This is hard for me. I don't think you understand. But I made my readers a promise, and I'm going to uphold it as best as I can. I promised that every weekend I would go out and report back to my #SpotZoneCrew how the evening went. Well. It was a Saturday like any other. One of my favorite places in Orange County, Haven Gastropub, was giving me Basil Hayden's on the rocks to toss back, and it was after the third one that my roommate and I decided to go meet up with our friends in Las Vegas. It's only a five hour drive. We could pack and be on the road in twenty minutes.



We begged any of our friends to tell us not to go. They didn't. Since this was the fifth time I have made this journey in the past twelve months (no, I'm not proud of that fact either), I was able to throw a bag together pretty quickly. Want to go to Vegas tonight and have only fifteen minutes to pack? Everything you need to survive the trip can most likely be found in the comfort of your own home:



  1. A short, tight dress, and a backup one in case you change your mind.
  2. High heeled shoes and even higher ones in case you change your mind.
  3. A brush.
  4. EmergenC.
  5. Underwear.
  6. A strapless bra.
  7. Ibuprofen.
  8. Red Bull.
  9. Flip flops to wear on the ride home.
  10. A shirt and jeans to wear on the ride home.
  11. Sunglasses.
  12. All of your makeup.
  13. Vodka. Preferably in a skull-shaped bottle. 
  14. Phone, keys, wallet (to be left in your hotel room).
  15. Portable speakers (for the pregame).
  16. A phone charger.
The infamous Zzyzx Rd and probably the least romantic place to get engaged. Good luck being newlywed in Sin City. 
We ended up staying the night at a new hotel called The Linq, which was relatively inexpensive and surprisingly nice. Not walking distance to our favorite clubs, but a cheap cab ride away. Okay, you could walk if you were wearing normal shoes, and we weren't.



We hit up our promoter, downed some vodka, and headed to my favorite/worst place in the world: The Marquee on the second floor of the Cosmopolitan. If you don't go clubbing in Vegas very often, there's a few things you need to know. One: always find a promoter before you go. If you're with girls, they'll be able to get you into clubs for free and skip the line. If you're with guys, I hope they like spending money. 



I have learned the hard way to leave my cell phone in my room. I have had two stolen in Vegas on two different occasions, and this weekend I had the pleasure of having my wallet stolen as well. Leave anything of value at home, don't bring a purse, stick your ID in your bra, and bring some cash if you must. You have been warned.

If you're deciding on which club to go to, I will always recommend Marquee, though my worst experiences have all taken place there. It's not the club's fault. The club is magical. It's got an indoor and outdoor area that's temperature controlled, but makes you feel less claustrophobic than, say, Hakkasan or Tao. Somehow we keep going back.

How do you Vegas? We live in LA and it's only an hour flight or a half a day's drive, so we basically count as locals. Let me know what you would add to your last-minute packing list in the comments. 


I'm going to be blunt. As a recent college graduate aspiring to somehow afford being able to go out often enough to keep writing a blog about nightlife, I'm in the process of looking for a full time job. Therefore, when my mother read last week's blog entry about going out every Tuesday for, uh, tacos, and being hungover on Wednesday mornings, she suggested that I leave out details like this because potential employers might not be amused by my habits.

So I am not writing about my own experiences today. I'm writing about my, uh, friend. Her name is Holly. She is not me. She is totally a real person. And she went out this weekend in Hollywood, where she always parties. She has the hookup at every club in LA and she (not I) is going to teach you how to have fun in one of the country's most notorious party arenas. Again, totally not talking about myself today. Just to be clear. 


Holly started her weekend off at a swanky Hollywood party. Kind of. Okay, not really. It was a restaurant/brewery in Glendale that doesn't serve hard alcohol, but has an assortment of really great beers. I'm not exactly sure if it's appropriate for me to name the host of her party, so suffice to say it was a private event put on for the crew of a TV show. This meant a wrist band with free beer, so ample sampling of everything Golden Road Brewery had to offer. She recommends the Carry On beer, and walked away with a case of it when the evening was over, so I'll probably spending the week with her, making sure that beer doesn't go to waste. In fact, she has two cases because her friend swore off drinking forever the next morning (rookie mistake), so come hang out with us sometime this week if you get the chance. 

The trick to a successful night out in Hollywood is to never turn down an invitation or a meet-up. You never know who you'll run in to, but it is equally important to thank your host and get out of there as soon as people start leaving, food starts getting cold, and people start talking about other plans. It's also equally important to not drive yourself home, as on her way to the pub she saw a very unfortunate DUI taking place on the side of the road and reminded herself that Lyft is her friend and under no circumstances would that ever be her. The $20 ride it will take to get to the after party is not worth that mark on your record. It would make finding a full time job even more difficult. 

Even better than a Lyft though is a free ride, so if your friend has a sober driver, tag along with them and let them make the plans. In this case, her friends wanted to go to 4100 Bar in Silver Lake, so off they went.


4100 Bar is a classy establishment. On Friday night, it felt like the kind of place where people "go for drinks" with coworkers or people they want to network with. This wasn't the kind of evening Holly and her friend had in mind, so the two of them hopped into an Uber, bound for Hollywood.

Holly was meeting up with some friends from Georgia who are currently attending medical school and know nothing about where to go or how to have fun in Hollywood. She met them at Argyle, one of her favorite clubs with mediocre music and a consistently fun crowd. She sweet-talked her way past the security guard by name dropping the bartender after texting him to make sure he was working that night, which brings me to my next tip: it's better to favor a few haunts, where you can make friends with the cute bartender, get free drinks, and greet the bouncers by name. It makes for a smooth evening, cheaper costs, and a kind of drunken, after hours family, which adds some familiarity to your evening. It also makes you look cool in front of your out-of-town friends who now think that Holly is a badass who parties all the time.


Out of the three different types of places she went to that night, there was something for everyone. It's just a matter of getting out there, meeting people, and not being afraid to throw some cash at bouncers to stay out of that horrid line. Remember: they're not here to keep everyone out. They're here to keep the poor people out.

For up-to-the-minute tips that you can read while you're out every night, download the SpotZone app for free and follow us on Twitter, to know what my plans are for the weekend, where you can find the best music, and where the lines are short and the ratios are favorable. You're welcome. 




If you have been following SpotZone on Twitter or regularly checking app updates, you know that it’s a great resource that provides real time ratings of bars and clubs in Los Angeles. If you’ve seen any of my other blog posts, you’ll note that I have reviewed a few bars in West Hollywood and Santa Monica. Well, now it’s time for me to open up a whole new world for you and let you in on a little secret: SpotZone also rates venues behind the Orange Curtain. That’s right, thanks to your feedback, we’ve started adding bars in Newport Beach.


I want to let you in on another secret: Tuesday is my biggest night out of the week. Between Argyle Tuesdays at The Argyle in Hollywood and La Vida Cantina’s $4 margaritas every Tuesday night in Costa Mesa, I have no excuse not to be hungover on Wednesday mornings (thank you Laventina’s, for giving me life again). 


At this point, it’s more inconvenient not to go to Taco Tuesday than to go. Mark, the manager of La Vida, offers us free tequila shots (unclear if this is because we’re regulars or fun people. My advice to you is try to be both). There’s often live music to set the Mexican food, and I’ve heard the tacos are good, but if I’m being real with you, we only every go for the Taco Tuesday margaritas (on the rocks with salt, of course).


Here are some of my tips for making the most out of your Taco Tuesday in Newport:

1.      Go to La Vida. In fact, be sure to follow them on Twitter and Instagram because they often have extended Happy Hours and specials that you can take advantage of. Tempting, I know.

2.      Start early. There have been many nights when we’ve shown up and the Taco Tuesday seating is full. No spots at the bar. You can’t sit in the restaurant area and get the $4 margarita price. That’s for dinner patrons. Wonder what it’s like to be mature and spend your money on food. We’ve had the best experiences when we’ve gotten there at 6pm. It gives you time to have your fill of margaritas and go home early, so tomorrow isn’t too bad, but if you’re up for a late night…


1.      Saddle Ranch across the walkway has karaoke night every Tuesday, starting conveniently at 10pm, right when La Vida Cantina closes. Make sure you are drunk enough to perform or at least handle listening to amateur singers without wanting to kill yourself. If you’re not…


1.      Goat Hill Tavern across the street is one of the diviest places you can find in Newport, but you can get beer for cheap and keep your night going. The crowd is young and diverse, and on weekends they’re packed, but during the week, it’s a fun, chill place.

2.      Make sure you Lyft home. I prefer them over Uber, more on that later, but try and get into your car before surge pricing kicks in. Trust me.

There you have it. That’s how I do Tuesdays in Newport Beach. What are your favorite places to go to during the week? What bars or clubs in Orange County would you like to see added to the SpotZone app? Let me know on Twitter @SpotZoneApp or email me at spotzoneaudrey@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you, and I’ll see you out there. 


This weekend I had the opportunity to go out with some friends who suggested we meet up for drinks in Santa Monica. Our starting point was The Victorian, a locale that sounded to me a bit too expensive and stuffy to be a truly good time. Still, it was the beginning of the evening and I was more about the company than the crowd anyway.

We pulled up to the venue in our Uber, and I was apprehensive. My idea of a good night out ends in stumbling down a sidewalk home after too many margaritas; This place, however, had live guitarists serenading two cougars out front next to a sign advertising it as a great wedding reception location. In fact, I did feel like I was about to crash a wedding.


Luckily, the empty dancefloor and tiny bar were not all the building had in store for us. My friends led me down the stairs to Basement Tavern, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Sure, the cover band was playing a painful version of Smash Mouth’s “All Star,” but it was more interesting than the mature setting upstairs.

Patrons lounged on chairs, loveseats, and sofas around the room. The night was young, so no one was really dancing yet. The vibe was fun, but it was too loud for the type of catching up to do, so we moved on to the next spot: Finn McCool’s.

McCool’s calls itself an Irish pub, but it feels more like a sports bar. We watched the conclusions of some low tier bowl games and alternated between shots of fireball and pints of beer, indications that this was not going to be our last stop of the evening. I checked into the SpotZone app, rating the bar for what it was: an even ratio, nonexistent wait, and non-memorable music.

For a Friday night in Santa Monica, Main Street was pretty dead, a condition I am told has been steadily worsening over the past year, but this weekend I chalked it up to New Year’s Eve hangovers causing its usual crowd to stay in and collectively vow to remain sober forever until next weekend.


Once it became clear to all of us that we were drunk enough to continue the night, we wanted to go somewhere where we could be rowdy without attracting the attention of everyone in the place. We wanted to go to Circle Bar.

Circle Bar is always hot. It advertises itself as attracting the “most colorful and diverse crowd on the Westside,” and Friday night was no exception. When we arrived around eleven, I checked in with SpotZone, announcing the place was packed, it was a bit of a sausage fest, but there was no wait. The music was not your basic hip-hop; it was your ultra-basic-feels-like-a-middle-school-dance hip-hop. And to be honest, that was kind of fun. 


Circle Bar is a place I would recommend for a good time. You can get rowdy. You can spill your vodka Red Bull on the dance floor without anyone noticing. You can sit at an empty booth and watch chicks of all ages and races grind on short men. It’s unpretentious. It’s relaxed. You will not be the weirdest person there.

Who would I tell to stay away? The EDM snobs (there’s none of that here), the cocktail connoisseurs, those who hate packed houses, and elitists who need VIP treatment at all times. But if you can get down and have a good time if you want to, Circle Bar isn’t a bad bet in Santa Monica.

What’s your favorite place to bar hop on the Westside? Shoot me a tweet @SpotZoneApp or download the app for free for real time ratings updated every night of the bars and clubs throughout LA. And Happy New Year to my #SpotZoneCrew. Please don’t stay sober. We need you out there. 
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