which has sometimes coincided with the history of a local ball club. The following are excerpts from the conversation:

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How did you feel about being named one of the 32 diviest bars in America?

Ziemer: So-so.

So-so?

Ziemer: It doesn’t make any difference to me what they do. I mean, we’re history. We’ve been here forever. You know what I mean? And, as I say, the [Orange County] Register has listed us as the best dive bar for probably the last 10 years, every year, every year and every year. But in my opinion, I don’t know why they want to call it a dive bar. We’re just down to earth, and it attracts people, and we’ve got the system that works.

How do you feel about that phrase “dive bar”? Do you think it’s a good description of Goat Hill?

Ziemer: Well, I don’t know what a dive bar is. I read something in there, and it said some of the dive bars got dirty toilets. But we don’t have dirty toilets. Another time, there was something about a dive bar was completely out of date, and another time, they said we were dancing on the tables. We don’t dance on tables.

Sand: Everything that he’s collected throughout his years, on the ceilings and stuff, kind of gives it that dive-bar feel, I think. But as far as size-wise, you usually think of a dive bar as something being small, and obviously we’re not that.

You make a big deal on the website about your 141 beers on tap. Curious, is there anything special about the number 141?

Ziemer: That’s as much as we could get into the wall.... I started with eight, and I just kept going. One time, we went around the corner, but it didn’t work around the corner, so we came back and we wound up with 141, because that’s exactly how much room we had. [gestures toward the bar] Now, behind that wall is another building, and it’s a big building and it’s full of beer.

Sand: Yeah, behind the wall is, what, 250 kegs back there?

Ziemer: Not many bars could do that.

Do you serve anything other than beer?

Sand: Yeah — wine, liquor, everything.

Ziemer: Anything they make, we sell.

Out of all the 141 beers you have on tap, do you have a favorite?

Sand: My favorites usually change, just depending on when it is. Right now, one of my favorites is probably the — actually, we just got it — the Ska Brewing Co. Buster Nut Brown Ale. It’s pretty good. Or Lagunitas’ IPA is pretty good as well too. So it’s changing. It was different way back when. It used to be Steelhead Extra Pale Ale was one of my favorites, but it changes as the beers change too.

Ziemer: I drink a Bloody Mary or a white wine.

I see the sign here on your wall that says “Angels Headquarters.” What’s the scene like in here when they’re in the playoffs?

Sand: Well, when they made the playoffs last season, every single player was in here but four. Mike Trout spent his 21st birthday in here. John Lackey was a good friend of mine back in the day — or still is — but he was the one who brought everybody in here back then. So when he was in town, if he wasn’t pitching, he’d bring 15 or so people in here trailing behind. Mark Trumbo used to come in. Now he’s with Arizona. Mike Trout, Erick Aybar comes in. My buddy Jered Weaver comes in quite a bit.

What’s the most fun part of running a bar?

Ziemer: That’s a tough one. It was always fun.

There’s a new documentary about Roger Ebert, the former film critic, where they talk about how he used to go to this bar called O’Rourke’s in Chicago, and they said he would hold court — he would get up, he would tell stories, he would have all these people who would hang on his every word. Do you ever have really great characters who come into Goat Hill?

Sand: A lot of characters, but I don’t think anyone necessarily —

Ziemer: We don’t want to listen to them. [laughs]

Sand: Right. I mean, we have so many people come in here, just the whole different crowds as far as people coming in here, now all the way until the happy hour time, and then you have the different crowds that switch come closing — I mean, not closing time, but like after 9 o’clock. And then you just get so busy in here, and the music’s loud, that it’s not the type of place where someone is going to be necessarily talking like that and everybody’s, like, in awe of them — you know what I mean? It’s just more of a huge gathering place that someone’s going to come and play pool or foosball or the two free shuffleboard tables that we have, or maybe watch something on the TV while they’re here. We’ve got all high-definition flat screens throughout.

You’ve been in this article on Impulcity that was about the 32 diviest dive bars in America. So that’s spanning the entire country. Do you ever find people seeking you out as a tourist destination — even people who come from out of state?

Sand: Absolutely. Yeah, there’s people that come in here all the time that do that.

Ziemer: See the sign over there? “Tourists Treated Same as Home Folk.”

So, you’ve got to give me one memory of Goat Hill Tavern in the 1960s.

Ziemer: In the ‘60s, we were overwhelmed by Marines, because both of the Marine Corps bases were still running. You had 500 Marines and 500 girls chasing them.