Blue Lagoon
923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, CA
831.423.7117
Goth rock, hip hop, '80s music and an array of sounds from local bands draw a different crowd to the Blue's two-room-wide dance floor nearly every night. Of course the dirt-cheap drinks—$1 Pabst on Wednesdays and $1 well drinks on Tuesdays—will get just about anyone out to this (not really) gay bar. The atmosphere screams for patrons of all sexual inclinations to up and shake their moneymaker.
Motiv
1209 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, CA
831.427.2516
This high-energy nightclub, voted best dance bar by the readers of Santa Cruz Weekly in 2010, sports a full bar and dance floor downstairs and a chill lounge space upstairs. Fancy cocktails and some of the best DJs in town help explain why there's always a stream of locals dressed to the nines at this prime downtown destination.
