Manhattan Beach Dive Bars Reviews Shellback & Ercoles

With Progress Developing Around Them, These Two Legends of the Beach Keep Pouring It On For Loyal Locals

They are the institutions that refuse to give into time or progress (or developers), as much a part of the landscape as the pier, the Strand and even the sand and the ocean.

They are the downtown dive bars of Manhattan Beach, CA, the upscale beach community in the South Bay section of Los Angeles.

Brick buildings, neon Bud signs hanging everywhere, attention-diverting video games, a classic juke box and cold beer are the “plush” attributes of these places, along with a local beach crowd dressed primarily in well-worn t-shirts, shorts and sandals.

One is easily noticeable, the other somewhat hidden a couple of blocks down from most of the other places in town. They are the Shellback Tavern and Ercoles, two places that have changed little throughout the decades, much to the pleasure of their many loyal and locals fans. The only real upgrades have been to the TVs, which mainly show sports (of course).

Let us start with Shellback, or “the Shell” as people here most often refer to it. Right off the beach on the right coming up the hill, it’s the first in a lineup of restaurant/bars on Manhattan Beach Blvd.

It’s a classic brick building with two wood booths and a couple of tables just through the main door, a few higher bar tables a little further into the place and a mostly standing or leaning area in the back that is definitely more bar than restaurant.

The walls and ceiling are full of beer signs and posters and other interesting items (check out the Budwiser skis hanging just above the waitress station!) and replicas of checks from past AVP Manhattan Beach Open volleyball winners. The menu is basic with burgers, sandwiches and salads, but anyone would be missing something awesome by not getting the San Felipe fish tacos.

The draft beer is cold, kept at less than 30 degrees by a special cooling system. And it is that cold beer that makes this the “first stop off the beach” for many locals after an afternoon of playing beach volleyball. People come in wearing the chair/backpacks and holding volleyballs under their arms. They put them on the floor and grab a draft or a pitcher, joined by dozens of others, and quench their parched throats.

One might assume that’s it for this dive bar, expecting it to thin out shortly on weekends after sunset with people not to return until the next day. But that’s not the case at the Shell. For starters, some of those beach people never leave; they may stay until closing. And at about 9, a mid-20s-mid-30s set who has been home and showered, pack the place. At night, Shellback is as much of a happening bar as it is a dive bar.

One of its most loyal patrons is Mark Cuban, who may wind up owning the Dodgers by summer’s end. Cuban always stops in Shellback for a few beers whenever he’s in town.

He should (and probably does) also go to Ercoles. The oldest bar in Manhattan Beach, dating back to the 1920s, “Ercs” (to locals) is as faded as many of the old daytime reguars’ jeans. Yes, this is the one place town you can go into on a sunny weekday afternoon and see a half-dozen patrons sitting on bar stools, their stack of money on the bar slowly dwindling down throughout the day.

Come back in the place after midnight on a weekend and the scene could not be more different. The place is pumping with the South Bay’s most consistent drinkers, ages mid-20s to mid-40s and, perhaps, a year or two beyond.

(Hey, the lifestyle here just does not allow people to curl up in a ball at night!) Some are dressed as if they just came off the beach while others are well suited, having likely come down from Shade Hotel’s Zinc Lounge where they began their night. Everyone who is out in downtown Manhattan Beach pops into Erc’s for at least a couple of drinks. Some come looking for love, some to continue what they started earlier, and some just to slide down a couple of cold ones in a cozy environment.

The place has well-worn booths lined up on the left side, a railing in the center between the booths and the bar on which people lean and place drinks, a picnic table (yes, a picnic table) with a foam seating cover that continually slides to the floor whenever anyone stands up, and a pool table in the back. The bathrooms are small – they are not much bigger than than those on an airplane – and an overall feel that one could be back in the 50s or 60s and pretty much the only change would be the dress style of the bar folks.

Ercoles also has one other distinction. It’s serves the Best Hamburgers in Los Angeles. Why is it that dive bars always have the best burgers? Is it the decades-old grill, the very simple way they cook it, or the fact they realize the meat is the star and don’t smother it with an oversized and fancy bun? Here it’s all that and more, for the quality of the patty itself is also part of its secret.

For more reviews of nightlife & bars in Manhattan Beach, click here.