SZ NIGHTLIFE REVIEW

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:

A short, tight dress, and a backup one in case you change your mind.
High heeled shoes and even higher ones in case you change your mind.
A brush.
EmergenC.
Underwear.
A strapless bra.
Ibuprofen.
Red Bull.
Flip flops to wear on the ride home.
A shirt and jeans to wear on the ride home.
Sunglasses.
All of your makeup.
Vodka. Preferably in a skull-shaped bottle.
Phone, keys, wallet (to be left in your hotel room).
Portable speakers (for the pregame).
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.

The last Sunday of the year is upon us, and it is crunch time. People all over my Facebook feed are posting their New Year’s Resolutions, self-help blogs are offering tips to keep them, and I myself am thinking about where I want to be this time next year. In thinking about the kind of person I want to be, the kind of life I want to live, and the personality I want to convey, I have come to the following conclusion:

Having champagne as a signature drink will lead to an amazing year and will effectively work as well all other resolutions combined. Here’s how:

5. Champagne makes you look perfectly high-maintenance.

Ladies, listen closely. It’s time we take back the phrase “high-maintenance” and stop letting men use it to make us feel insecure. I propose to you that being high-maintenance is a good thing. It’s the opposite of easy, it means we know what we want, and everyone likes a chase, and the opportunity to prove their worth to a lovely woman.

However, keep this in mind because it’s important: high-maintenance does not mean cruel or bratty or entitled. The vibe we’re going for here is sexy with great taste, not stuffy or picky. Think Marilyn Monroe’s signature combination of champagne and potato chips. This signature drink offers you the perfect ritzy characteristics to pair with your tendency to dance the night away, indulge in greasy pizza, and meet new people. Champagne, incidentally, will make you seem different and interesting this year.

4. Champagne makes you look like a baller.

Now I’m talking to the gentlemen. I want to set the record straight right now: champagne is not a girly drink. Champagne is a party drink. It attracts parties, it attracts women, and it makes you a magnet for both (but please try to do without sparklers unless you’re in Vegas for a bachelor party). There is no excuse for not having a bottle in your refrigerator at all times. At a bar, ordering a woman champagne shows you think highly of her, not to mention, it’s expensive, which means knowing about good champagne says a lot about your status, and if you order it casually, humbly, you don’t need to do any bragging for the rest of the evening.

3. Champagne is good for you.

That’s right. Next time you feel guilty drinking on a Tuesday or for the third night in a row, consider some of the health benefits of this fizzy drink: It prevents dementia, has fewer calories than any other alcoholic drink, and makes you feel fuller quicker, so you can drink it with the fried, salty foods that pair so well with this drink.

2. There are some amazing places to drink champagne in Los Angeles.

Try something new this weekend instead of your typical dive bar or club. Champagne bars can be great places to discover with friends, or take a date, not to mention there are options in every neighborhood. In DTLA, check out Aqua Lounge, which serves champagne pairings with its signature bubblies and is right next door to Onyx Lounge for the after party. If you prefer the Hollywood scene, I recommend The Know Where Bar, whose lively crowd and drink menu make it a great place for a pregame, main event, or after party. Be sure to follow us on Twitter this year, as I’m going to make it my mission to find even more great places to drink champagne throughout the city.

1. Champagne encourages you to celebrate the little things.

Most people tend to shy away from champagne because it’s too fancy, and generally only consumed on special occasions, but I encourage you to make 2015 the year every night out is a special occasion. I challenge you to be the person who keeps the party going, who learns how to pop a bottle with a knife, who knows the difference between brute and sec. Be the person who stocks it at home for parties, planned or impromptu. Be the person your friends look to for a great night out every time.

I’ll help you. Check out the SpotZone Twitter feed for plans and events every night, and download the SpotZone app for free on iTunes to see live ratings of clubs in your area, so every night will involve the perfect crowd and perfect music, and every outing can feel like a special occasion. 2015 isn’t going to be the year you pull your life together or start budgeting or become a vegetarian. It’s going to be your party year. Let’s make it happen, starting this Wednesday evening and let’s keep the New Year’s Eve celebrations going until 2016.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas, New Year’s Eve. The time where partiers and couch potatoes alike mingle to drink champagne, dance on tables, and cure their hangovers the next morning by promising that this year, for some reason, will be different.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re going to hit the gym more often, spend less money, and become a vegetarian, but failing that, thanks to the new SpotZone app, we’ve got some New Year’s Resolutions that you can actually stick to.

1. Go out every weekend.

If you’re one of those people that drinks seven nights a week (don’t look at me, what are you talking about?) go ahead and skip on down to the next resolution. If not, head on over to our Twitter page, where we constantly post drink specials, concerts, and promotional events at bars and clubs all over LA. Once you read about the bottomless mimosa brunch at The Must or Mixology classes at Cocktail Lab, you’ll start making room in your schedule for drinking, and your friends will marvel at how fun you’ve become!

2. Never wait in line again.

For girls, you all have no excuse. People move velvet rope for you, and if they don’t, find yourself a promoter. Gentlemen, we’ve got you covered. The SpotZone app will let you know which bars or clubs have more than a thirty minute wait to get in. If you’d rather spend your time drinking, be sure to find a club with the perfect crowd and no wait. Yeah. This app can do that for you. You’re going to have a great year.

3. Don’t waste time on terrible music.

Whether you’re into EDM, Indie Rock, or Hip Hop, going to a bar with anything less than your favorite type of music is just something you don’t have time for this year. The best part about living and going out in LA is that we have every type of band, independent DJ, or real concert that you could want on any day of the week. I know that’s a lot to keep track of, so I’ve set up a calendar just for you, so you can see what’s playing where on every night of the week. Just don’t forget to tell the rest of the #SpotZoneCrew how good the music is at your venue, so we know to join you.

4. Brunch better.

A great New Year’s Resolution is to hit the outdoor patios for bottomless mimosas every Sunday morning. We live in a city with great weather and amazing stuffed French toast, so don’t forget to Instagram your brunch outing and make your friends in New York City jealous while they drink hot toddies in their living rooms. Brunch will help you reconnect with friends you haven’t seen in forever, recap with your best friends you lost the night before, or be a better boyfriend by taking your girl out somewhere boozy after a night in with your wingman Netflix. Plus, it’s your last chance to drink in the morning before the week starts and you have to go back to working, where starting the day with a bloody mary is generally frowned upon.

5. Become a connected partier.

Who doesn’t want to be the person every friend goes to for info on what’s going to be fun that night? Whether your friends are headed to Vegas and want to bring you because you know promoters or your friend from Chicago wants to take you out on the town, your resolution this year should be the person everyone wants to go to for a good time. With the help of the SpotZone app, you’ll look like a boss when you know exactly where to go and when and every club you hit up just “happens” to have the right crowd, the right music, and the right girl/guy ratio. Tell your friends the secret and let them download the app too, or don’t. There are two ways to be the most successful, well-connected partier in town: 1. Don’t tell everyone everything you know.

If you’ve been following SpotZone on Twitter, you’ll have noticed the countless leads we have on Hollywood, DTLA, and Santa Monica parties and events this New Year’s Eve. In fact, if you’ve been to any bar or club in the past month you’ve probably received a flyer or promotional email advertising their upcoming New Year’s event` Let’s face it: this night is the biggest evening in nightlife. It’s the busiest night for restaurants besides Valentine’s Day, and it’s the one time that your friends who don’t go out do.

At SpotZone, we hate leaving things up to chance, which is why our app offers you real time ratings for how hot a place is on any given night, so you don’t end up somewhere that’s too crowded, too dead, or too boring.

But let’s face it, New Year’s Eve cannot be planned the night of, which is why we’re helping you figure out which places you should book tickets or bottle service tables at now. Start texting your promoters, this is SpotZone’s Definitive Ranking of Places to Celebrate New Year’s Eve 2015:

10. Salvage Bar and Lounge, DTLA

We’re going to start with the bars. Places that will be fun, having good music and fun crowds, but won’t be packed full of Hollywood clubbers pushing to get closer to their favorite DJ’s. You won’t find bottle service and the pretention that comes with it here. Tickets are pricey: $100, but it’s New Year’s Eve, and they’re going to be at least that much everywhere, except…

9. 31Ten Lounge, Santa Monica

For a relaxed evening full of drinking and great service, you need only pay $65. The service here is generally pretty great, but keep in mind that every location on New Year’s Eve is going to be busier than they can handle and you might have to wait for your drinks longer than you normally would. That’s okay. You’re still going to have a great 2015. Plus, drinking near the beach means you can leave before the midnight ball drops and go ring in the New Year by drunkenly running into the ocean at the nearby beach. I’m not the only one that does that, right?

8. The Bungalow, Santa Monica

Tickets to this event are a little pricier, $150, but that’s because The Bungalow prides itself in being more upscale. The event is black tie, and if you don’t book a bottle service table, you will be standing the whole time. But, they will be serving premium drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Since I had to look up how to spell that, I know this probably isn’t my type of crowd, but it could be yours.

7. Avalon Hollywood

This place can get dangerously fun, and New Year’s Eve will not be an exception. It’s got a great, open setup, and has been newly remodeled. This year’s party features DJ’s BLASTERJAXX and D.O.D., so the music will be good, and you’ll probably have a fun Hollywood night. Set your Advil out on the bed the night before.

6. Argyle Hollywood

One of my personal favorites, Argyle boasts 60’s style décor and an upper dance floor, where the music will pump all night, and a basement lounge, which serves amazing drinks. It can be a hit or miss, depending on the crowd that’s there, though, and on New Year’s Eve, all bets are off. Everyone will be there. It’s a relatively small place, but a generally good time, which I’m placing it halfway up on my list.

5. OHM Nightclub, Hollywood

Everyone loves a theme party, so OHM is going #tbt and making their New Year’s Eve party Hollywood Prom themed. Jury’s out on whether or not prom dresses will make everyone in attendance act like they’re in high school, but for nostalgia’s sake, you have no excuse to not go in for the midnight kiss. General admission tickets are $30, and $100 for a hosted bar. They boast some surprise special guests this year, but their identities are under wraps for now. Warning: bottle service is generally emphasized over dancing, which means the guy to girl ratio will be more favorable toward the ladies, but hey, this means you don’t have to start the New Year paying for your own drinks.

4. Lure, Hollywood
Remember when I said that some places have a less pretentious, more relaxed atmosphere? Yeah, that’s not Lure. Their website boasts a “high-flying, nightlife in-crowd,” so you know this is a place to see and be-seen. Also the drinks can be accurately described as having “Hollywood Prices,” but if that’s in your budget, go for it. The music situation is definitely the best of both worlds: inside they’ve got DJ Brass Knuckles to satisfy you EDM lovers, and the outdoor patio area has the hip-hop music you’ll crave when you need a break. Warning: smokers mob the outdoor area, so if you’re asthmatic, maybe head somewhere else, like…

3. Playhouse, Hollywood
Playhouse has a “Solid Gold” themed New Year’s Eve. No idea what that means, but it sounds bougie enough, so count me in. You want to start your 2015 off glamorous, right? Your admission ticket also gets you an open bar and a champagne toast at midnight, but other than that, it seems like your standard club, where there’s music and people, but if you’re a guy, you might want to book bottle service. Ladies, you’ll have fun no matter what.

2. The Standard, Downtown LA

“DTLA for my New Year’s Eve?” you balk. “But I want the crazy nightlife that Hollywood offers!” Fear not, and hear me out. Every year The Standard books out the entire hotel for Rhondopolis, a four-club, thirteen-floor dance party frenzy that saves its 207 rooms exclusively for party guests. It’s got a rooftop bar with a pool, four different DJ sets, and a hangover party at the pool the next day. If you want your party to last all night (and you don’t want to pay Uber’s undoubtedly astronomical surge pricing this evening) book a room. It comes with your tickets to admission, which include an open bar that takes care of everything (including tips). This is where I’ll be New Year’s Eve, and I recommend it, unless you want something a little more “high-roller”…

1. Hakkasan Nightclub, Las Vegas
This year, fly your private jet to Sin City for the most expensive bottle service in the world, if you’re into that sort of thing. Hakkasan is offering what it calls the “Dynastie Package” for $500,000. This VIP treatment comes with a staff of forty at your service, diamond cuff links and a diamond necklace, a 30-liter Midas (the world’s largest champagne bottle), a gold disc signed by Calvin Harris, an exclusive championship belt, and the ability to say that you started 2015 the right way: by dropping half a million dollars on a night of debauchery.

Your New Year’s resolution: download the SpotZone app to make sure that every night is this amazing. Check in with your favorite clubs before you arrive to make sure they’re fun, the line isn’t too long, and the music is worth dancing to. And if you haven’t yet, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook to hear more about great nightlife events and deals in Southern California. You’re welcome.

This Friday marked the 81st anniversary of the end of Prohibition, or, as the alcohol enthusiasts of Los Angeles like to put it: Repeal Day. I can’t think of a better beginning of my contributions to SpotZone’s nightlife blog than a celebration of the political act that made such a roaring aspect of L.A.’s culture possible.

I have signed on to be your insight into the Los Angeles bar and club scene. What makes SpotZone such an amazing app is that it lets every person in Los Angeles who considers themselves someone who “goes out” tell the rest of us exactly what we should be doing each evening. What Spots have the best music? Which locations have the most favorable guy to girl ratio? Are we going to have to wait in line? I will brave the front lines with the admirable people whom LA’s best venues call “regulars” to provide SpotZone with ratings that will tell you where to go at the beginning of each night.

But first I have to try and find a way to categorize different places and how they’ll appeal to different people during any given mood. For example, this weekend I drank three nights in a row (my mom says I’d better be successful because she won’t pay for my rehab one day), and each night I had a very typical, yet unique type of drinking experience that everyone I know basically chooses from: the Casual Bar Visit, Party at Home, or Drunken Night Out. Let’s break them down, shall we?

The Casual Bar Visit

This is probably the most common, and definitely the most responsible way to enjoy your boozy LA evenings. It’s the anthem of networking, grabbing a pint with your friends, or meeting up with a Tinder date in a location that’s comfortable, yet in a public area. My Casual Bar Visit was to one of my favorite locales, Haven Gastropub.

Haven’s got a great whiskey menu, with bourbon, scotch, and rare artisanal blends that number over 140, so you can pretend to be a classy alcohol maven when ordering Pappy von Winkle, which you’ll be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in Orange County.

I’m not, nor will I ever pretend to be, a food blogger, but I will tell you that the lamb burgers, truffle fries, and pig ears round out the eclectic, refined, yet comforting food menu that will accompany your whiskey buzz perfectly. It’s expensive, so Haven is a great place to go if you have money to spend or want your limited budget to force you to drink responsibly.

Oh and if you like men, their waiters and bartenders are some of the hottest you can find, and they don’t look like they belong in Orange County. In a good way.

Party at Home

‘Tis the season for emotionally manipulating your boyfriend into engaging in holiday festivities! Bribing him with egg nog and an endless supply of rum doesn’t hurt either. Decorating a mini Christmas tree and some sugar cookies made up my Friday night, but this is of little relevance to you, so you’ll hear about these escapades way less often, unless they end with a crew of people just drunk enough to check SpotZone to see where we should go out and dance off all of this energy.

Drunken Night Out

This is the fun one. This is the night that racks up astronomical Uber receipts, calories that “never happened” and text messages that Drunk You deleted before you went to bed out of either kindness or masochism. Drunken nights out involve vodka sodas, lines, promoters, and EDM, and usually end in a 24-hour diner or burger joint.

The Drunken Night Out is a very fleeting experience that balances precariously between too boring and embarrassingly fun. Depending on your age, I would err on the side of embarrassing. Your Sunday morning pain will fade into a glorious story that you’ll be able to tell in a couple of years without cringing.

The Drunken Night Out can be ruined by a buzz that fades too quickly or a club that’s so boring, you blackout to make up for it. The Drunken Night Out needs SpotZone to help you decide where to go because Drunk You isn’t known for making the most brilliant of choices.

Mine happened this Saturday. It started at a party at The Mondrion on Sunset with an open bar (a fickle enemy if not tamed with expert practice, timing, and restraint). We left just as the crowd started to thin, and our group decided to head for Harlowe Bar, despite my insistence on hitting up Berri’s for some lobster pizza (yes, that’s a thing, apparently).

Harlowe’s has a rustic, vintage feel and a relatively young and energetic crowd. It calls itself a “tribute to Hollywood’s Golden Age,” and its ambitious, impressive décor delivers. The cocktail list is unique and expertly crafted, though being in the middle of Hollywood, on Santa Monica Boulevard no less, the drinks can get expensive.

To Drunk Me’s chagrin, there was no food.

So there you have it. Each night out, no matter where you go or what you do, is a variation of one of these three types, or at least a combination of them. I’m working on setting up a SpotZone events calendar, which will tell you where in Los Angeles to go for each different type of experience, depending on what you’re in the mood for. In my opinion, however, it’s best to mix it up and never stick to just one type of drinking experience, that way you can meet a variety of different types of people, check out new bars and clubs you don’t normally frequent, and keep each night interesting!

Keep checking in on the new blog and on the SpotZone App for different ways to have each different kind of night. There’s even an upcoming New Year’s Eve celebration at Haven, if you’re into the classy, fancy dining experience sort of thing (for raunchier, club events follow us on Twitter, where we’ll be posting every New Year’s Eve party and opportunity we hear about from now until 11:59 on the 31st).

What’s your favorite type of night out? Is there a category of drunken debauchery I’m missing? Let me know in the comments, and check in next Sunday for another blog post about my LA Weekend. Know a place I should check out or an upcoming party or event you want me to blog about? Drop a tip at spotzoneaudrey@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Haven Gastropub

New Year’s Eve – Ring in 2015: They’ll be offering the option of a Chef's prix-fixe menu, for those interested, for $45 per guest (not including beverages, tax, or gratuity).

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