Westlake & Koreatown
The jukebox is stocked with classics and neo-classics, and you have to know the password to get past the gatekeeper. Seriously. Call or log on to its…
Must-see nightlife in Southern California
Laguna Beach
For pub grub and microbrews after a day of surfing, this place lines up copper vats behind the bar, pouring its own Miel de Laguna blond and Solar amber…
Silver Lake & Echo Park
LA's original overly intellectual coffee house (and there are a number of them now) offers a marble island bar where you can sit with your laptop, and a…
Silver Lake & Echo Park
Echo Park's beloved and deceptively sprawling dive has a dance floor in one room, a bar strobing ballgames on flat-screens in another, and a pool table…
Santa Ynez Valley
Another sign of Solvang's attempts to stay up late, CSG keeps the beers (and wine) flowing well into the evening on its outdoor patio. Sausages from…
Coastal Orange County
Long-running live-music venue featuring a roster of local and national rock, indie, alternative and tribute bands; expect a cover charge of $15 to $40,…
Greater Palm Springs
The tiki torches and the name are a nod to this perky cafe's earlier incarnation as Don the Beachcomber's founded in 1953 by Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt…
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
A retro-spirited watering hole with twirling ceiling fans, parlor floors and cocktails celebrating its Fashion District address. Chat hemlines and fabrics…
San Diego
Guinness? Check. Corned beef? Check. But what sets this rambling pub apart are its long happy hours (lasting five hours early in the week) and its live…
Malibu & Pacific Palisades
Right across from the ocean is this low-slung, converted whitewashed beach house with tasty flatbreads and a popular weekend brunch. But we consider it to…
San Diego
Decorated with hundreds of beer pump handles, which are dangling from the ceiling, this friendly neighborhood spot serves a range of local craft beers…
Silver Lake & Echo Park
A dark, sexy demi-monde where the walls are black, the lights red and the videos hardcore, the Eagle is as close as LA gets to a proper gay leather bar,…
Long Beach & San Pedro
Portfolio has been supporting the arts, and nurturing Retro Row, since 1990, with poetry readings, art exhibit space and live jazz performances on Fridays…
San Diego
We’re not sure what it means that this buzzy watering hole has a Día de los Muertos (Mexican Day of the Dead holiday) theme in the flight path of San…
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
Kick up your heels during Saturday’s Tropical Nights when a salsa band turns the heat up against the faux Mayan-temple backdrop. Don’t know how? Come…
Anaheim
Try the surprisingly good local brew at this simple tasting room in a renovated warehouse in the Packing District. Standouts include the Hefeweizen Red…
Santa Barbara
Extending the Funk Zone a little further east is no bad thing, and Waterline's combination of two taprooms (Topa Topa and Lama Dog), a restaurant (the…
Long Beach & San Pedro
In San Pedro's old warehouse district, this brewery opens to the public five days a week for tastings from beers such as the Popfuji unfiltered pilsner,…
Coastal Orange County
This intimate, eclectic bar is decorated kind of like grandma's attic...if grandma collected faux buffalo heads, piano fronts and a ski gondola, and…
South Bay Beaches
A nice counterpoint to the design-heavy sports bars on Manhattan Beach Blvd. This locals-heavy hole is dark, neon-lit and cozy, the tiles are chipped and…
San Diego
San Diego’s first liquor license was granted to this place in the 1930s (it was on the waterfront until the harbor was filled and the airport built). A…
Santa Barbara
Family-run craft distillers producing whiskey, vodka, gin and apple pie (liqueur) since before (and during) Prohibition. The spirits are hard to find in…
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
This dark basement lounge flashes old-school glamor with leather bar stools and lounges tucked into intimate coves. But the bar is the thing, armed with…
Santa Barbara
Sit on the sunny porch or inside the rustic-feel hut by the fire and try out the wines and beers from Santa Barbara in general and a few international…
Westlake & Koreatown
A corner coffee shop in a mini-mall with an assortment of slushies, smoothies and teas, the best of which is the wonderful taro slushie with boba balls…
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
With an old Mexico whimsy, more than 400 agave spirits and friendly barkeeps who mix ingredients such as egg whites, blackberries and port syrup into new…
Huntington Beach
Two words: meat market. But then again, any strip of beach bars worth its margarita salt needs at least one. DJs nightly, ocean view patios, a laser-light…
Santa Ynez Valley
If you're done with wine but not with alcohol then the Brewing Company is the place to head. A decent selection of beers (including a stout and a couple…
Santa Ynez Valley
Fig Mountain's original brewpub gives you a break from the wine with its award-winning, inhouse-brewed beers: Hoppy Poppy, Danish red lager and Davy Brown…
Laguna Beach
Locals roll their eyes at the mere mention of this tourist-heavy resto, but out-of-towners flock here for a reason: the million-dollar views. You won’t…
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
A vintage bar with old-school funk, groovy tunes on the stereo, sports on strobing flat screens and taps pouring suds from Cali craft brewers such as…
West Hollywood & Mid-City
This 1975 hippie classic – the first on the LA health-food, raw-power bandwagon – started out on Sunset when Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones used to…
San Fernando Valley
The bar at this restaurant has the sexiest library this side of an Anne Rice novel – bordello-red lighting, low-slung couches and flickering candles, all…
San Diego
A beer-geek's dream bar, you can pour your own beer (and a few wines) at Barrel Republic. Grab an electronic wrist band, try sips of all the beers you…
Coastal Orange County
Live country-and-western music plays daily at this honky-tonk saloon a stone's throw from the Mission. Every square inch of wall and ceiling space is…
Disneyland Resort
Show up early and score a personal leather recliner at this sports and drinking emporium with 175 TVs – flat-screens even hang above the men’s-room…
Coastal Orange County
Around the corner from Main St, sip organic espresso drinks on the leopard-print sofa and play Scrabble as you watch the surf roll in on the beach across…
South Bay Beaches
Nestled thankfully off the Pier Ave crush, this decidedly grungy neighborhood joint has friendly (not bubbly) blondes behind the bar, boards (snow, skate,…
San Diego
Drinks are poured with a generous elbow at San Diego's premier women's bar where a patio, firepits, sofas and the dance floor invite mingling. The vibe is…
Silver Lake & Echo Park
What's better than a beer store? One with a bar. That's what you get here, where clued-up, attitude-free staffers are happy to help you decide between…
