United States
10 best bars in LA and no Formosa? You've gotta be kidding! Elvis once tipped a waitress here with a Buick. Great bar, great drinks, great history and great margueritas.
Santa Monica & Formosa
www.worldsbestbars.com/public/venue_listing.jsp?categoryId=29¤tVenueId=353
The Viceroy hotel seems to have been been transplanted from Sunset Strip - it has more in common with the Standard and the Mondrian than its neighbour motels. Contemporary, chic, super-trendy, ignore the office-like exterior and head for the garden to enjoy a drink in one of the tents next to the pool or on one of the oversized white wing-back chairs. Heavenly.
www.viceroysantamonica.com
1819 Ocean Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401
USA
Tel: 1 310-260-7500
A bar on Santa Monica Blvd.
This is a Hollywood milestone. If you like good bars, don't miss it!
8447 Santa Monica Blvd.
With 2 branches in L.A. (the original in west L.A. on the old Route 66 and a more recent addition in Santa Monica) this is a fine place for a few beers from an enjoyably broad beer menu featuring brews from all over the world. There's no need to go for the usual U.K. available labels so try a nice Fat Tire or Anchor Steam instead, and add a fabulous calzone or chilli bowl from their equally long food menu. Shoot some pool, play the jukebox or look at the tabletops which are full of showbiz memorabilia and great old celebrity pictures.
3rd St Promenade,Santa Monica,CA
A hip, trendy bar on the Sunset Strip (there's also one downtown which I haven't been to). Free entry where one might mingle with stars on a busy night (including U.S. teen dream Chad Michael Murray) and where one might quietly play cards with his friends on a not-so-busy night. Expensive drinks, though, of course.
8300 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
This is a fantastic old roadhouse on the Mulholland Drive.
This place is like an old-time saloon - and the owner matches the bill: he's about 75, with a huge cowboy hat. The interior of the place is fab, too, dark wood, a long bar, the only thing missing are the spittoons!
They're not open all the time, though. We got lucky, and the old timer let us in for a beer even though the place was closed. But it's a good idea to call them beforehand.
It's on the Mulholland Drive on the way to Malibu Beach.
Phone: 818 7069001
An unassuming canopy on west 3rd hides a dimly lit, but atmospheric bar. Serves over 270 types of tequila, great Margarita's and all else until late to a hippish, relaxed LA crowd. Has chic mexican wrestling decor, once your eyes have adjusted to the nice low light. Yum.
8138 W 3rd Street, Hollywood CA
(323) 852-1552
This Japanese restaurant perched high above Hollywood Blvd offers spectacular views of the entire LA basin from the ocean to downtown and the mountains.
Go there for drinks before dinner somewhere else (the restaurant is okay, but overpriced and there are far better Japanese restaurants). If you've never been to LA before, Yamashiro's view will give you a sense of where everything is in the sprawling megalopolis. Spectacular.
1999 N. Sycamore Ave., Hollywood, CA 90068 (off Franklin Ave. - v. well sign posted). Phone: 323-466-5125
A wonderful seafront hotel in beautiful Santa Monica, the Georgian is, on the outside, a powder blue art-deco classic, while on the inside the rooms are modern and stylish but with the old-world feel of the hotel preserved. Enjoy a drink at sunset at the hotelfront veranda bar and watch the world go by in style.
Ocean Blvd, Santa Monica, CA
www.georgianhotel.com
Musso and Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard looks like it has seen better days, but then it probably seemed that way when it opened in 1919. A legendary Hollywood hangout (from Welles, Faulkener and Hemingway to Depp and Keith Richards) the bar and restaurant is renowned for its martinis and surly waiters.
Musso and Frank Grill; 6667 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90028; Tel: 323-467-7788
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