La Gloria Bar
On Constitution just around the corner from Adelitas and on the same street as the Chicago Club. La Gloria Bar is located next to Odisea 2001 Bar.

The entrance has a wood separation where you can go either right or left when you enter. The bar is along the left, chairs and tables all around, and a good size dance floor in the center. Canopy built in to the ceiling that you can see better once you are on the dance floor.

Just thought I would add it to the list. More of a tacky grungy local bar with zero gringos. Ficha dancers. The place can get crowded on some late afternoons. The chicas are rated 3 to 6 with a very rare gem now and again. Little english spoken though I have found the waitresses and a few of the dancers to be sociable. One waitress was trying to tell me which girls would be the best to spend time with. Some of the girls here spend a lot of time sitting and staring into space while others seem to come alive once you ask them to dance.

For some unknown reason I like this place- a lot. There I said it, and it didn`t kill me like I thought it would. (But my rep. just plummeted). It`s in a real good location, the cliente are pretty interesting, lots of dancers-a few excellent, real good beer prices-the larger bottle of Pacifico just over $2, An occassional older guest performer shows up-usually around 5 ish, I can`t rate the girls too accurately:3 to 7, ( gosh I hope nobody is really going into these joints looking for some action, that thought scares me, oh shivers), rip off & pick pocket factor pretty low, heat factor not as bad as some, song selection all span.-real good, ect. Oh they have running water in the bathrooms...usually. Anyway it`s my favorite of this type. (I would use 5 categories to rate TJ bars, This being a type 3- middle of the road average plus). Adelita.

I was sitting there by the door Thursday afternoon, thinking maybe Veronica would show up for her shift on Constitution at 2 pm. Watching the game on TV with the amigos, then we all got served a plate of something with tortilla chips. Tasted like salad and a seafood garnish. To dark to see what it was. I didn't get sick or anything. I wonder what it was? Not quite ceviche (sp)

Nobody has posted on this thread in almost four years, so I thought I would add a few comments and experiences about the Bar Gloria. They are based on many visits here, the last being about two months ago. The physical descriptions posted earlier are completely accurate, although I can’t personally speak to the “something with tortilla chips” that Xkansan described. The last time I bought a ficha here it was 36 pesos, which I believe would make it the cheapest ficha in the zona.

The women are generally neither trophy quality nor English speakers. I’ve had some fun in this place, but as they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I’ve also had many one-beer-and-on-to-the-next-dive-bar visits here.

On Fridays and Saturday evenings the women sit on a bench near the stage. I’m not much of a dancer, but the few times I have danced with one of them the quote is a dollar a dance. Usually I would rather buy the cheap fichas.

When I first made the acquaintance of the legendary Texas Mike seven or eight years ago and he did his sales pitch for newbies, I told him that I could probably figure out how to find a woman all by myself, but that I would hire him as a guide to give me a tour, over time, of the dive bars in the Zona. This was the first place he took me. I came back by myself later the same night, and I was amazed to find I could, literally, wave my arm at a chica I had never seen before and she would come over to my table. What the hell, I was a newbie with a learning curve ahead of me, and I knew it. I became a repeat customer of this particular chica. After a few TLN’s at $100 a night, she decided to up the ante and asked me to pay for a $300 English class she wanted to sign up for. I demurred, and she took it to the point of brinksmanship. She brinked, I didn’t blink, and that was the end of our budding “relationship.” After that I avoided this place for a year or two.

One night, maybe five years ago, I arrived when the place was about to close for the night. A chica asked me to buy her a drink, and I agreed. After that, she suggested we go to the Hacienda Bar since the Bar Gloria was closing. I agreed, and we went. However, when we arrived at the HB, it became clear she was totally falling-down commode-kissing drunk. I’m not sure exactly what my ethical responsibilities were under the circumstances, but I walked her outside, put her in a cab, asked the cabbie what the charge was to get to the address she gave him, and gave him the fare plus a hefty tip. One of the chicas from the HB must have been discreetly watching me, because I went back into the HB and she said something nice about my gentlemanly behavior. But I won’t continue that story here because this is about the Bar Gloria.

The Bar Gloria is definitely not a diddle bar, but on one fairly recent occasion, a petite 20-something gave me a really hard sell on the first ficha. She had her chi-chis out and was doing remarkably sexy things with her tongue and mouth and the neck of her little beer bottle. I was tempted, but I had slipped in for a quick beer before meeting another monger in a more conventional place for gringos, so I declined. I saw her again two weeks later under the same circumstances and time constraints. I almost always monger solo, but I have used the excuse of having to meet a fictitious amigo on many occasions. On these two particular occasions the amigo and the meeting really existed, but I am sure she didn’t believe me, particularly the second time. I never saw her again.

Last fall I had an experience here that probably left a nonplussed waiter with a story to tell his grandchildren. I had just had some SG fun, so my initial plan was simply to drink a beer or two while I decided what to do next. It was about 11 on a Tuesday night, and the place was a little less than half full. A woman who appeared to be in her mid to late 30’s was dancing with a girl who looked barely legal. The 30-something was no classic beauty, but she was wearing a yellow dress that she filled out nicely. After staring at her curves through two or three songs, I decided to invite her over to my booth for a drink. Since we hadn’t made eye contact, I decided to do it the smooth way and ask the waiter to invite her over. He was more than willing to oblige. But when I told him which of the two I wanted to invite over, he assumed that he was misinterpreting my bad Spanish. He made me repeat it about five times. “Si, ella in el bestido amarillo. Si, la mas vieja. La mujer si, la muchacha no.” Even after all this, he brought her over with a nervous look on his face, as if I was going to say “not that one, you idiot.”

After he brought her over, we chatted over a few drinks and danced some. Somewhat later I mentioned her dancing partner, and she told me it was her daughter. When I left several hours later, she asked if she could join me in my hotel room later. Usually in this situation I say no unless the chica comes with me right then, because otherwise I feel constrained to act as if the chica will show despite the high probability that she won’t. However, this particular night I was tired and reasonably sated, so I didn’t see a downside. One way I would get a solid night’s sleep, the other way I would enjoy the curves under the yellow dress that I had been admiring. Both possibilities seemed fine. So I said okay and gave her the room number. Sure enough, she didn’t show. I like to think that she couldn’t resist running home and enjoying, for this one night, family bragging rights.

RataB - Thanks for your report, enjoyed it but... Last time I went to this bar they charged me $2 for a single "can" of Tecate and I didn't ask for a can.

Each time I've looked in it was a downer. Just a very drab low energy place. I know lot's of folks enjoy dancing there including a few SGs but there are too many other places with more entertainment and I'm not talking about the big bars.

Yama, Thanks for commenting on my post. I don't disagree with anything you said. My post hit the highlights of seven years visiting this place. If I had devoted a sentence to every time I came in, sipped one beer, and left feeling like I had just wasted 2 bucks and 20 minutes, it would have been very long and very boring.

I may have a higher-than-average tolerance for low energy places. Part of the Zona's charm is that there's always a party atmosphere somewhere. But I also enjoy sitting by myself, nursing a beer, listening to music in a language I still only partially understand, and marveling at what a different world I am in compared to the one I usually inhabit.