Lively Crowd Enjoys Singles Socializing With Good Craft Beers And Friends

The combination is as natural as the beach and the ocean, as dominating as Clayton Kershaw with a baseball in his hands.

The first weekend of each October, the gorgeous Los Angeles beach community called Manhattan Beach holds an event that sounds as if belongs in a small town in Iowa, Hometown Fair.  But here, locals know better. While it does have arts and crafts booths set up along Valley-Ardmore Street downtown, what it means to most singles in the area is this: BEER GARDEN!

And it’s fair to say that the beer garden once again proved to be the highlight of Hometown Fair.

On Saturday, it was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it, bringing to mind the LA Coliseum during the Pete Carroll years at USC. The weather certainly played its part as the Santa Ana winds produced a cloudless, sunny sky and temperatures in the mid-80s.

With Anheuser-Busch supplying the beer, there was great variety, from Bud Light and Budweiser to the very popular Shock Top Belgian White wheat to two great craft beers, Longboard Lager and Goose Island IPA. On Saturday alone, nearly 130 kegs were consumed. And that was all within just a few hours, from basically 1 p.m., when people started showing up, until closing at 6!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All this made for a lively scene among just about every single person in the South Bay and, I must say, quite a few of the best the South Bay has to offer in the terms of nice-looking girls.

As the beer garden once again proved, it s not just the beach that’s gorgeous in Manhattan Beach. (Girls will no doubt comment that there’s a good number of fine-looking dudes in the beer garden, though I am not qualified to confirm or to deny.)

Saturday’s beer garden was extra spirited as it was the site of a few Mira Costa High School reunion classes (and proceeds from the beer sales went to programs at the Manhattan Beach HS, so there was plenty of contributions from the thirsty alumni). Plus, there was the usual stacking of the beer cups into a huge pyramid.

Many of us were in an especially lively mood, having run the 10K in the morning. That event is finished off by finishing off several pitchers of Bud Light in Shellback Tavern, which is the prime bar objective after the beer garden, too.

The beer garden, Oct. 5-6, goes from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Beer tickets are $6, a fair price for such quality beers in such a lively atmosphere.

Cheers!

 

LINKS:

• Hometown Fair Beer Garden Review & Photos

• Hometown Fair Beer Garden Party Tips

• Hometown Fair 10K