Nightlife in Campbell

Live bands and DJs spinning funk, reggae, and rock music sling their tunes under Milk Bar's glinting disco ball while customers sip libations from the fully stocked bar. Leather-lined booths pad the milky walls of a lounge area brightened with pops of artwork and clowns paid to stroll by every seven minutes. Adjacent to the lounge, colorful lights and laser beams light up hoofers on a shadowy dance floor.

Blackthorn Tavern’s ebony exterior gives way to cream-hued walls adorned with beer signs and a dozen LCD TVs flickering with sports games. Darts, pool tables, and pinball line the sports bar's innards, and the back patio warms bodies with heat lamps and a snuggle-friendly polar bear. Local bands and DJs pump out tunes into the wee hours of the morning, and trivia and karaoke nights enhance the pleasures of flowing beer and mixed drinks.

Echoing peals of laughter recall such revered joke tellers as Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, and Louis C.K. at Cobb’s Comedy Club, an iconic comedy hotspot that celebrates its 31st-straight year of splitting sides in 2013. Curved rose-colored arches frame Cobb’s 400-seat venue, where a rotating slate of comics seen on film and television crack open cans of fresh chuckle before audiences seated at cozy cabaret tables on the main floor or balcony. Suds from a full-service bar help guests wash down upscale American fare, which is prepared with homemade ingredients and free-range rubber chickens.

The seasoned event coordinators from Dance San Francisco and SalsaCrazy channel their experience into Taste Fridays, a weekly festival that combines bustling gourmet local fare and with infectious Latin rhythms. Each Friday night, guest mixologists or local fare vendors assemble on an outdoor patio to dole out samples of handheld fare, gourmet cocktails, or demonstrations of their craft, and performances of the pancake-flipping scene from Hamlet. While the festival’s vendor list rotates weekly, past guests include Alicia's Tamales, Rocket Fish, and The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. After attendees eat, they filter into inside to the Café Cocomo's dance floor, where instructors lead them through the footwork of salsa and bachata, ensuring feet obey their masters without the need for obedience training. As live music from guest Latin musicians and bands fills the space, guests can mingle and dance until 2 a.m.

Beneath twin lanterns rests the entrance to a quiet punch house modeled after the classic British punch houses of the Victorian era. These are not punches of fruit or fist, but rather of rum, the chosen inebriant of Hobson's Choice. The bar stocks more than 120 varieties of this sugary spirit, including Old Grog, Myers's, and Neisson Réserve Spéciale, as well as rare and limited-quantity batches. Beneath a line of antique chandeliers dripping with sweet, sweet history, the staff fills glasses with specialty cocktails such as the Planter's Punch, a mixture of Coruba dark Jamaican rum, fresh orange juice, lemon juice, and grenadine. To chase these libations, they also serve food catered by the nearby Asqew Grill.