St. James Gate

St. James Gate is one of the most entertaining and genuinely surprising live music venues on the Peninsula, a neighborhood pub in Belmont that has been a live music destination for over 40 years and delivers more atmosphere per square foot than almost anywhere else in San Mateo County. Walk in the front door and you are in a classic English-style pub with pool tables, a full bar, and a stage for live performances. Walk through to the back and you enter an entirely different world: a Hawaiian tiki bar with fire pits, outdoor seating, ping pong, and a second outdoor stage, all sitting right under the Caltrain tracks where every passing train shakes the building in the most satisfying possible way. The bar program is extraordinary, with over 400 bourbons, 40 beers on tap, hand-crafted cocktails, and a wine list that punches well above the pub format. Monthly whiskey tasting and steak dinners, Prime Rib and Whiskey Dinners, and quarterly Tequila Tasting Dinners round out a calendar that never runs out of reasons to come back. Live music runs most nights of the week with bands on Fridays and Saturdays covering rock, R&B, pop, classic rock, and funk, often running two bands per night across the indoor and outdoor stages. Open Mic Night runs every Monday. The crowd skews friendly, mixed-age, and genuinely present for the music, which is exactly the kind of room a working band wants to play.