Nightlife & Bars >>

• Best Downtown
  Fullerton
  With more than 40 bars serving alcohol and a downtown that houses restaurants open until the wee hours of the morning specifically to cater to the drunks who need food in their bellies before slogging home, Fullerton has a romping-stomping after-dark scene that is ripe for the guzzling. But it’s... More >>
• Best Bar in Orange County
  Kopa Room
  Getting trashed while bowling is every American’s birthright. There’s nothing like the thrill that comes from catching a nice buzz before trying to gracefully power-walk down the lane, throw a strike, and not crack your skull after you drunkenly step over the line and hit the slick waxed wood.... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/North OC
  Continental Room
  Three words can sum up the Continental Room in Fullerton: small, dark and cool. Stepping through the doors feels like stepping back in time into a hip 1940s jazz club. This gem consists of a dimly lit room lined with U-shaped booths that feature call buttons to signal to servers you are ready... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/South OC (1 Comment)
  Mugs Away Saloon
  The first thing you might notice when walking into Mugs Away are pictures of naked women outside the patio that look like they were ripped from the pages of a 1980s Penthouse. Advertised below a teased blonde’s globular silicone breasts are the specials that make this place great, such as $8... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/Central OC
  The Olde Ship
  Conveniently located on 17th Street in Santa Ana—but, unfortunately, just outside walking distance from the Weekly’s offices—is the best source of bottled ships, maritime paraphernalia and British food you’re likely to find in Orange County. And by British food, we mean the kind with a 2-inch... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/Coastal OC
  The Sandpiper Lounge
  This dive on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway has been a hippie watering hole since the 1960s. Locals call it the “Dirty Bird.” Live music, plenty of beer, an occasional green (but not pine) scent floating through the air and fabulously unpretentious décor make it one of the most... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/Long Beach (1 Comment)
  Alex’s Bar
  Small, dark and covered with pictures of naked ladies sporting Afros, Alex’s Bar is totally trashy. Trashy chic, that is. You enter the bar through a door off a parking lot next to an Auto Zone, and once you pass through those portals, the distinct odor of class (you know: new shoes, champagne,... More >>
• Best New Bar
  Proof
  As the website says, Santa Ana’s Proof “marks an evolution in the Artists Village into an increasingly urbane nighttime destination.” Basically, they’re trying to say this ain’t no dive bar, which means you might actually want to put some pants on before you head in. But it’s by no means Costa... More >>
• Best Bar Game
  Shuffleboard Table at Iguana Kelley’s
  When you’re drunk to the point that you can barely stand, don’t you just love to sidle up to a long table and chuck a steel disk down a stretch of sandy wood? No? Oh. Well, you should, and Iguana Kelley’s in Long Beach is the place to go for some old-fashioned shuffleboard. The bar is home to a... More >>
• Best Place to Stay Until Last Call
  Hennessey's Grill
  For more than 23 years, Hennessey’s has been the watering hole of choice for Seal Beach locals, with its roomy bar, dark wood and forest-green décor. The salty ocean breeze is a nice touch, too, as it wafts in from the beach, a stone’s throw from the front patio. In fine Irish tradition (along... More >>
• Best Place to Play Pool
  Diamonds Billiards
  With plushy booths, beige-ish desert color scheme and leopard-spotted carpet, not to mention 13 pool tables that don’t show a day of wear or tear, this 14-year-old hidden treasure near the Brea Mall has a clean classiness reminiscent of Las Vegas. In fact, the Egyptian hieroglyphs and stone... More >>
• Best Sports Bar (1 Comment)
  Regina’s Restaurant
  Why settle for buffalo wings and cheap domestic beer when you’re watching the most refined recreational endeavor known to humankind: Fútbol! (That’s Spanish for soccer, amigo.) At Regina’s, you can dine on fine Argentinean, Spanish, Italian and Greek cuisine and guzzle a first-class rioja or... More >>
• Best Place to Get Drunk
  Fling Cocktail Lounge
  There’s no better place to get drunk than a skeezy dive bar. Except, perhaps, a skeezy dive bar with a one-man cover band. Eddie Day is a very large, mulleted man who perches himself in the center of the dimly lit bar, plays guitar and sings cover songs every Friday and Saturday night. Day has a... More >>
• Best Beer Selection
  The Goat Hill Tavern
  If you haven’t heard of the Goat, then you don’t know shit about beer. But don’t worry. Just close your eyes and point, then order confidently. This place has more than 140 of the most obscure beers you could imagine on tap, and it’s doubtful that most of its patrons could tell a Rogue Brutal... More >>
• Best Signature Cocktail
  The Flirtini at the Clubhouse
  All right, fellas, the ladies and metros already know about this one. Let’s see if you’re man enough to handle a pink martini. Yeah? What about a pink martini with a gummy fish? We’re talking about the Flirtini, a secret concoction found at the Clubhouse that’s quite possibly the tastiest little... More >>
• Best Bloody Mary
  Sharkeez
  This one is for all you people who like to think you’re cocktail connoisseurs, spirits savants and masters of the mixed drink. No matter which Bloody Mary is listed here, you won’t agree because you could make a better one. So, all right, hotshots, here’s your chance to shine. Your blank canvas... More >>
• Best Margarita
  The El Patron at Yucatan Grill
  This libation is nothing fancy, just a few classic, high-quality ingredients, but that’s why it gets the nod. Yucatan Grill, a tiny Caribbean restaurant tucked out of sight in Seal Beach, knows not to mess with a drink that is messed with far too often. There’s no premade margarita mix, no... More >>
• Best Wine Bar
  Bacchus’ Secret Cellar
  Named after the greatest wine expert of all time, Bacchus’ Secret Cellar brings the vino-sampling experience to remarkable heights. Most notable is the wine-tasting bar that, thanks to their wine-preservation system, offers more than 60 vintages at any given time. Tastings are available in four... More >>
• Best Place to Smoke Indoors
  Christy’s Ristorante
  Normally relegated to the windy tundra known as the patio—or, in some cases, the sidewalk—smokers in California are not the highest on the totem pole. Farters, nose-pickers and clubbers of baby seals are treated better than smokers. Face it: If you smoke cigarettes, you are kind of a scumbag.... More >>
• Best Hookah Bar
  ChaiKhooneh
  So you really like some tea and lamb tongue with your flavored smoke, eh? Then ChaiKhooneh is the place for you. It isn’t your typical hookah lounge. That’s mostly because of owner AliReza Mirzai’s passion for Persian culture. Stepping inside ChaiKhooneh means immersing yourself in traditional... More >>
• Best Bartender
  Rick from O’Malley’s
  Finally. A bartender you don’t have to flag down when your glass is empty. In fact, you probably won’t even see the bottom of your glass by the time you’ve got another cocktail waiting. Thank you, Rick; with you, the thirsty find solace. Charming and attentive, Rick has been... More >>
• Best Happy Hour
  Mai Tai Bar
  Most happy hours are enjoyed only by those who have the option to sit in a bar on a Tuesday at 4 p.m. By the time we working folks schlep into our favorite saloons after a long day, happy hour is long over and done with. Why should this time of mirth not be available to the rest of us? Why... More >>
• Best Dive Bar
  Paul’s Cocktails
  Paul’s can be many things, depending on when you go. It stays chill during the day, with just the locals and regulars watching sports and shooting pool, shooting the shit with some of the best bartenders around, drinking cocktails and Pabsts in cans. Nights are laid-back, too, but only... More >>
• Best Venue for Live Music
  The Prospector
  Long Beach doesn’t have as many live-band hotspots as one would expect from a city its size. Alex’s Bar has some good shows, primarily of the punk variety, and Que Sera has hosted some interesting acts. But in the past couple of years, the Prospector has become one of the most unexpectedly... More >>
• Best Dance Club (1 Comment)
  Club Vegas
  With its sweeping layout and immense dance floors, Club Vegas is the place to go to break it down on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Just don’t take it too seriously: This place isn’t exactly known for its tactful patrons. Think of all the over-the-top elements of the real Vegas,... More >>
• Best Club DJ
  Dennis Owens of Good Foot at Que Sera
  One of the key figures in Long Beach’s thriving music scene, 35-year-old Dennis Owens plays bass for the outstanding bands Free Moral Agents and BlowUpBlow. But it’s his role as DJ for the long-running Good Foot night at Que Sera for which he is probably best-known and -loved. Most club nights... More >>
• Best Night Out for Anglophiles
  Definitely Maybe at Memphis
  Where were you when we were getting high—on awesome British music? Seriously, where the hell have you been? You’ve been missing some incredible mixes from DJs TSC-1 (Sean Harris) and AM 180 (Darren Crandell), who’ve been dropping bloke-rockin’ choons every Wednesday for four years at the cozy... More >>
• Best Rock Club (1 Comment)
  Detroit Bar
  This Costa Mesa fixture is really three clubs in one. There’s the semi-intimate main room, where rock bands rock; there’s the sleek, stylish lounge area, where one can hear rock bands rocking, or listen and/or dance to DJs deejaying, and/or get one’s drink on, and/or buy band merch; and,... More >>
• Best All-Ages Venue You Don’t Know About
  The Clinic
  Ah, the all-ages venue. You love it when you’re younger, ecstatically grateful to have a place where you are able to witness your favorites perform live-and-in-person . . . or just to have a place where you don’t feel too young. But as you grow older, you start hating the very thought of it—kids... More >>
• Best 24-Hour Lockout
  Gemini Studios
  Let’s just say—and why not?—that as younger person, you were in a seven-piece rock band: two guitars, bass, drums, vocals and a horn line, all amplified, all played at high volume. After being kicked out of every member’s garage by either an angry mother, or a cop at the behest of an angry... More >>
• Best Gay Bar (1 Comment)
  Executive Suite
  This place really and truly offers something for everyone, no matter the preferred lifestyle. Originally overrun by lesbians, the boys eventually took over Friday nights, now named Boy’s Room. Thursdays are Latin Night, which attracts both guys and girls, but Saturdays still belong to the... More >>
• Best Biker Bar
  Cook’s Corner
  If you arrive just as the sun is setting, the backcountry feel of Cook’s Corner provides much-needed respite from the suburban OC sprawl that creeps dangerously close to Cleveland National Forest blossoming just beyond Cook’s. As the sun drops, Harleys roar up to the low-slung yellow building at... More >>
• Best Strip Joint
  California Girls
  Strip joints (or gentlemen’s clubs, for you euphemism-lovers) fall into two general categories. One is the ritzy emporium of fantasy in which 99 percent of the “exotic” dancers look like airbrushed, silicone- and collagen-enhanced Victoria’s Secret models; where the cover... More >>