Abbey
West Hollywood & Mid-City
It's been called the best gay bar in the world, and who are we to argue? Once a humble coffeehouse, the Abbey has expanded into the bar/club/restaurant of…
Spire 73
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
On the roof of the Intercontinental Hotel, Spire 73 proclaims to be the tallest rooftop bar in the western hemisphere. From its spot on the 73rd story,…
Polo Lounge
Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood & Westwood
For a classic LA experience, dress up and swill martinis in the Beverly Hills Hotel's legendary bar. Charlie Chaplin had a standing lunch reservation at…
Mikkeller DTLA
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
This cool, influential Copenhagen import puts a contemporary spin on the old beer hall. Fitted out with booths, communal bar tables and cartoon artwork by…
Pike
Long Beach & San Pedro
Adjacent to Retro Row, this nautical-themed dive bar, owned by Chris Reece of the band Social Distortion, brings in the cool kids for live-music acts…
Clifton's Republic
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
Opened in 1935 and back after a $10-million renovation, multilevel, mixed-crowd Clifton's defies description. Order drinks from a Gothic church altar amid…
Edison
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
Accessed through easy-to-miss Harlem Pl alleyway, this extraordinary basem*nt lounge sits in a century-old power plant. It's like a dimly lit, steampunk…
EightyTwo
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
co*cktails, pinball machines and arcade games makes for oh-so-retro good times at this graffiti-soaked warehouse bar. Named for 1982 (the height of the …
Everson Royce Bar
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
Don't be fooled by the unceremonious grey exterior. Behind that wall lies a hopping Arts District hangout, with a buzzy, bulb-strung outdoor patio. The…
High
Venice, Marina Del Rey & Playa del Rey
Venice's only rooftop bar is quite an experience, with 360-degree views from the shore to the Santa Monica Mountains – if you can take your eyes off the…
Virgil
Silver Lake & Echo Park
An atmospheric, vintage-styled neighborhood hangout serving quality co*cktails to local hipsters and arty types. A stocked calendar of entertainment…
La Descarga
Hollywood
This tastefully frayed, reservations-only rum and cigar lounge is a revelation. Behind the marble bar sit more than 100 types of rum from Haiti, Guyana,…
Basem*nt Tavern
Santa Monica
A creative speakeasy, housed in the basem*nt of the Victorian, and our favorite well in Santa Monica. We love it for its craft co*cktails, cozy booths,…
Good Housekeeping
Los Angeles
Step out the back door of restaurant Cafe Birdie and you'll find this red-brick speakeasy. A neighborly oasis of tealights, leather booths and competent…
Dresden
Los Feliz & Griffith Park
Marty and Elayne have been a Los Feliz fixture since 1982 when they first brought their quirky Sinatra style to the Dresden’s mid-century lounge. He…
Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood & Westwood
You'll be clinking crystal at the Hotel Bel-Air's dark, intimate hideaway, a deco-inspired bar-lounge graced with white-marble fireplace and blown-up…
Rooftop Bar at Mama Shelter
Hollywood
Less a hotel rooftop bar and more lush, tropical-like oasis with killer views of the Hollywood sign and LA skyline, multicolored daybeds and tongue-in…
Hollywood
With daily rotating craftsman whiskey, bourbon and co*cktail specials, Harvard & Stone lures peeps with its live bands, solid DJs and burlesque troops…
Upstairs at the Ace Hotel
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
What's not to love about a rooftop bar with knockout Downtown views, powerful co*cktails and a luxe, safari-inspired fit out? Perched on the 14th floor of…
Blind Barber
Los Angeles
Clippers and co*cktails conspire at this winning speakeasy. The front section is an actual barbershop, complete with vintage barber chairs and inked…
No Vacancy
Hollywood
If you prefer your co*cktail sessions with plenty of wow factor, make a reservation online, style up (no sportswear, shorts or logos) and head to this old…
ETA
Los Angeles
One of the city's top co*cktail dens, intimate ETA serves innovative, complex libations such as its famous Penultimate Word, an out-of-the-box mix of gin,…
Prince
Westlake & Koreatown
In the movie Chinatown, Faye Dunaway meets with Jack Nicholson at this snug, retro warren of semicircular booths, quirky lamps and, these days, Gen-Y…
Sassafras Saloon
Hollywood
You'll be pining for the bayou at the hospitable Sassafras Saloon, where hanging moss and life-size facades evoke sultry Savannah. co*cktails include a…
Villains Tavern
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
Behind Villains Tavern is restaurateur and interior designer Dana Hollister, who turned a run-down Arts District deli into this dark-wood and iron den of…
Bungalow
Santa Monica
A Brent Bolthouse nightspot, the indoor-outdoor lounge at the Fairmont Miramar was one of the hottest nights out in LA when it burst onto the scene a…
Eightfold Coffee
Silver Lake & Echo Park
Eastside stylists, bloggers and musicians flock to this cool, whitewashed coffee shop to talk gigs, browse niche journals and sip superlative, Portland…
Dirty Laundry
Hollywood
Under a cotton-candy-pink apartment block of no particular import is this funky den of musty odor, low ceilings, exposed pipes and good times. There's…
Sayers Club
Hollywood
When established stars such as the Black Keys, and even movie stars such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, decide to play secret shows in intimate environs, they…
Bar Marmont
West Hollywood & Mid-City
Elegant, but not stuck up; been around, yet still cherished. With high ceilings, molded walls and terrific martinis, the famous and the wish-they-weres…
Dogtown Coffee
Santa Monica
Set in the old Zephyr surf shop headquarters, where skateboarding was invented during a 1970s drought that emptied pools across LA, it brews great coffee…
Teddy's Bar
Hollywood
Evoking an old hunting lodge with its timber panels, Chesterfield sofas and mounted antlers, this handsome hideaway sits off the Roosevelt Hotel's…
Varnish
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
Tucked into the back of Cole's is this cubby-hole-sized speakeasy, an essential downtown bar since it won the Tales of the co*cktail competition in 2012.
Rose Garden Tea Room
Pasadena & the San Gabriel Valley
High tea ($37) at the Rose Garden has been a grand tradition at the Huntington for generations. Try your choice of herbal and fair-trade teas (including…
Federal Bar
Long Beach & San Pedro
This converted, historic bank with its weighty granite bar, crystal chandeliers and burly wooden columns offers a good selection of craft beers and booze…
Onyx
Santa Monica
Santa Monica's only indoor-outdoor roof bar has a swinging-'70s, Studio 54 vibe – brass-plated fireplace, hexagonal ceiling tiles – a bar made of a giant…
Observation Bar
Long Beach & San Pedro
If you like your co*cktails with a sidecar of history, the main bar on the Queen Mary is the place to be. The ocean liner's one-time 1st-class lounge still…
El Carmen
West Hollywood & Mid-City
A pair of mounted bull heads and lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) masks create an over-the-top, ‘Tijuana North’ look and pull in an industry-heavy crowd at…
Angel City Brewery
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
Where suspension cables were once manufactured, craft brews are now made and poured. Located on the edge of the Arts District, this is a popular spot to…
San Fernando Valley
This popular cafe is in a converted, artsy, multi-room (yet somehow still cozy) house; outside, tables crowd leafy, heated patios and the line runs out…
More destinations you need to see
- San Diego
- Santa Barbara
- Anaheim
- Newport Beach
- Huntington Beach
