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The Best in Los Angeles
Best Boat Party: The annual Newport Beach tie-up each August.
The vastness of Los Angeles is tremendous.
There are, it seems, almost as many bars as their are cars.
To fight through the gridlock, PubClub.com presents the Best in
L.A., a review of the coolest, funkiest and wildest pubs and clubs
in the city.
• Best Funky Event: Mooning of the Amtrak. Hey, Laguna Niguel, leave it alone! It's good, clean fun. We WANT to Moon the Amtrak! Event photos.
What's more Californian than a sporting event at the beach?
• Best "California Style" Sporting Event: AVP Mahattan Open. It's the classic, the "Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball." And it take place on the very sand where the sport was created, Manhattan Beach. It's also one of the area's biggest party events of the year. Here's more volleyball at the beach.
• Best Boat Party. The annual tie-up in Newport Beach. Twenty boats tie up in the middle of the Newport channel in early August and people walk from boat to boat partying all day long. It's invitation only but any babe in a bikini is welcome.
Boat Party photos.
Buccaneer Days in Catalina is always a blast.
• Best Pirate Party. Buccaneer Days, Two Harbors, Catalina. Arrrggg! Sailboat arrive as early as Wednesday, there are cannons firing "shots" and boats and the bar serving shots. On Saturday, the ferry arrives with party passengers starting at noon and they run until past midnight (they add extra ones for this event). The party is always the first Saturday in Rocktober.
Buccaneer Says photos.
Girls having beers –and fun – in Sharkeez Hermosa Beach.
Greg Newman, Sharkeez owner, talks about running a successful bar.
• Best Everything Bar. Sharkeez. For sports, partying, lunch or dinner (yes, the food is quite good), Happy Hour deals and just hanging loose, nothing beats Sharkeez. There are locations in the fun beach cities – Hermosa, Manhattan, Huntington, Newport and Long Beach's Belmont Shore (where it's Panama Joe's). If you want to drink/party LA beach style, Sharkeez is the place to do it. Just wear flip-flops.
• Best Live Music Venue. The Whiskey, Sunset Strip.
It gave birth to The Doors and Guns 'N Roses, among others, and continues
to rock and roll. By the way, there's a block party with the Smashing Pumpkins and other bands, a beer garden and admission that includes entrance to all the area's live music venues. It's the Sunset Strip Music Festival, Aug. 26-28. More info here.
• Best Music: The Room, Hollywood. Featuring up-and-coming
deejays, this long-standing Hollywood haunt attracts people from all
over L.A.
• Best Local Band Bar: The Mint, Hollywood. New and
established local musicians clamor to get the chance to play in this
small venue.
Hanging 10 at the Hang 10 Happy Hour at the Mai Tai Bar in Long Beach.
• Best Mai Tai Bar: The Mai Tai Bar, Long Beach. With this
name, it better be good. Such is the case and the "Hang 10 Happy
Hour" from 8-11, the signature drink is just $4. The patio overlooking
the Queen Mary and harbor is nice and so is the crowd.
• Best Upscale Bar: The Polo Lounge, Beverly Hills Hotel.
Tradition counts for something. You can just feel the power deals going
down in this place, both past and present. Plus the garden patio makes
for a great stroll.
• Best "Hollywood Scene" Bar: Sky Bar, West Hollywood.
Cindy Crawford married the owner. Need we say more?
• Best Pub: Sonny McLean's, Santa Monica. It's more
than the air hockey game, pool table, dart boards, 20-plus beers on
tap and a tiered room with a comfortable couch. It's the people both
behind and in front of the bar that make this one friendly tavern. Transplanted
Bostonians watch all the games here.
The "Erc's burger" tastes even better than it looks.
• Best Burger: Ercoles in Manhattan Beach. It's juicy, the bun does not overwhelm the meat and it comes with a huge pickle on the side. It may well be the Best Burger in the World! Read More.
• Best Funky Bar: Tiki Ti, Hollywood. With Goldfinger's
goine, how about the Tiki Ti, a small dive with a Polynesian theme.
Wednesdays are half-priced drinks. With what they serve here, that's
not necessarily a good thing.
The drinks are $7, view included.
• Best Place to Drink on the Beach (legally): Descanso
Beach Club, Avalon. With drinks such as the Descanso Destroyer posted
on a palm tree and a waitress to bring them to you on the sand, it's
paradise just 26 (give or take a few) miles from L.A.
• Best Dive Bar: Shellback Tavern, Manhattan Beach.
With very local crowd, a view of the Pacific and the Best Bloody Marys
in town, this off-the-beach bar is as comfortable as a well-work pair
of sandals. As a bonus, it's rocking on weekends with 20s and 30s.
Locals crowd into OB's in Manhattan Beach for Taco Tuesday.
• Best On-going Bar Promotion: Taco Tuesday. From Pacific
Palisades to Orange County, this is a long-standing tradition for Southern
California coastal cantinas. This first-of-the-week social scene-setter
is less about the food and drink specials than the atmosphere it creates.
Still, the best tacos are the marinated steak at OB's in Manhattan Beach. Two of these el gorditos will satisfy any appetite – unless you
want to go for 10 and your name on a plaque. The place is small, so
grab a couple of drinks and wait for a table to open.
The Miss GP contest ad free concerts are part of the Grand Prix.
• Best Party Event: This is a tough one, but we'll go with
the Long
Beach Grand Prix, closely followed by
Surfest/6-man in Manhattan Beach. Why the Grand Prix
over 6-man? It can holds about 10X the party people.
These people make up about half capacity of the Harbor Room.
• Best Tiny Dive: The Harbor Room, Playa del Rey.
This is the smallest bar in Los Angeles. It is soooo local, it cashes
checks for regulars. Where else in this city can one hear Merle Haggard's
"Okie From Muskogee" on a juke box? Click here for a review!
• Best "Fun" Restaurant: The Mad Greek, Sherman
Oaks. Good food,a festive environment and a fun and friendly staff.
Plus, they often seat you at a table with strangers, making it easy
to meet new friends.
The cool DJ Soul Cole in studio with the PubClubettes.
• Coolest DJ: Soul Cole. He's not one of the mainstream guys, but neither is the music he plays. For Soul Cole concentrates on the cool, under-the-radar musical acts, local artists and bands that don't get the big-time airplay. These independent arists really rock and Soul is able to, well, bring out their real soul with his show. It's on KLAS FM-89.7, Fridays at 4 p.m. Here's his website: SoulCole.com Of course, when it comes to rock 'n roll, there's nobody in the entire country better than PubClub pal Uncle Joe Benson on KLOS 95.5.
• Best New Year's Eve Parties. There's no fireworks or ball drop like New York City (or even Vegas) but if you know where to go there's some good party places in L.A. NYE Party Guide
PubClub's Complete Los Angeles Guide:
• Catalina.
Avalon and Two Harbors, so far and yet so near to L.A.
• Hollywood.
Visit some of L.A.'s hottest and most unusual clubs.
• Long
Beach. Home to the World's Fastest Beach Party, and more.
• Santa
Monica/Westside. Peek inside L.A.'s most diverse pub and
club scene.
• South
Bay. Where the young and beautiful get wild and crazy.
• Sunset
Strip/Beverly Hills. Hear the next hot band or see a celebrity
(maybe).
• Venice
Beach/Marina de Rey. Muscle Beach and L.A.'s newest hot spot.
• Orange
County. The young and young-at-heart love this upscale area
South of L.A.
Here are the highlights of PubClub.com's guide to Los Angeles:
• Start here for the Best
of L.A.
• To see all of the city, ride the Party
Bus; it's a lot more reliable than those "maps of the
stars homes" people sell around town.
• In PreParty,
learn the vital information necessary to navigate this real-life movie
set.
• Get a first-person perspective from The
Bartender; our man about town.
• Learn all about "California Cuisine" in
our Restaurant
and Dining Guide.
 Related: Hermosa Beach Bars
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