The Legend of LaPaz, 12th Street, Chillers and Even Beach Bum Burt’s May Be Back in the Beach Cities
Are Sundays in the South Bay BACK!?
From the look of things, it sure seems that way.
First, local promoter Berry Bly created a party at Ocean Bar (1-7 p.m., $10), the first of which in mid-May was described as “off the hook” and “on fire.” A personal inspection confirms this is indeed the case. It’s got pumping music, a great vibe and, for those wanting more to hang out than go all out, there’s roof-top open plastered in sunshine and presenting a big view of the Pacific. The atmosphere is like a Vegas pool party, except without the pool.
Then Sharkeez Upper Manhattan started bringing in bands (5-8, with $1 Bud Lights from 8-10). Saint Rocke is going to have the Spazmatics play every Sunday with 2-for-1 drinks, starting July 3.
Now, Patrick Molloy’s has jumped into the pool with a “beach party” featuring an 80s theme (4-8) and a “reverse” Happy Hour (8-close).
And the Sunday concerts on the beach are not due to start until July.
Suddenly, after years of sitting dormant like a flat beer, Sundays are alive again in the South Bay.
And it’s great! The South Bay has needed a good, consistent party spot since Chiller’s. That patio at the small Redondo pier (a dull place called On The Rocks is there now, but that’s in large part to neighbors not allowing so much as an acoustic guitar lick to come out of the place) packed in the people who got smashed Sunday afternoons on those frozen slushy drinks.
There was a band (of sorts), sometimes just a single guy playing and sometimes two or three people making some sort of noise. The real attraction was to be able to be on a warm and sunny deck – girls in bikinis, guys in board shorts – and party.
Then a decidedly “un-beach” crowd started making it their turf, neighbors complained about noise and the inevitable scuffles, and Chiller’s became a piece of beach bar history.
For years, about all we had was Naja’s on the Redondo Beach Pier. But frankly, with the surrounding crowd it’s only a place to have couple of large beers after a bike ride; it onto itself is not a destination. Sharkeez Hermosa, of course, catered to thirsty South Bay’ers, most notably a fine and gentle gentleman who had an affinity for the supersized drinks, earning him the nickname Bucket Billy. And, of course, it’s a fine and fun place to be on Sunday afternoons and evenings.
When Waterman’s on the Hermosa Pier opened, it brought in a reggae band, and it filled up the place. The concerts are certainly nice, and Sharkeez, Cafe Boogaloo and Sangria were good spots to stop afterward, but there’s only four of those a year.
So our throats are dry for a good, consistent party place on Sunday afternoons after our beach volleyball games, a place to roll into on rollerblades and roll up to on our bikes.
The South Bay has a long-standing tradition of party-filled Sundays. This goes back to the wildest place ever to operate in the the South Bay, a crazy place called LaPaz.
It consisted of a small back patio that was absolutely insane. If you were not there by 3 o’clock you did not get in, plain and simple. There was one bar passing out drafts of Bud as fast as the bartender gal could pour them, a girl took up a perch in a tree branch, a group of people across the alley treated their apartment like a deck on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras and by sunset not one soul was even close to sober.
The owners, Pat and Jerry, decided to make the place nice and closed it and eventually made it Beaches. It’s funny to think about now because the buzz about town for several weeks was “this is LaPaz’s last day” so Sundays got more and more nuts until it did, eventually and sadly, close.
Beaches never did replicate this wildness, except during the Manhattan Open weekends, but eventually a bar called 12th Street contributed greatly to the demise to the livers and inhibitions of the South Bay’s singles. The great thrill here was that every Sunday, Joe’s Band played. This was the #1 party band in the history of the South Bay and it was a come-as-you-are all-out wild time, drinking and dancing. Imagine the post-AVP Sangria parties as comparison. Every. Single. Sunday.
Eventually, the owner (a different Pat) decided to get more space and move across the street, so he created H2O And that was fun for a while. Heather Locklear was a regular because she dated Henry, the lead singer of one of the bands, House Party. But it was almost too nice of a place, too big of a place, really, to have that smaller, intimate all-out party atmosphere.
So people started heading up to Harry O’s (now Sharkeez), known on Sunday nights as The Last Chance Saloon. When a whacky band called the M80s played, the place was packed and brought to mind the best of times at 12th Street.
Actually, going back before my time, there was a place in Redondo Beach where the Cheesecake Factory is now located called Beach Bum Burt’s. If half the stories I’ve heard about that place are true, it might surpass LaPaz as the craziest place in Beach Cities bar history.
So it’s nice to see the South Bay is making a move to once again be a fun place to go out on Sundays.
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