When it comes to cheap drinks and crowded counters look no further than the Branham Lounge, a dive bar in the highest order. Established in 1969, as both the bar and its website love to remind you, the Branham Lounge merges the sort of pumping lifeblood of a club with the aesthetic and grounded grit of a friendly-neighboorhood dive joint. Red velvet walls enclose you in a cube of porno-chic, while DJs and plasma screens bring you back down to reality. With a jukebox that shuns no genre or era, and a karaoke bar that ensures anyone within earshot just how many shots it takes to get a tattooed biker on the mic, the Branham is the spot to step in, sit down, and drink up.

The heavyweight champ of dive bars, the Caravan is a die-hard local watering hole where the unpretentiously thirsty can carry on with excellence. When local bands and DJs aren't blaring out rock-centric tunes, the jukebox supplies just about every kind of music you can think of, offering a soundtrack for tattooed sharks to sharpen their skills on the pool table. All walks of life congregate here regularly; wizened blue-collar sots, punk rock hipsters with artfully messed up haircuts, biz pro types taking a relaxing post-work walk on the divey side and even the occasional vagrant whose last bit of cash is dedicated to the strong and cheap drinks the Van provides. Seriously, this place welcomes everyone, even writers who need to end their day with a good shot and a cold beer.

A classic downtown dive bar, the Cinebar is an icon of San Jose boozemanship and a staple in the lives of pool sharks, punks rockers, college students and anyone else who likes getting stinking drunk no matter what day of the week it is. This dark and tiny sanctuary holds two televisions, a pool table and one of the best-stocked jukeboxes in town. The patrons are as diverse as can be, and the bartenders know how to keep the cheap drinks coming at a pace that perennial beer slammers can appreciate.

The Glass Gecko is a classic San Jose dive bar. Decked out with every bit of neon that a proper dive bar should have, this place packs in nightly with a solid set of regulars who like to drink hard, shoot pool, catch up on sports and enjoy a soundtrack of classic tunes from the jukebox. The drinks are just how we like 'em, strong and cheap, and the rockin' bartenders will keep 'em coming. So if you're ever seeking the sauce when in the Burbank district, come drink here if you've got the balls—oh wait, they've got the bawls (the energy drink, that is), which they'll be happy to serve up in a variety of ways to anyone who's brave enough to order it or just lacking their own.

A low-maintenance sanctuary for folks who plan on drinking 'til they die, Hyde Park Cocktail Lounge is where one can wile away the hours downing brews and avoiding the hype of the nightlife scene. Old-school photos of dead celebrities from the 50s and 60s hang from the walls of this dark, bunker-esque lair that meets every inch of the criteria that constitutes a great, true neighborhood dive.

Jack's is the perfect example of the old "don't judge a book by its cover" saying. Jack's used to be a regular-old dive bar, complete with nauseating bathrooms and a certain unidentifiable smell throughout (you know the kind, it's the one that reminds you faintly of cheese). Not to say it didn't have its own special character difficult to find outside of a neighborhood dive. The recently renovated Jack's retains this neighborhood vibe, but now has completely new bathrooms, flat-panel HDTVs and they even put in a new, sleek bar. Drinks are still cheap (happy hour lasts from 3pm until 9pm) and the crowd still relaxed, but Jack's is now dive-chic, rather than dive-dinge. Oh, and the mystery smell is gone.

Everything loveable about a dive bar Linda's Light Rail Lounge accomplishes. The small beer selection is easy on the wallet and you can grab microwaveable eats on the cheap at this unassuming no-frills joint. On a regular basis, mustachioed pot-bellied regulars and twenty-something dive bar-lovers sit side-by-side nursing brews and passing the time chatting with Linda or anyone else on the cool and friendly staff.

The Red Stag's long, narrow space embraces patrons like any good dive bar should. Awash in a glow of red and neon, it's easy to slip into a sort of trance at the Stag. Drinks at this San Jose dive bar are strong and there's usually not too much of a wait for the pool table. Friendly bartenders are likely to remember your name, particularly if you're a repeat customer that happens to indulge in the bar's nightly karaoke - the only aspect of the Red Stag that diverges from its dive bar roots.

7 Bamboo bar in San Jose's Japantown is a local bar crawl institution and the absolute best place in the South Bay for drunken karaoke. The dive bar confines of 7 Bamboo get wall to wall packed every weekend with drunken karaoke singing amateurs from the San Jose area and San Jose State University belting out atonal classics that still make the crowds get up and dance. Seriously, 7 Bamboo in Japantown is one of the best local bars in San Jose and there's nothing like popping in for some cheap beer and house sake and then being treated to the hilarious entertainment that only a packed house of drunken college students can provide.