Best beach bars

By Bryan Sandala
Star-News Correspondent

What makes a good beach bar?

Yes, that’s a rhetorical question. Be relatively near the beach and offer some drinks.

Easy enough.

And while there are plenty of beach bars that dot the sandy landscape, and they all may serve the same beers and mixers, there’s always something that sets them apart from one another. Ambience, clientele, how clearly you can hear the ocean - these are the things that make a beach bar memorable, special even, something more than just a facility for downing some cold ones.

While it might’ve been an exhausting (and dangerous) journey to venture to each and every beach bar stretching from Topsail to Ocean Isle, we’ve tried to hit a few of the special ones, the ones that might be unfamiliar and out of the way. There are beach bars to suit just about every crowd and character.

In order for a beach bar to qualify for this list, it has to be within walking distance from the sand.

Trips to the beach don’t have to end when the sun goes down, so here’s what to do when the sun retreats and you’re not ready to turn in your flip-flops.

Chaser’s Beach Club

Location: 601 Ocean Dr., Oak Island (278-5252)

Distance from the sand: mere feet

Oak Island has plenty of advantages over other area beach communities: there’s less traffic, easier parking, and dogs are always allowed on the sand. Another benefit has to be having a bar located right on the beach, on a dune looking over the ocean. There’s barely a challenge in lobbing a heavy shell from Chaser’s back patio right into the drink.

The “no shirt, no shoes, no service” sign on the front door at Chaser’s seems like a mere formality. Even if the rule is honestly upheld, there’s no denying that they cater to the beach crowd. The bar inside is simple, with a small offering of draft beers and full liquor offerings. There’s a large stage for live music and a dance floor to go along with it. Simple wood-top tables and wood paneling on the walls make it clear that the focus here isn’t on pretty packaging.

Out back and facing the ocean, they offer a tiki bar on the deck. Back inside, there are two pool tables, a handful of video poker machines, and a jukebox that stocks mainly contemporary country, classic rock and beach blanket compilations. After being told the jukebox was free to play, the bartender said, “Just don’t play any rap. If you do, you’ve got to go.” While I was trying to decipher that message, he suggested I play some Eagles tracks to get started.

Chaser’s is free of manufactured ambience. What needs to be added when the beach is right outside? The place certainly has the potential for rowdiness, but this is the type of joint that could handle the challenge. When it comes to the beach bar genre, “beach” comes first and Chaser’s knows it.

Salty McDoogles

Location: 8 E. 2nd St., Ocean Isle Beach (575-4582)

Distance from the sand: 0.2 mi.

Across from Ocean Isle Beach’s modest water park and a short jaunt from the beach, Salty McDoogles offers all kinds of fried grub for the day crowd, and a full-size bar for the night owls. It’s a crowded, rowdy place, and from what I could tell, there was nowhere else nearby open and offering drinks. Everybody’s drawn here.

It’s easy to see why. After having my ID thoroughly checked by the bartender (and then being told I was older than she was), I ordered an on-special greyhound. The bartender poured and poured the vodka, then looked up to wink and smile. I nodded and immediately felt welcomed and at ease. A generous pour the first time out? Thank you very much. In a crowd this size, it’s easy to feel intimidated by the glut of strangers, but when everybody flashes smiles and salutations, it’s impossible not to get more comfortable.

This place caters to the ball cap-and-visor crowd, a bunch of folks who spontaneously broke into an off-key sing-along when the solo guitarist on stage began performing Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. And most of these American idols were wearing their sunglasses at night, on top of their heads. If you’re near the beach or happen to be Corey Hart, the sun may always be a threat.

The beach theme at Salty McDoogles isn’t pushed or forced. The decor is plain. In fact, it’s barely apparent. With a no-frills atmosphere, the focus is instead on community and high times.

Buddy’s Crabhouse & Oyster Bar

Location: 13 E. Salisbury St., Wrightsville Beach (256-8966)

Distance from the sand: 0.1 mi.

Forget the seafood. Save that for the daytime crowd. Buddy’s, which relocated from its old location where Lager Heads now operates to its new headquarters behind Johnny Mercer’s Pier, offers the opposite of a raucous joint, but manages to retain some of that honky-tonk vibe.

Despite the move, Buddy’s hasn’t lost the local charm that made its former location so special. The signed dollar bills are still stapled all over the place, as are the many photocopied rule lists. Policies regarding membership, patron behavior and pets are all there, but a stranger like me was welcomed right in, as was a tiny Yorkie, who wandered around the floor and kept me company for a little while. The guiding principle here was clear: Take it easy.

The glassless windows near the entrance give Buddy’s a tiki-hut vibe, and the wraparound bar offers plenty of space for those who want to lean, brood or take a nap.

It’s hard not to be relaxed at Buddy’s. The sight of a Jagermeister tap can be comforting. And where else are you going to find a towel rack for guests to hang theirs upon entering? There are plenty of TVs, a full-throated digital jukebox, and a few video games.

Despite all the familiar offerings and environs, Buddy’s is still uncommon in that it gets beach bar and neighborhood bar totally correct in a single breath.

Paradise Cafe

102 Jordan Street, Holden Beach (842-4999)

Distance from the sand: 0.1 mi.

If you had to describe the inside of a beach bar solely from imagination, Paradise Cafe is probably what you’d picture. It’s a restaurant/bar that is beach-themed to the hilt, an approximation of Jimmy Buffet’s recreation room. Close to the sea, Paradise Cafe is small and intimate enough for locals, but not without its relaxed, welcoming atmosphere.

After arriving and discovering that I was without any cash, I asked about minimum credit card charges like those at other bars. “Oh, no,” the bartender said, “we’re not like that here.” And with that, the laid-back tone was set. The bar itself has space for three or four stools - the smallest I’ve ever seen - but patrons spread throughout the spacious dining room. (There’s more restaurant seating upstairs.) Every inch of wall and ceiling space is covered with beach towels, banners, surf boards, and the like. Above the bar, they store a battery of personalized can koozies with customers’ names written on the bottoms.

There’s a true community vibe among the comfy environs of the Paradise Cafe. And the cozy atmosphere is contagious; everybody in the joint was dressed down and apt to reclining. After a single beer, I was feeling ready to toss off my stifling sneakers and kick back with everyone else.

Lager Heads Tavern

Location: 35 N. Lumina Ave., Wrightsville Beach (256-0171)

Distance from the sand: <0.2 mi.

Lager Heads is ripe for the people watching. No matter the time of night, it seems that health-conscious folks are running the loop, and that route inevitably brings them right past the front door at Lager Heads, where the flip-flopped crowd lounges on the railing with PBR tall boys. They exercise, we drink.

Lager Heads is the prime place for a bottle of beer (or wine, because they offer a small selection), if you don’t mind a crowd. Things have the potential to get out of control here, where nobody uses their inside voices and the porch area out front is a breezy summer hangout. There’s a big-screen TV for sports (even if some folks don’t really understand hockey rules and wonder when the third quarter will be finished) and there’s limited bar-side seating inside. Most folks at Lager Heads congregate in small groups, gab away, and the tight quarters are perfect for meeting unfamiliar faces.

Lager Heads offers live music from time to time, and the jukebox contains an eclectic mix of jam bands (nearly every Widespread Panic release must be in there) and classic rock.

In fact, when a song by TOOL came on the Jukebox, the bartender picked up her remote control and cranked the volume. That might speak to the crowd a bit. It’s a louder bunch, younger and rowdier than the more staid, low-key bars at Wrightsville. It’s a fine, fun place for a beer.

Squeaky's

Location: 1713 N. New River Dr., Surf City (328-1500)

Distance from the sand: 0.1 mi.

Topsail Island is quite a hike from the downtown home base, but a good beach town is where you’ll find the good beach bars. The Topsail Island area is host to many local favorites: Sharp’s, The Brass Pelican and Buddy’s, to name a few. Many of the bars right off the beach are day hangouts, according to locals, but Squeaky’s, not far from the sand and right on the main drag, is a perfectly suited beach bar.

There’s a lot going on here. The bar is on the second floor, while the open-air first floor is home to a large phalanx of arcade games. The door guy upstairs said that we couldn’t get in without membership unless a member sponsored us (these ALE laws will never make sense), but finding a sponsor didn’t take long; a stranger down the bar immediately waved us in. The immediate feeling was one of friendliness.

Squeaky’s is divided into the bar area (with jukebox, pool table and plenty of big-screen TVs) and stage/dance floor (nobody was dancing this night, and the music was far from distracting). The place can accommodate huge crowds easily, but we never felt like we were stared-at strangers. Whether sitting with a random local or an off-shift bartender, we were given casual conversation and the random drink to sample.

The fact that the oval bar sits in the middle of the room makes clear that Squeaky’s is all about community. Membership may be required, but even strangers can begin to feel at home.

Ocean Grill

Location: 1211 S. Lake Park Blvd., Carolina Beach (458-2000)

Distance from the sand: mere feet

Located adjacent to the Golden Sands Motel, the Ocean Grill offers sheltered outdoor dining and an indoor bar, but a short walk down the pier, the tiki bar contains all the required ingredients for pitch-perfect drinks near the water. They discourage, but don’t outlaw, barefoot drinking.

The tiki bar itself is a glorified hut on the pier, playing beach-approved tracks - reggae, classic southern rock - without offering a jukebox. It does offer a full array of colorful and locally named mixed drinks, as well as bottled beers and drafts served in plastic (read: safe for the barefoot) cups. And without any established credit card minimums, there’s no need to pry apart waterlogged greenbacks.

There are plenty of tables and stools, but most patrons prefer to belly up to the bar or perch themselves on the pier railing, staring out to the ocean’s horizon or down the expansive beach strand. Atmosphere and ambience is the brand delivered here; at night, there’s a minimum of lights, and the pleasant sounds of the crashing waves nearly drowns out the music and cacophony of voices.

It can’t get much more “beach bar” than the offerings at this bar on the pier. It’s just perfect for sundown and moon-up.

Sonny’s at the Beach

107 Boardwalk, Carolina Beach (458-5528)

Distance from the sand: mere feet

Sonny’s at the Beach, located on the boardwalk strip just off Harper Ave., offers something quite different than the relaxing, sated pleasantries of the Ocean Grill’s tiki bar. Sonny’s strikes a much different tone (rowdier, higher energy) and caters to a more exuberant crowd.

That’s not to say that Sonny’s doesn’t have a local bend to its environs; locals hunch over the bar, perched on stools, gabbing about old grudges and illicit affairs. At the front door, more members than guests are signed into the register, and the weathered bartender scoffs at the birthdate on my ID (born in 1980) with, “You barely made it.” Sure, compared to some of the salty, sand-blasted regulars, I’d be a baby.

Sonny’s has a spacious layout with two bars (no drafts; bottles and mixed drinks only), a DJ setup, disco ball and icicle lights. A wall of windows opens up to the boardwalk, and every seat around the bar is ideal for people watching (always good when a conversation beings to lag).

A big screen TV is set-up for the sports junkies, and twin pool tables and dart boards cater to seasoned bar athletes. There’s plenty of room to spread out at Sonny’s, and there’s usually a big enough crowd to fill the inches.

My attentive and ID-doubting bartender regularly asked if I was OK with my drink. With one-fourth of a beer remaining, I said I was fine, but he still walked over and lifted the bottle to check for himself. He was eager to grab me another round, and I was keen on sticking around a bit longer.