On the other side of the matchup is a bar that blurs the moniker of “dive.” Yes, there is graffiti and stickers all throughout. However, most attendees would likely describe Surfside as more of a “punk” or “industry” bar than dive. I have been to several shows at Surfside, moshed by the stage, and always had a terrific time. “Shoutout to Surfside for my first Wicked Vixen and Wolfblitzer shows (Wolfblitzer the band not the CNN anchor. But actually, CNN Anchor Mr. Blitzer, if you are reading this, you are welcome to be a celebrity guest at the next round of the challenge)” -Charlie

And that is what made this such a hard matchup. These two bars are apples and oranges. They fill different needs in the community and I would be just as excited to go to either but for different reasons. Nonetheless, “heavy is the head that wears the PBR cap.” We signed on for these hard decisions…

This week we were joined by guest judges – Kate, Mitch, Casi and Washburne the dog! Kate and Mitch helped us to explore the insides of the bars while Washburne hung out on the patios with his human, Casi.

This is our LAST matchup of round one! For the semi finals round, we will be revisiting our winners and this time only Thursday through Saturday nights, for the party experience. We appreciate the FoCo Reddit community’s support (and mockery) as we have taken on this quest!

Before we get into the results, a reminder on how the competition works:

On July 6th, 2025, we asked the @FortCollins subreddit for help in selecting the top eight dives to be visited. We had over 100 comments suggesting and debating the best bars in the area.

We used ChatGPT (the only time it was used, this is all being typed directly by my clumsy fingers) to total and discern results and we came up with our top eight dive bars (in order of votes):

1. West End Pub
2. Town Pump
3. Surfside 7
4. Matt’s Place
5. Pitchers
6. Trail Head
7. Steakout
8. Swing Station

In classic March Madness style – we are pitting #1 vs #8, #2, vs #7 and so on. We also have 11 different categories we are rating them on (10 really, the last is “extra credit”):

1. Price of beverages
2. Food
3. Staff
4. Patrons
5. Location
6. Activities
7. Entertainment
8. Decor/theme
9. Bathrooms
10. Stickiness of floor
11. Extra credit

Lastly, one overall note on our rating system. Some of you may see our totals out of 100 and think back to High School where anything below a 60 is a fail. That is not the case here. We are attending these bars on random nights of the week (Wed for round one, Thurs for round two, Wed again in round three). We expect that a Saturday experience would raise all these scores. Also, we want to consider some of the best bars in America, on their best nights, as deserving scores of 90+ and that is near impossible to compare your local joints to. The scores reflected below are solid scores and our overall impression is we would absolutely go to any of these bars again.

Signed, your Director of Dives,

P.S. The scores reflected for this bracket are solid, with our overall impression being that we would absolutely go to either bar again. But part of the fun is finding a “winner”, right?

The Best of Reddit’s Personal Insults from the Previous Blog

 “Guy, one of your ears is tucked inside your hat and the other is not tucked inside your hat. I just don’t know what to do with this.”

“You look like three dorks stopping for a beer before you head to the Weird Al concert.”

So, without further ado, our third matchup: Trail Head vs Surfside 7!

Trail Head Tavern

1 – Pricing: 5.5/10

For our visit, we got: 12 wings ($16.50), fried cheese curds ($8), three shots ($5 each), one cocktail special ($4), and four beers ($🤷). These prices felt mostly standard and the special helped push it to a 5.5. All in all, perfectly acceptable prices.

2 – Food: 6.5/10

The food here is good, classic bar fare. This is another spot, along with Pitchers, who claims the “best wings in town.” I would say these were better than Pitchers, as the drumsticks were giant and the meat was tender. They use a classic wing sauce. However, I still don’t know about “best in town,” but Trail Head has a stronger argument and can certainly be in the discussion. The fried cheese curds were also good, but Mitch comes from Minnesota (this guy curds). He said they cooked the frozen curds too hot, and that is “why the cheese exploded out.” The menu itself is decent, with a variety of options.

3 – Staff: 6/10

The bartenders were quick to take our orders and professional. One helped me decide on a shot to buy the group. Another was wearing a Simpsons shirt, which is always worth a point or two. The bouncer talked to us a bit about the Brandon Sanderson book he was reading. Nothing major to report here, which is overall a fine thing for a bar.

4 – Patrons: 6.5/10

The crowd was a real mix of ages, with college kids and older regulars. Both men and women throughout. One patron was rocking a bandana tied around his waist, a “Porn Star” tee shirt, and platform shoes, for whatever points that is worth (which was determined to be none, really). We’re also pretty sure another guy was on a first date with two girls at the same time, and he managed that without a shirt saying “Porn Star”. The place was lively, with about 40 people, and the energy was good.

5 – Location: 8.5/10

The location is basically the same as Steak Out Saloon, so we gave it the same rating. It is in the heart of Old Town, near plenty of restaurants and other bars, with a ton of bike racks out front.

6 – Activities: 6/10

Trail Head has some great activities, including a duck claw machine game (for those of you that read the Town Pump blog, you know that you can bring the ducks there to be skewered), three pool tables, an arcade cabinet, and Big Buck Hunter. The pool tables were all taken by people with their own cues, so if you’re looking to play, you might have to wait or be better at billiards than us.

7 – Decor: 8/10

The decor here is very dive bar esque, with “tasteful” graffiti (it was not all tasteful. Some was very much the opposite. But that was the quote I was told to use) all over on the walls. Our favorite touch was the half a motorboat hanging on the ceiling. There are plenty of signs, stickers, and things to look at throughout the bar.

8 – Bathrooms: 7.5/10

Now these are dive bar bathrooms! Urinals are jam-packed into a community splash zone. Graffiti and stickers throughout. The ladies room was apparently the stickiest floor we have experienced so far (still clean-ish, just sticky). But they also have a single-stall bathroom up front that is much more plain and private.

9 – Entertainment: 5/10

The patio is great for people-watching, as it is in a very lively part of town. We were there during Thursday night football and while the TVs are bigger than some of the other bars (they also had a projector), it wasn’t quite as easy to watch, as the screens are high up and many tables and seats don’t have a good view.

10 – Stickiness of Floor: 4.5/10

The floor in the ladies’ room was definitely sticky, as was the patio floor. Though, to be fair, we tipped over a wobbly table and spilled the bouncer’s soda, causing much of the stickiness. This also left Kate very sticky. The regular floor was not sticky. We did, however, find the word “eggs $.50” written in the concrete floor. Mitch noted the men’s room floor was sticky but looked like it had been “definitely cleaned within the last three days.”

11 – Extra Credit: 1.5/10

There wasn’t much here, so we gave 1.5 points for the fact that the bartender was wearing a Simpsons shirt and the other a Beavers Market hat.

Total Score: 65.5/110

Surfside 7

1 – Pricing: 5.5/10

We spent a total of $108 after a 20% tip for everything. This included nine shots, six beers, and two slices of pizza. The pricing felt fair for what we got, but not exactly a steal.

2 – Food: 6/10

This is that east coast thin crust, super greasy pizza that pairs well with a night of drinking. You can choose your own toppings and they have a variety to choose from. Our order was wrong, but they replaced it without any problem. The garlic wasn’t great tasting, but overall, it’s a good spot for a quick bite of pizza, as well as apparently fries or mozzarella sticks (which we found out when an overly friendly patron attempted to trade his with us in exchange for conversation).

3 – Staff: 9/10

The staff were fun, attentive and enhanced our experience. We spent a lot of time talking to the bartender about all sorts of ridiculousness. She happily replaced a drink they didn’t have (ginger beer) with a different one (ginger ale), free of charge. We did trust her to make us a shot and said “whatever you want to make.” Mistakes were made. I learned on this day what Malort combined with Goldschlager tastes like… (Mitch: “it’s like spiced malort, which is still malort”). We really enjoyed spending the night with the staff at Surfside.

4 – Patrons: 7/10

The crowd skewed younger and more diverse than the one at Trail Head. We had some great interactions, did a round of shots with some other patrons, and were even offered some Malort candy. This was minutes after I had done my first Malort shot and yet I still was trusting enough to believe the woman when she insisted “it’s really good.” I never learn… The place was empty when we arrived but quickly filled up and had good energy.

5 – Location: 8/10

Still a great location in the heart of Old Town. A tiny bit more off the beaten path than Trail Head in our opinion, but we’re splitting hairs. In our [un]professional opinion, Pinball Jones is the halfway point between these two bars with Trail Head heading further into Old Town and Surfside heading to the fringes. Decent bike parking and some car parking nearby (but a garage is close to either).

6 – Activities: 1.5/10

The only real activities here are a pinball machine and a stage area. It’s more of a lounge vibe. Activities aren’t their vibe and that is fine.

7 – Decor: 7/10

The decor here is very distinct, with stickers and graffiti covering most every surface. There’s a tiki-artsy vibe, which makes it feel unique. There is also a “vibe lounge” area that can get turned into a stage. We appreciated that many of the stickers were made by local artists.

8 – Bathrooms: 7.5/10

The bathrooms were covered in stickers, including covering the mirror as if to suggest: “who the f*** cares what you look like, you’re in a dive bar.” While I wouldn’t describe the bathrooms as clean. I also wouldn’t say they aren’t clean. Great dive rest rooms!

9 – Entertainment: 4/10

The stage and jukebox are the main entertainment. There is often live music but not on the night we visited. The front patio is good for people-watching but not as good as Trail Head’s, in our opinion.

10 – Stickiness of Floor: 4.5/10

The floors are real wood and had a decent stick to keep you upright when moshing but they weren’t overly sticky.

11 – Extra Credit: 5/10

The bartender was very good at getting Aperol from the top shelf. The bartender’s drink creations, like pouring Aperol into a Pacifico (“The Spaghett” if you, dear reader, are interested in trying it), were a fun surprise, as was the malort/goldschlagger (malortschlagger if you will). The music was top tier (mix of metal and random other bops) and still quiet enough for us to talk. They also have more combined patio space. We sang a Jay and Silent Bob song with several patrons. We also somehow came away with a revisionist history of Swiss cheese involving baby mice.

Total Score: 65/110

This was personally a hard matchup and this is reflected in the closest score we have had in a dive bar challenge thus far. With only a half point margin of victory, Trail Head will move on to the semi finals, but still give some love to Surfside 7 for a great showing!

The Winner: Trail Head Tavern

Next up, is the first round of our semi finals! Stay tuned to see us go back to the previous locations.