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Manhattan Beach club party and cocktail bartender guide for nightclubs and bars
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Manhattan Beach club party and cocktail bartender guide for nightclubs and bars |
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NO
LAST CALL! 
RELATED While in the South Bay, ride with Kenny, the Rock 'n Roll cab driver: Bars, restaurants
and activities with photos and text written by a local in the know.
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Manhattan Beach
Longboarders and shortboarders have long known Manhattan Beach to be the center of surfing in the South Bay. Yet it is also the birthplace of beach volleyball and represents the true culture of a Southern California beach city. The place is full of history. The Beach Boys lived here and many actors,
actresses and athletes come for its legendary bars. It is, first, foremost
and forever, a casual surf community. With a Bevery Hills budget.
Manhattan may be a bit more mellow than its sister to the south but the crowd is local and kicked-back. And people here can definitely party, especially after one of the major downtown events (Manhattan Open AVP, the Surfest and Christmas fireworks). And it doesn't all happen after the sun goes down.Click here for the Best Happy Hour Bars in the South Bay. Downtown Nightlife [MAP]
An intoxicating mix of bars greets Pubclubbers in downtown Manhattan Beach. From seaside dives to restaurant/bars and upscale lounges, this four-block area looking down on the Manhattan Beach Pier is dynamically diverse. It's a friendly place, laid-back and slam 'em back, as comfortable as the crowd primarily in shorts, sandals and tees would indicate. Where are all those passersby heading to on Manhattan Beach Blvd? To Shellback Tavern, of course! The first bar off the beach, Shellback is a rustic dive that is much a part of the landscape and culture of downtown at the beach. It's where tired and thirsty volleyball players go on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, joined by equally thirsty rollerbladers and bike riders.
Locals often become human pinballs between "the Shell" and the other bars near the Pier. Right across the street, in fact, is Beaches. With hardwood floors and pristine interior, it lacks the character of Shellback's – as well as the beer stains on the carpet. What it excels at is a view of the Pacific, right out large windows. (Though, like just about every place here, there's no patio looking out to the sea.) It also has the South Bay's longest Happy Hour, lasting each weekday until 9 p.m. By that time on the weekends, it's downstairs are turns from a fairily calm place for a few drinks into happening dance bar. The lights go down, tables are moved and the good-looking 20-somethings pile up at the door. On Surfest and AVP weekends, this is a very, very popular bar. Oddly, a place called Beaches does not allow shorts in the summer after 9 p.m.!
One doesn't have to love beer to love Simmzy's. But it helps. A beer and wine bar, it has 24 beers on tap priced to move at $6, an adequate menu of burgers, salads and sandwiches (plus breakfast until 2:30 on weekends). Yet its best attributes are its "come in and just have fun" attitude and patio overlooking Manhattan Beach Blvd. With only about a dozen tables, the place is small but the intimate atmosphere invites friendly bantering between other patrons and the open doors give the place an indoor-outdoor feel even at the bar. It's fun for lunch, dinner or drinks and because of all this it's wildly popular.
The best drink in town is The PubClubette at the small bar of the nice Italian restaurant, Mangiamo. Mixed to expertise by bartender Wayne, it's a tribute to PubClub.com's PubClubettes, it's a potent and unique martini, the Best Mixed Drink in Manhattan. Mangiamo is a small, quiet bar popular among some locals who call it home. It's sometimes called the "fish bowl," because of its big window that looks out over Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Rock 'N Fish is a terrific seafood restauran with a bar that is often as popular as the food. After about 10, the diners give way to drinkers and this has become one of the beach's best "upscale" hangouts (keep in mind, it's the beach). The part-owner is also involved with the Brewco (formerly Manhattan beach Brewing) next door as well as Shade (keep reading). Brewco's open-air windows are giving the place a patio feel and it's bringing in diners and casual drinkers. Some say when you live in Manhattan, you have it made in the shade. Perhaps they are hanging out, in the lobby bar of the upscale hotel Shade. The bar is bringing in the nicely-dressed crowd, and not always from the South Bay. If there's a celebrity hangout in the South Bay, they are most likely here. The space is well designed, comfortable and offers couches for seating and places for leaning. Drinks are pricey ($7 for beers, $11 for some martinis) so the clientele is often more mature than anywhere else in the predominately mid-20s beach cities bars. In fact, there's more cougars prowling in Shade than in the Santa Monica mountains. But there's also younger cats in the crowd, too.
Shade, which by archaic Manhattan Beach liquor laws for new bars must
give last call by 11, is in a newly developed section of downtown Manhattan.
The area includes an upscale Greek restaurant, a bakery, deli and the
kinds of eclectic shops that make one wonder how the heck they stay in
business (though $500 tables and chairs at the furniture store could explain
a lot). What it does is create a ripple-down effect to give neighboring
bars like Shark's Cove. Shark's Cove is the best set up to handle a nightlife type of setting. A classy sports bar, it puts a small band in on weekends, has plasma TVs everywhere – even at some of the booths – and behind the bar is a really cool blue light panel that, at first glance from a distance, appears to be an aquarium. This gives the place a club-type feel but it's still casual and comfortable and later at night it cranks with live music and a very fun crowd. For a real club-type feel, Twelve+Highland (behind Shark's Cove on 12th Street) is pumping with a young, lively crowd. It's not really a club, but has the look and feel (there's usually a cover of $5-10) and potential patrons are advised to arrive on weekends by 10:30. Still, many of those from Shade prefer to make the 5-minute walk down to Manhattan Ave., to local landmark Ercoles. Our vote as L.A.'s Best Dive Bar, Erc's serves cheap drinks, has a classic jukebox, wooden booths and a pool table. This cozy atmosphere picks up at midnight and goes to closing at 1:30. Both here and at the Shell, the crowd is comprised fun people who like to drink, mingle and meet in a shorts and sandals casual climate (Erc's is now mainly a 30s crowd). The hamburgers, so juicy it takes a stack of napkins to stay clean, are unarguably the Best in the World.
The Erc's crowd may have also started the night at Mucho's, an upsacle Mexican restaurant and bar with a great-looking crowd. The excellent design provides room at the bar without bumping into diners and the eye candy is as intoxicating as the margaritas mixed by the likes of the gregarious Gregor. It's only about the size of your living room, but The Side Door is as popular as your best wine party. The crowd and atmosphere is upscale but it pulls it off without pretension. It's best to get there by 9 or 9:30 to avoid the inevitable line (and, often, a $5 cover charge). Lucky girls who arrive early get a seat on the cozy blue couch. El Porto [MAP]
Once a town of it's own identity, the north end of Manhattan Beach is known to locals as El Porto. It runs from just south of Rosecrans to 45th Street. The focal point is Sharkeez. The parent of the Hermosa establishment, this is the original location (others are in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Santa Barbara). It features a tropical decor, potent drinks and the same festive atmosphere as its siblings. The crowd is mostly locals who walk in and stagger home.
There's almost always something going on there – a birthday party, work celebration or bachelor or bachlorette bash. Happy Hours featuring 2-for-1s until 6:30 and until 8 on Thursdays, are a post-work highlight.
Tuesdays feature not only a popular Taco Tuesday but a raging post-taco party with karaoke featuring the most fun and vocal people in the South Bay. They rock to the rockin' DU Soul Cole, who plays to not only the pulse of the people but the prevailing mood of the place. When the sorority girls from Loyola Maramount come in for their regular socials– which is nearly every Thursday – it's like walking into a beer commercial.
It's been Pork Chop Brows, the ill-fated Reactor and the legendary Harry O's. And now the spot next to OB's – rich in local party history – is Upper Manhattan. Upper not just as in the name but in its style. This is an upscale lounge with a martini mentality and features sexy but tasteful caberet-style shows and bands on weekends. And while this could mean uppity, it's still the beach and still brings in good 'ol Joe's band for a Manhattan party flashback. NOTE: Upper Manhattan is currently closed (temporarily?). Keep checking PubClub for updates. Now, there's a free shuttle from downtown Manhattan Beach. Weekends have a $10 cover to cover the cabaret shows.
On other nights, OB's huge bottled beer selection is a draw, as is the varied menu. Wednesday is stirfry night and it's an awesome meal and Thursdays' "Burger and beer" night is also popular. The BBQ sandwich is so good one might think they are in Texas (except the hot waitresses are not in cowboy hats and just about everyone is wearing sandals). This is a pub-type place, great for watching sports and hangin' loose, like the surfboard logo indicates.
No lines, no cover but a crowded bar can be found across the streets at Pancho's. A Mexican restaurant with an upstairs cantina, it has had hot live music on weekends with young, hip crowd. Lately, Pancho's has become a rock n' roll All-Start show with bands featuring, among others, the guitar player from Tom Petty, the drummer from Styx, a bass player from Kenny Loggins, you name it. Sometimes, they just blow the roof off the place. Day of Daze is the regular band with rock covers and Little Jimmy is a local legend. The bar is small and it's often shoulder-to-shoulder but for up-close live rock it's an "in" place to party. After Taco Tuesday at OB's, many people then go to Pancho's for karaoke, their inhibitions largely removed by those OB's drink specials. Okay, it's a dive – but a friendly dive – and it's open later than any other bar in Manhattan. This makes Summer's, located at the neon sign behind the parking structure, the late-night call of the North End. By 1:30, all of Harry O's, Sharky's, Pancho's and OB's storm the place. • Hermosa
Beach/Redondo Beach Bars & Restaurants Bar & Restaurant Resource Guide
© 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. All rights reserved. |
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Manhattan has two bar areas, downtown and the north end (also referred
to as El Porto in recognition of its colorful past). Downtown used to
the THE party spot in all of California, but when neighboring Hermosa
opened up Pier Ave., the heavy party crowd headed to HB. 
OB's
is a pub for local dwellers who like the 50 bottled and 10 draft beer
selections. On Tuesdays, it's SRO for the South Bay's Best Taco Tuesday.
Be patient and grab a drink while waiting for a table to clear; it's worth
the wait. The tacos – chicken, fish and marinated beef – are
huge; two is plenty even for big appetites (scarf down 10 and earn your
name on a plaque). This is complemented by $1 domestic drafts and margarita
specials. 
