The Cinema Bar has been serving up drinks and live music in Culver City since 1947. This is a great place to go enjoy a beer in a dimly lit atmosphere while listing to live music.

The music definitely leans more toward Folk/Americana as does the decor. Be sure to stop by when there is live music – their calendar is posted on their website.

Location

The current incarnation of Richmond Bar & Grill in El Segundo started in 1976 – and while that does miss our standard cutoff date for bars on this site by one year (1975 or earlier) – this bar gets a special pardon because it’s my favorite place to grab a burger and drink.

The building has been around since 1915 and Richmond Bar & Grill serves up delicious burgers and sandwiches along side a small yet awesome craft beer selection.

Location

Backstage Bar & Grill is the oldest bar in Culver City – it opened in 1939 and has been open and operating in the same location for over 75 years. It’s a place I’ve been to numerous times (there is always at least one birthday party going on) and with the dim lighting, packed crowds, cheap beer, and karaoke music, I never suspected it had been around for so long.

What’s Nearby

• The Shack – Playa Del Rey
• Dear John’s – Culver City
• George Petrelli’s Steak House – Culver City

The bar sits on Culver Blvd directly across the street from Sony Studios (formerly MGM Studios). As such, according to their website, the bar has hosted a variety of studio employees over the years including The Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz & Cary Grant.

It’s definitely a place worth seeking out if you’re in the area – they’ve got a great happy hour every night, one of the best karaoke places in Los Angeles (Thurs – Sat), and great pub-food. And as you sit there drinking down cheap beer and watching the always entertaining karaoke, just imagine you’re there in 1940’s hanging out with Cary Grant and The Munchkins.

Location

Hacienda Del Rey in Westchester opened in 1973. Founded and still operated by Alfonso Hernandez, the recipes created here have remained virtually unchanged over the past 40 years.

Outside Hacienda Del Rey, the restaurant portion has a brick front wall with ornate window coverings, while the section that houses the bar is more basic with large windows, neon signs and a candy-cane like white and red striped wall.

Inside you are greeted by a mish-mash interior with fish tanks, various Mexican themed knickknacks, neon signs, framed pictures of various people and different ceiling and wall styles depending where in the restaurant you are. Of note – the main restaurant with the outside brick wall is located in a building built in 1947 while the bar area in the northeast portion of the restaurant was built in 1979. This disjointed construction and unique interior lends the restaurant to an interesting charm.

The food here is above average Americanized Mexican Food with homemade tortillas (there is a tortilla making station right in the middle of the restaurant where you can watch), homemade chips, and is probably the only place I’ve been where you can order a pitcher of margaritas (you’ll probably want a designated driver if you end up ordering one of these – 64oz of margarita is no small challenge)

Location

As I write this, the fate of The Proud Bird has yet to be decided. Los Angeles World Airports recently announced it would raise the rent on the property from $200,000 a year to about $500,000 a year in keeping with their policy of market-rate valuation, forcing the restaurant to close unless something could be negotiated. As of a week ago, the restaurant (which has been filled to capacity for the last few weeks) was granted a reprieve of one month to continue operating while discussions about a new lease take place. Most of the places on the Southland Archive are endangered in one form or another, but it’s painful to see one that may be shuttered so clearly beloved by the public. Continue Reading →

The Shack in Playa del Rey has been a favorite local watering hole in Playa since 1972.

They are best known for their Shack Burger (or if you dare, the Double Shack Burger) which is a 1/4 pound cheeseburger topped with a Louisiana Sausage link. All of the ingredients are great quality and was routinely voted as a top-10 burger in all of LA (along side the likes of the Fathers Office burger, etc.) before the gastro-burger took over the list. They also have great pub food – including potato skins, chili, chicken wings, hot dogs and chicken sandwiches.
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Nestled among the recycling plants and industrial parks of Vernon lies the uniquely situated La Villa Basque. True, the restaurant is one of the few in the general area, but it’s a decent spot to throw back a couple bronsons with friends before the drive home. Happy Hour features a generous $3 20oz pint deal (Stella, Goose Island IPA, Budweiser, etc.) and food is reasonably priced with the Mexican dishes the clear standouts. The only big problem my buddy Joe and I had with the place is that…well…the place isn’t that historic anymore. Continue Reading →

According to the high priests of tikidom, Ernest “Don Beach” Gantt was the first person to stumble upon the idea of serving “exotic” food and drink in a “Polynesian” setting back in the 1930s. Because of this, talk of the original “Don the Beachcomber” inspires a quiet reverence in the pop-tiki subculture of the Southland, a group that remains fiercely passionate (and passionate about tiki refreshments) to this day.
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When you see the crowd at the Short Stop on any given day, it might be a little hard to imagine what the place was like in the early 1990s when it was THE cop bar in Los Angeles. From what I’ve been told by my uncle Larry, the stories flowed like the Budweiser poured as country music piped away on the jukebox amid the crack of a pool table. Continue Reading →

The Lion. Who doesn’t like The Lion? The place has been serving up beer and sausage since the early 1960s (the place was opened as an English Pub in 1959) and it hasn’t looked back since. Continue Reading →