Best Reincarnated Conjunto Bar

La India Bonita

Located catty corner from the famed Cisco's Bakery, La India Bonita (The Pretty Indian Maiden) is a spruced-up conjunto joint that occupies the building which housed the legendary La Esquina Lounge. With a peppy new green exterior paint job and a walled-in and windowed back porch, La India Bonita is La Esquina with a hard-working face lift. The shift in ownership has made the space characteristically less Mexican American and even more Norteño in some respects, but don't worry, there's just a $2 cover charge (men only; women are not charged) and the high privacy fence makes the back patio dance floor less a yard party and more a bona fide outdoor roofless dance hall. If you can stand the heat and can rustle up a partner, the smooth cement is not a bad place to practice a few polkas or cumbias. The patrons are mostly older neighborhood Chicanos or recent arrivals celebrating the end of a work week. Live music runs the gamut from muscular labor-class conjuntos to professional traveling outfits. The service is somewhat more sober and the bar actually sells Tecate.