Every plan we make somehow ends with somebody saying let us just go to WeHo, and then it is forty minutes from Inglewood and thirty bucks of parking before anyone has a drink in their hand. I know the South Bay has bars. Are any of them actually worth staying local for on a Friday, or is everybody right that you have to drive north for a real night?
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Ercoles in Manhattan Beach, always a good night!!
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Not a bar, but Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo does silent films with a live organ for a few dollars. Sweetest little room in the South Bay.
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Let me be honest, the Hermosa pier is where the South Bay gets its bad name. Pier Avenue on a Friday is a college bar crawl, loud and expensive and not worth the drive from anywhere. Skip it and the rest of the area is fine. Main Street in El Segundo is the one I send people to, you park for free and walk the whole street. El Segundo Brewing on Main is the anchor, good beer, no attitude, closes early which is a feature at my age. The Standing Room in Redondo is the other one, tiny counter place, best pours around and the food is actually good. Neither is a night out the way you mean it, but you get home in fifteen minutes and you did not pay thirty dollars to park.
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The Slip on the Redondo boardwalk!! Cheap beer, right on the water, and nobody is trying to impress anybody. Worth the drive for me.
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My girls and I still drive north most weekends, I will admit it. But dinner at HT Grill in Redondo before a late drink somewhere is a lovely compromise.
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Smog City in Torrance. Better beer than anything on Sunset.
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People who say you have to go north are just used to WeHo. From Inglewood, Hermosa is 15–20 minutes if you time it. I do Saint Rocke when there is a band I want, then walk to Hennessey’s. Not every Friday is electric but it beats sitting on the 405 staring at taillights so someone can pay $18 for a vodka soda on Sunset.
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Redondo if your people actually want to talk. Naja’s on the pier, Hudson House, Old Tony’s if you get there for the sunset and stay.
It’s not a club crawl. That is why I like it.
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Manhattan Beach downtown if you do not want the Hermosa college energy. Shellback by the pier, StrandBar downstairs at Strand House when they have a DJ, Ercole’s later if you want a dive.
You will spend money, though.
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