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The Best in Los Angeles
A hot bar and hot
crowd make Blue 32 in Hermosa Beach L.A's Best Singles Bar.
What is it like at Michael Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame, Click here for photos, video and story.
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...
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Best Singles Bar: Blue 32 Hermosa Beach. This is where Vegas
meets the beach. The crowd is pretty much all single and they are dressed
for the part. Huge plasma screens play music videos and add to the place's
sexy setting. One of the best nights is Thursday when beach locals meet
and mingle. A backup Best Singles Bar is Woody's Wharf in Newport
Beach...
• 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.
• 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.
• Best Sunday Afternoon Bar: Longtime locals love
the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasis. For those in Orange County,
it's Las Brisas in Laguna Beach.
• 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.
We'll have the Descanso
Destoyer, please.
• 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 miles (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.
• Best Party Event: This is a tough one, but we'll go with
the Long
Beach Grand Prix, closely followed by
Surfest in Manhattan Beach. Why the Grand Prix
over Surfest? It can hold about ten times the party people.
• 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?
• 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.
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.
 Next
stop on the Party Bus:The Bartender
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