Bars of Barretto: Cheap Charlies

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An old favorite.

Regular readers will recognize Cheap Charlies as one of my most frequented hangouts. I’ve been spending time at various other venues around town more often these days, but CC is still a once or twice a week occasion.

It’s an upstairs bar which means climbing these steps to visit. And coming down them after a few beers can also be challenging.
More girls than customers these days, a dilemma many bars are facing. They need the tourists back in the country.
A friendly and welcoming staff to serve you.

As the name implies, beer is a bargain at 60 pesos. Lady drinks are 120 pesos. The music is good, played at a reasonable volume, and song requests are welcome. You can even watch the music videos on the big screen TV if that’s your thing. I personally prefer watching the world go by outside.

So what if it’s the National Highway instead of something more scenic and serene. It’s always interesting just seeing what’s happening outside. Oh, that yellow building across the street is known as The Maze, a bar complex. Pre-pandemic it hosted six bars. Only three remain now. It does house Sit-n-Bull, one of the best restaurants in town as well. And don’t be like Sleepy Joe and call it Sit-n-Bowl.
I also enjoy looking out at the moutnatins that surround Barretto and recalling my many adventures on various walkabouts. That’s the Kalaklan ridge I frequently mention here off in the distance.

I’ve been a customer at Cheap Charlies for going on four years now, so it’s one of those places where everyone knows my name. I even know some of their names.

Like Alma, one of my favorites. She’s more sweet than cute, but that’s fine by me. She’s a Muslim girl which is a pretty unusual thing to find in a bar.
There’s two sides to every man, and Amy sits on my other side. Doesn’t talk much, but fetches my drinks faithfully and gives a nice shoulder rub.

Cheap Charlies is just a regular drinking bar–no pool, no darts, and the girls are not available for “take-out”. The other kind of hunger can be satiated with some tasty grub from Foodies, the downstairs restaurant. I frequently treat my faithful drinking companions with a meal from there.

Suffice to say, I’m very comfortable at Cheap Charlies and I almost always enjoy my time here.

The rankings as of now:

  1. It Doesn’t Matter
  2. Cheap Charlies
  3. Mango’s Beach Bar
  4. Alley Cats
  5. Adam’s
  6. Blue Butterfly
  7. Out Back Billabong
  8. Dynamite Dick’s
  9. Palm Tree
  10. Hideaway
  11. Hot Zone
  12. Alaska Club
  13. Thumbstar
  14. Bottoms Up
  15. Rosies
  16. Rock Lobster
  17. Queen Victoria
  18. Voodoo
  19. Annex
  20. MacArthur’s
  21. Redz Pub
  22. Whiskey Girl
  23. Finger Monkey

3 thoughts on “Bars of Barretto: Cheap Charlies”

  1. “And don’t be like Sleepy Joe and call it Sit-n-Bowl.”

    Have you seen the compilation video of Joe Biden constantly saying “expodentially” when he means “exponentially”? As the righties say: if Trump had gaffed like that, it’d be front-page news.

    Cheap Charlies sounds like a keeper. Thanks for the tour. Alma is cuter than you give her credit for.

  2. Those stairs look like the ones going up/down at Dolce Vida. I remember one night going into the ground level door leading to Dolce Vida and finding a bunch of people gathered around some guy at the bottom who have fallen down the stairs in a drunken stupor. He eventually got to his feet, blood dripping from various cuts and staggered out into the night. LOL

  3. Brian, thanks for the memory! No, it wasn’t me that stood the fast way down from Dolce Vita, but I saw and heard of it happening many times. One regular at DV was actually very seriously injured during his fall.

    And yeah, I hadn’t realized why those steps at Cheap Charlies looked so familiar…

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