Restaurant/Bars, Dive Bars & Beer Bars In This South Bay Beach City
Manhattan Beach, CA, has long been a place for great bars. Its quaint downtown has places from dive bars to upscale restaurant/bars.
Here’s a look at all the bars in the downtown area, on and around the Pier and Manhattan Beach Blvd. It includes addresses and a brief (and accurate, after all PubClub.com is located here) description. For a complete look at Manhattan Beach bars and nightlife, go to our more complete reviews by clicking here.
As far as hours, the bars are open in the morning and serve either lunch or breakfast, while the restaurants generally open in the late afternoon. The bars are open until 2 a.m. But really, that’s chairs-up time. Last call is 1:30 and you are shoved out the door by about 1:45.
• BREWCO
124 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Beer bar and restaurant, lunch and dinner.
Open: Untl midnight
A sit-down beer bar, BrewCo has several dozen craft beers on tap. It’s the original location of the Zislis Group, when Mike and his brothers opened the Manhattan Beach Brewing Company in the early 90s (it was a PubClub.com favorite at the time). Now the Zislis Group owns several places in Manhattan Beach. BrewCo has doors that open up to Manhattan Beach Blvd., which makes it popular in late afternoons and early evenings for groups of friends or business meetings. Unlike its MB Brewing Company predecessor, however, it’s not really a singles scene. The menu is decent and with items such as Greek tacos and burgers and sandwiches, but the choices are priced a dollar or two too high, in PubClub.com’s opinion.
• DOWNSTAIRS BAR
900 Manhattan Ave.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Intimate lounge
Open: Evenings until 2 a.m.
This is as intimate as it can get in a bar. Downstairs Bar, formerly the Red Room and Side Door – is about the size of a living room. It’s also that cozy and the dozen or so people in it make it feel as if you are visiting in someone’s house or apartment. Except here you have a DJ spinning cool tunes and a bartender making you strong drinks. It’s a bit of an upscale scene but also beach casual at the same time. There’s a really fun bartender Morgan who keeps things lively. Upstairs, by the way, is a private bar the 900 Club, and it sends down the food, which is really good. Especially the lobster mac ‘n cheese.scene.
• ERCOLES
110 Manhattan Ave.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Dive Bar with great burgers, lunch & dinner
Open: Until 2 a.m.
The oldest bar in Manhattan Beach, “Erc’s” as locals passionately refer to it, is one of the best spots for drinking in the South Bay. It’s a dive bar with basic elements, Budweiser signs on the wall, a pool table and solid drinks. The crowd goes changes as does the flow of the tide steps away at the beach; older in the daytime to youthful by closing time. Erc’s is not a “starter bar” where you go first, but a “finishing bar’ where locals use as a last stop on weekend nights. Ercoles has the Best Burgers in L.A., according to PubClub.com, and on Wednesdays they are 2-for-1.
• HENNESSEY’S TAVERN
313 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Casual restaurant with a bar, breakfast lunch & dinner
Open: Until 2 a.m.
Back in the day, this was one of the best bars in all of the South Bay Beach Cites. Today, however, it’s much more restaurant than bar. The menu is mostly burgers and its thick-cut Hennessey’s fries served in a basket. There’s a row of seats along the bar but they put up a wall separating this area from people seated at tables, thereby eliminating one of its earlier virtues for singes, being able to lean over and easily start conversations. A small patio and fireplace is nice for those on a date. Hennessey’s does maintain its long-standing tradition of having cute servers in their white shirts and khaki shorts and skirts, but this not a true bar scene.
• MANGIAMO
128 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Italian Restaurant-Bar
Open: Until midnight
This is a good Italian restaurant, and if you’re on a date and want a romantic spot, ask for a table at very back of the room. As far as a bar, it’s small but really cool with very good bartenders. Happy Hour is 5-6:30 and you can get a good glass of wine for $5 and choose from a range of tasty appetizers. PubClub likes to sit at the big window that overlooks the street and, at the right time of the year, sunsets over the pier.
ROCK ‘N FISH
120 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Seafood Restaurant-bar
Open: Until midnight
A restaurant that serves excellent seafood, Rock ‘n Fish has a small bar that serves quality cocktails. It’s specialty is the Navy Grog, kind of a Mai Tai on steroids. Locals may pop in here as a meeting spots and to have a Navy Grog or drink or two before heading out elsewhere on weekends. Those sitting at the bar are upper-30s and beyond, and those without a seat are standing among tables of diners. Nobody seems to mind, tho, as everyone is very friendly and accommodating, and that includes the staff. For dining, getting an outside table on the covered patio is coveted, especially for those on a date.
• SHARK’S COVE
309 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Sports bar with live music at night, lunch and dinner
Open: Until 2 a.m.
Sharks’ Cove is a a sports bar by day and early evening, it transforms turns into a fun and casual bar at night. It’s after dark that the staff pulls out a few tables and turns a dining area into a stage for bands playing rock music. Like most places here, Shark’s Cove is in a small space but thee’s always enough elbow room to feel comfortable. It has several good beers on tap – such as Kona brews from Hawaii – and a really good crowd, usually ranging from mid-20s to mid-30s The menu is nothing to shout about (primarily burgers and sandwiches) but it’s good enough to enjoy over a beer and sports.
• SHELLBACK TAVERN
116 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Dive bar with breakfast, lunch and dinner
Open: Until 2 a.m.
Shellback is like Ercoles in that it’s one of the traditional casual bars in the South Bay. “No Bad Days” is its mantra and if you’re in there on a weekend afternoon, watching the sunset from one of its big windows, seeing sports or jammin’ to the jukebox on a packed weekend night, it’s easy to see why there are no bad days or even nights at Shellback. This is a great dive bar and people go in right off the beach and volleyball courts. Even shorts and sandals prevail at night. Shellback is a beer-drinker’s paradise – as the decor on the walls and hanging from the ceiling indicate – a place that’s all about going out and having fun without worrying about anything other than, well, having fun. The food, especially the Baja tacos, is good. And the omelettes are great, tho breakfast stops serving at noon.
• SIMMZY’S
229 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Restaurant & Beer Bar
Open: Lunch and dinner until after midnight
The small patio at Simmzy’s make is highly popular and there’s always a line to sit here and eat. It’s a small restaurant but also has a bar with a dozen hard-to-find craft beers, like Leffe Blonde from Belgium. If you can get a seat at the bar then it’s a pretty good singles scene, for the place always has a good-looking crowd.
• STRAND HOUSE
117 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Upscale Restaurant-Bar
Open: Until 2 a.m.
The elegance of Manhattan Beach is on display at its best at Strand House. A super-expensive restaurant with famous chefs (well, famous to those in the food industry, anyway) it’s heartbeat is its happening downstairs bar. Drinks are not cheap – $8 for a Stella Artois, with tax added to that price – so don’t come here expecting it to be light on the wallet. Local high rollers get bottle service at the table and that attracts the well-dressed girls to create a high-end South Bay social scene. If you go here, dress the part to play the part. And if the downstairs is too crowded or not quite your scene, there’s a small bar upstairs that’s more calm and has great views looking out toward the Pacific Ocean and pier.
• ZINC LOUNGE, SHADE HOTEL
1121 N. Valley Drive
Manhattan Beach, CA
Type: Upscale Lounge
Lunch and dinner until midnight (weekends)
Much like Strand House – it’s owned by the same company, the Zizis Group – Zinc Lounge is the sexy bar in the sexy Shade Hotel. It’s a really cool scene and occasionally gets in minor celebrities and professional athletes. The area is large and spacious and there’s even a big patio where you can take your drink and carry on a private conversation. Unfortunately, the city forces Zinc close at midnight – which means they start to clear everyone out at about 11:30 – and then everyone spills out into the other places, primarily Strand House and Ercoles. Because who wants to go home at 11:30 on a Friday or Saturday night!?
Leave a Reply