[Sammy]

Moving to LA next week, got an apartment sorted out for Culver City.

I'll be doing a data sheet once I get settled, no worries, but has anyone got any recommendations on places to check out?

Open to all suggestions - good bars, nice gyms, yoga places, nice restaurants... you get the idea.

[Tuthmosis]

(11-27-2011 10:33 AM)Sammy Wrote:  

Moving to LA next week, got an apartment sorted out for Culver City.

I'll be doing a data sheet once I get settled, no worries, but has anyone got any recommendations on places to check out?

Open to all suggestions - good bars, nice gyms, yoga places, nice restaurants... you get the idea.

Culver City is an up-and-coming part of LA. There are definitely cool places to hang out, including some nice divey (read: hipster) bars with some decent-to-solid action in them. What's more, Culver City gives you access to all points West, namely the spots in Venice, as well the rest of the city. You get a lot of run-off from UCLA, and are in close enough proximity to hit up Westwood Village (though I've found that area to be unproductive at night). Overall, this is a good move.

Some hot spots:

Saints and Sinners: a good joint, though in recent years it became kind of velvet-ropey, if you know what I mean. Lush, colorful settings. This is within stumbling distance of a lot of apartments, so check your address.

Bigfoot Lounge (West): I have only been to the "Eastern" version of this (in Glendale/Los Feliz), but word on the street is that this is a tight spot. Within walking distance of Saints and Sinners, so you can bounce from one to other with ease.

Alibi Room: Nice, divey and loungey atmosphere with solid crowd. Likely to become one of your spots. Sort of under-appreciated right now.

Carbon: Divey, dark bar with loud, intense hip-hop nights (if that's what you need that night) or a loungier atmosphere on off-nights. Crowd ranges from ghetto to miscellaneous. Kind of a higher fatty contingent because of the In-and-Out Burger across the street. They go there with every intention of hitting up some food afterward. This is better spot to bring a girl you already know on an inexpensive "date" during the week, I've found.

"Downtown Culver City": A strip of restaurants, a theater complex, and fancier bars that draws in a lot of chicks. A block South of Carbon, its a good place to pluck a chick for a bounce to Carbon. Most of the spots here are more polished, loud, and expensive "gastro-bars." You won't really be gaming these places too much, because the logistics are all fucked up. It's a couples area. That said, there are mad girls around--especially in and around the movie theater--and you'll have to find your own angle. I hit up a cute restaurant hostess once, for instance. There's also a Trader Joe's right there that's pretty much ideal for day-gaming.

That's enough to get you started. This list might be a little old, because I haven't been out to those spots in about a year, but I haven't heard of any major changes.

I won't itemize the places in Venice, or elsewhere, because those are other threads entirely.

[speakeasy]

(11-27-2011 12:07 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  

Carbon: Divey, dark bar with loud, intense hip-hop nights (if that's what you need that night) or a loungier atmosphere on off-nights. Crowd ranges from ghetto to miscellaneous. Kind of a higher fatty contingent because of the In-and-Out Burger across the street. They go there with every intention of hitting up some food afterward. This is better spot to bring a girl you already know on an inexpensive "date" during the week, I've found.

I hung at Carbon with Azulsombra the other week. Yeah and we did end up at that Inn-N-Out, lol. That place has saved me from many a hangover!

To the OP, Culver City is cool and you will have good options there. They are also in the final stages of building the expo line train from Culver to downtown, an added bonus. There are lots of cool places in downtown LA I'd recommend. The Edison, my fav bar in LA and maybe one of the coolest bar on the planet. Everyone I have taken there was wildly impressed. There's a new spot called Perch next to Pershing Square, it's a very nice rooftop bar with a view looking out at the skyscrapers. The Standard downtown is another popular rooftop bar. You can hit up Seven Grand and the Broadway Bar, both owned by the same people. And this other spot called Seven a few doors from Seven Grand. There's a cool Irish pub called Casey's, usually a good crowd there. Go check out the downtown Art Walk on the second Thursday of each month. It gets going around 7 till about midnight. Insane amount of hotties walking around everywhere, all races, all styles. Good place to be if you have street game.

I don't hang much in Hollywood, but if you go there, start of at Dublins Irish pub. It can be a bit of a cockfest but there's usually some chics, and like most pubs, there's a social vibe where you don't have to scream over music. The main reason I recommend it is because it's maybe the last place where you can still get cheap drinks in Hollywood. Drink there for about an hour, get your buzz then move on. I never been to Drais across the street but everyone raves about it. That see and be seen shit is not really my thing. Just walk down Hollywood Blvd, esp around Cahuenga and Hollywood. You'll see plenty of spots, take your pick.

[MikeCF]

Fine a local cab company. Keep it on dial.

DUI's in Cali are no joke. Get used to cabbing, and include cab fare as a line item in your entertainment budget.

[Basil Ransom]

Do we have any other data sheets on LA? I'll break one out on the South Bay, and maybe later we'll compile them all into one thread:

Hermosa Beach

By day, fairly low key spot. High quality of living, very white, nice streets and houses, especially west of the PCH. Possibly the fittest town in America, you can go days without seeing fat people, at least during the day. There are tons of gyms and fitness studios in this tiny town, and it's not uncommon for people to have two or three concurrent gym/yoga memberships. If you share a place with a couple people, you can spend as little as $800 a month. The beach is very nice. There's a little pedestrian traffic by the pier.

By night, it's the douchebag capital of LA. Lots of hot sluts walking around, but in the bars themselves the ratios are bad, lines are long, many dudes are jacked and aggressive; trashy, low class people swarm in from everywhere to Hermosa at night. This means sketchy guys and gangs of fat Hispanic girls, chubby white girls from Redondo and Torrance, and skanky-glam Asian girls. A few black guys around, and fewer black girls. There are lots of tall athletic blonde girls walking around; you'll stop to check out a girl's heels, only to see she has flip flops and actually *is* 6'1". Fair amount of tall dudes as well. The native females tend to be cliquish, and already party with tons of attractive alpha guys. Social circle game is big here. It can be paradise if you went to a top tier frat at USC. Unless otherwise stated, every bar here is very loud, and have few women over 30.

The Bars:

Sangria: Decent on Thursday nights. Gets long lines on weekend nights and a little crowded, but not as much as Sharkeez. Good spot for a date, outside on the bench seating, kino-friendly. More upscale than Sharkeez and Pat Molloy's, but not much.

Sharkeez: The king of the pier, always the most crowded. Loud music, small dance area, trashiest crowd, non-natives are most in abundance here. The only bar popping on weeknights, but chronically suffering from bad ratios then. Good food, has specials every night of the week.

Pat Molloy's: Similar to Sharkeez, though a little whiter, and shorter wait. Loud music, trashy crowd, etc.

Hennessey's: More of a restaurant than a bar, too many tables to promote the flow needed to mack in volume. Seems like less of a singles crowd. Never really spent much time in here though.

The Mermaid: Quiet restaurant with mostly old people. Nice place to chill out or take a date for drinks, comfortable booths. Will get spillover from other bars, of people who just want to drink in peace. Fun times talking to friendly old people at the bar. Sorta went home with a cougar here once, and even that was kind of a fluke.

The Poop Deck: Very dirty, cheap, divy bar that's fun if you just want to drink. Beer and wine only. You'll find old crusty men who are hilarious, and will get you drunk at the slightest provocation. Few girls, and those are usually taken.

Bugaloo: On the weekend it has long lines, very loud inside, typical Hermosa crowd. Has some interesting musical acts during the week.

Lighthouse: Features lots of live music, with tables that make it hard to circulate. Never really been at peak time, not really a hot spot.

Waterman's: One of the whiter places, seems to have lots of natives who already know each other, socialize in cliques. Loud music, slightly upscale.

Underground: British pub theme, not too loud. Ratios suck, but it's the most amenable to conversation. Both guys and girls here are less attractive, but possibly the easiest place to lay down verbal game.

Chelsea: Dance club adjoining Underground. Loud, girls not as hot as the rest of HB, not as cool a crowd. Small to no lines. There's a short passageway leading to Underground here, making it easy to isolate back and forth between them. Make sure to get in Chelsea first, because you can't go from Underground to Chelsea without getting a stamp first from the Chelsea side.

Shore: Very loud, often features live music. Hip crowd, long lines. Similar to Bugaloo.

Shark's Cove: Pool hall that's fairly empty even on weekends.

Hermosa Beach Yacht Club: Divy place with cheap drinks and skanky bartenders, but not really mack-friendly. Never been here on a peak night, but the crowd's generally small.

North End Bar and Grill: Sports bar. Never been at peak time, imagine the crowd is typical of a sports bar.

Union Cattle: Good restaurant by day, features a mechanical bull on the bottom floor. The bar on top has an outdoor seating area, but I think you have to buy a bottle to get a seat on the weekends. Otherwise, you have to stand in a crowded spot. There's an indoor bar on the top floor which is very loud, and is basically a dance floor. High quality, high competition. The bar on the bottom is pretty decent, but it doesn't get the traffic of the upper floor.

Barnacles: Divy bar with lots of bros. Horrendous ratios, but usually attractive girls partying with bros they already know. Good food.

Fat Face Fenner's: Never been, always charging cover every time I asked.

Hermosa Saloon: Dive bar far from the scene. Older crowd, pretty sedate, but can be fun with friends.

St. Rocke: Older crowd, 25-35ish, have a variety of music acts every night which probably draw different crowds. Room to dance, very loud.

Von's: Supermarket, good number of babes come in here around 5-8PM after working out.

I don't care much for the Hermosa scene. This forum in general skews towards the classy-intelligent-playboy, and the nightlife here is decidedly incompatible with that type. I know guys who love it, but they seem to be more the athlete, baseball caps and jerseys bros who black out every time they go out. And they have their female equivalents here as well. Being able to dance will help a lot too.

I don't want to sound like sour grapes, but I think Hermosa poses too many obstacles to be worth your time. If you like the beaches, volleyball and surfing, and you can work a social circle, it can be good. I'm not the guy for it, but you might be. If you have regularly gotten with all-american athletic ex-sorority party girls before, it might hold some promise. But if you haven't don't expect it to start now. I prefer more cosmopolitan/eccentric white girls myself.

But I imagine your results will vary tremendously by social circle - I went out to a party at a beachfront house once, and the girls were surprisingly busted. The hot girls here are much more likely to be dialed into some social network.

Manhattan Beach

Only been to a couple places here. It doesn't have the inflow of low class people at night like Hermosa does. City overall skews older. Seems like a mix of people who outgrew Hermosa and people who want something a little more upscale. Like Hermosa, it's all money and no class, no culture IMO. Like the locals in Hermosa, it's fairly insular.

Shark's Cove: Sports bar with a small dancer floor, plus a bar and lots of booths. Bad ratios when I've been there, and pretty loud.

Shellback's: Young white post-college crowd, cheap and divy with decent ratios. It's small, and the bar setup is pretty conducive to mingling. Not too loud. People come with friends here, but they're not too cliquish. Probably my favorite bar yet in the South Bay. Half the guys in there rocked mustaches and flannel shirts for Movember. The nights I went there were at a weird time, so they may have been unrepresentative.

Shade: Cougar hotel bar, closes pretty early. Drinks are expensive, upscale decor. Not a bad place to get warmed up.

Pierre Cafe: More of a restaurant, but has nice wine tastings on Monday nights. Older crowd mostly.

There are some other places in MB I haven't been to that I've heard about, eg, Ercole's, Side Door, 12th and Highland.

Hermosa and Manhattan have some great street festivals and events throughout the year. Don't really recommend them for macking, but fun to attend if you're nearby. Especially Independence Day in Hermosa and the six man volleyball tournament in MB.

[speakeasy]

I agree wholeheartedly with Basil's breakdown of the south bay beach scene. If you're a Tucker Max kind of guy and like running in that kind of circle, you're in pussy heaven.

I need to breakout a comprehensive LA data sheet at some point. It's just that the scene here is so spread around you'd need like 10 different data sheets. Here are the areas that we would need data sheets for, maybe any guys that live in these particular parts can contribute for their area:

East Hollywood, West Hollywood(incl sunset strip), Culver City, Los Feliz, Ecco Park, Silver Lake, downtown, Koreatown/mid-city, Santa Monica, Venice, Long Beach, Glendale, Pasadena. The south bay(Hermosa, Redondo, Manhattan) has been covered pretty well by Basil. I live in the SFV, but the nightlife here sucks balls and it's hardly even worth mentioning in a data sheet other than to say don't come here. I don't even go out to any places here these days. But I guess I can bust out a small one if anyone for whatever reason decides to try it out up here.

Anyone in any of these areas above want to contribute?

[bengalltigerr]

I'd recommend Gold's Gym (near Westfield) and as for clubs and bars there are just too many to list.