The Alibi is a great bar to go to if you have only a few dollars but still want to go and drink in a delightful place that doesn't smell a lot, and sports cheap pool tables.

The bar is open from 8am to 2am, and is never empty of customers. The patrons range from old men who've been going there every day since the dawn of time, to the young club kids slumming it in the back room until the regular evening clientele scares them off. The night-time regulars are aged between 22 and 38 (give or take), and come to drink cheap beer, shoot pool, listen to the jukebox, watch each other, talk about each other, fight with each other (though actual physical violence is very rare, and frowned upon), and sometimes stumble home with each other.

The Alibi is situated at the east end of Hillcrest, a part of San Diego that is home to a large gay and lesbian population. It does not exclude anybody. It's not a straight bar, it's not a gay bar, it's just a neighbourhood bar. The bartenders are good people, the doormen are courteous, and the customers are friendly.

There's just one thing that could be improved upon, though. The men's room is not somewhere you should go unless you have good thick shoes and a tolerant attitude towards badly-aimed urine. The toilet seat, the cistern, the toilet paper dispenser, the wood-panelled walls, and especially the floor of that tiny, low-ceilinged, one-man box are perpetually coated with the glossy sheen of human male urine.

But pool is cheap there, and if you want a glass of beer a Big Dipper costs only $2, so it's okay.