The best neighborhood bars in LA have no velvet ropes, no scene, and no shortage of regulars. These are the places where the bartender already knows what you drink.
Highland Park · 120 Franklin St, Brooklyn, NY 11222, USA
Greenpoint’s local artist dive with a calm personality and a genuinely friendly local crowd. The drinks are made well, the lighting keeps things low, and the whole place runs on the energy of a bar where the bartenders …
Mar Vista - West LA · 11780 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064
A dim-lit cocktail lounge on Pico that feels like someone hammered out a perfect late-night living room: dark blue walls, leather armchairs, scattered tables, and a back VIP nook just begging for a small crew. It lives …
North Hollywood · 4824 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood, CA 91601
A gigantic whiskey barrel turned bar—the kind of place that feels like you drove through a movie set and ended up inside a time capsule. Built in 1941 as a nod to LA’s mid-century “programmatic” architecture, the barrel…
Koreatown · 3357 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010
Some bars put on a show. HMS Bounty just is. A proper old-school watering hole with dim lights, cheap drinks, and just enough nautical kitsch to feel like you might be drinking on a retired cruise ship. The crowd skews …
Northeast L.A. · 1220 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Big, bright, and full of beer-loving weirdos in the best way—this place feels like your friend’s giant loft if your friend also brewed killer IPAs and had a thing for exposed brick. You’ve got fermenting tanks on one si…
Arts District · 216 S Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
A cavernous beer hall in the Arts District where string lights dangle from industrial beams and giant murals keep watch over the shuffleboard crowd. The taps run deep with sours, stouts, and experimental one-offs you’ll…
Manhattan Beach · 1101 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
A faded-poster dive bar that’s been feeding Manhattan Beach locals since the late 1920s—with barely changed wood-panel interiors, pool tables in the corner, and a chalk-board menu that whispers “just the essentials done…
Silver Lake · 3701 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
A neighborhood cantina masquerading as your second living room, where locals post up on the patio with oversized margaritas and the occasional oxtail taco that makes you rethink everything. Inside it’s all tiled floors,…
Santa Monica · 2442 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90405
A nautical fever dream from the ’30s, where fishing nets, ship wheels, and twinkly lights conspire to make your steak taste better. The Galley is the kind of place where regulars drink martinis like water and Captain Ro…