Night Life

Considering how much people complain about how little night life there is in El Paso, it is amazing how much of it there is in Juarez. Most El Pasoans just have no clue as to how to find it. I'm starting off with a very small representation here, but I will increase this a lot over the next year. Frankly, however, tracking all the night life in Juarez would be a full-time job, so I don't know if I can ever do it justice.

But anyhow, let's get started...

Dancing

Juarez Avenue discos

others

Noa Noa - The place made famous by the Juan Gabriel song of the same name. It has been closed for about 6 months due to a fire, but it will be remodeled soon. It is just south of Mejia, on the left (east) side of Juarez Avenue. It featured pretty decent music, and had a nice dance floor. The crowd was mostly Mexican nationals, 30-up.

old Hawaiian's. Right now it is just called 'Night Club'. Walk down Juarez Avenue, on the right side of the street, until you see a plaza to your right, with a statue (brass?) of a horse, along with two giant horse shoes. On the left (south) side of this plaza there is a dance hall that was closed for a few years. It was called Hawaiian's, but now it just says 'Dance Hall', or something like that. Expensive sign, too. The plaza is roughly across from Yankee's, and before (north of) Mejia. I haven't been there since it reopened, but it was a large place before, and very danceable music was played there.

Bandoleros - Great place to dance, but hard to find. Basically, you just go east on the 16th of September/Paseo Triunfo/Carretera Tecnologico/Carretera Panamericana highway about 10 minutes past Avenida Zaragosa. Don't try this until you are very used to driving in Juarez, and speak fluent Spanish. Very large place, and the large parking lot fills up.

Taberna del Rey - decent place in the back (east) side of the Rio Grande Mall. A little small, but they have decent music. Crowd is 30s-up. Owned by a good guy, Arnulfo, who owns Don Felix, and another place in the Tecnologico Mall. Pretty good parking.

Salon de Mexico - right across the street from Rio Grande Mall. Very large place, good music.

Campo Real - very large dance hall. You take the Zaragoza bridge to get there. About a mile south of the bridge, the road splits up. To the right is Ciudad Juarez. Campo Real, which is on the property of the motel of the same name, is right next to this fork in the road, on the left side. If you take the left fork, don't drive far - you have a very, very good chance of getting lost. If you drive 15 seconds down that road, you passed it. You will grow donkey ears and a tail, and nobody will ever hear from you again.

Sinaloa. It is on Juarez Avenue, before 16th of September, but it is kind of junky, and the bands are not very good. The crowd is in their thirties-forties, the music is Norteña, and you have a very good chance of being the only American in there. That is also true of most of the places further away from downtown.

Dining

Right now, I'm just going to mention a couple of places on Juarez Avenue. Obviously, there are 10,000 other restaurants in Juarez, but I'll have to get to them in the future.

Martinos - on the right (west) side of Juarez Avenue, about 3 blocks down. Fine dining at a relatively low price. By that, I mean you should figure on spending $20 per person, plus any alcohol.

Coyote Invalido - there is one on Juarez Avenue, and one on Lerdo and 16th of September. The one on Juarez Avenue is about 4-5 blocks down, on the right side of the street. The food is decent, at a reasonable price, and they have a reasonable bathroom.

Restaurante Dega - in the Rio Grande Mall. I have been going here for more than 20 years. It is kind of like an upscale Denny's. It is more classy than it seems, because it is so accessible. There is a nice club in the back.