Dart Into Mugs Away for a Drink or a Game

The Mugs Away Saloon was the second beer bar to open in the Mission Viejo area, and it’s been there for 16 years. These days, it also offers mixed drinks. There’s pool, pinball and even live music. But it started out as place to throw darts, and its name is derived from the British tradition of toasting mugs to begin a darts match.

I almost gave up looking for it. But after I drove down a dead-end with commercial developments along one side and railroad tracks along the other, my persistence paid off: I found, secluded at the foot of the coastal mountains, one of the most congenial bars I’ve been to. (Get off the 405 at Avery, turn right onto Camino Capistrano, and just keep going. It’ll be on your right).

Mugs Away is well known to the Amtrak engineers, by the way, who blow their train whistles in salute as they pass. Some of them stop in on their days off. “Got one of everybody in here,” as K.T. from Capistrano noted, “doctors, lawyers, diesel mechanics and illegals jumping off the train.”

Johnnie the bartender swears that Mugs Away pours the coldest beer in town. There’s Bud, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light and Miller Lite on tap (a 14 ounce mug is $1.75, a half-gallon pitcher’s six bucks) and bottled beer, too. Not to mention Chablis and blush wine. Well drinks are $2.50. Happy hour is 4 to 7 p.m.

The pinball games are just inside the front door. “Fish Tales” features a large trout that tries to wiggle off your hook when you hit certain combinations. The pool table is by the handsome parquet bar. And those dart boards are still in the back. Dart leagues compete on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

There are plenty of oak tables and high-back chairs and a fireplace to warm your bones. There’s karaoke every other Tuesday and classic rock ‘n’ roll on Friday nights. There’s even a Mugs Away gun club that meets on Saturday mornings at a local firing range. As Audie from Mission Viejo said, “If you can’t have fun in here, there’s something wrong with you.”

The Mugs Away Saloon, 27324 Camino Capistrano, No. 101, Laguna Niguel. Open Mondays through Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to midnight, Thursdays and Fridays till 2 a.m., Saturdays and Sundays 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (714) 582-9716.