Cheers to this new app for LA drinkers!

You’re out and about in LA and in need of the nearest watering hole. But being a connoisseur of fine cocktails and/or craft beers, you only want to find the very best places in your immediate area. Searching for bars via Yelp will pull up too many options. And then there’s that matter of having to comb through each review wondering if you can even trust what any of these Yelpers are saying.

But what if there was an app that allowed a source that you loved and trusted, ahem, to handpick the best bars for you? Lucky for you there IS such an app, created by Escape Apps LLC, called Know What! This brand-new iPhone/iPad/Touch app, which just launched, offers a variety of guides created by tastemakers for both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Each contributor has created a specific guide covering different aspects of the city, be it the best hiking trails, the best pork dishes or the top architectural icons. It’s a quick and easy way to get your city’s experts in your back pocket!

Even I have a guide. It’s called Drink Here: LA’s Best Craft Beer and Cocktail Bars and covers my favorite bars, drink spots which incidentally are the best in LA and that I’ve heavily “researched.” Heh. For your convenience, most listings include links to the bar’s up-to-date drink list! So you can see if anything strikes your fancy or check what’s on tap before you go.

Currently I have over 50 picks but will constantly add to it as well as provide mini guides (like where to find the best current seasonal cocktail in town) that will update for free.

The Price Breakdown

The basic app, Know What Essentials, is $2.99 and gets you 400 places out of the thousands available. So that’s 200 spots in L.A. and 200 in the Bay Area (amounts to about a penny a place) and you get a taste of each of the guides. Now if you want a particular contributor’s complete guide it costs an additional amount, about 99 cents to $3.99. Mine costs $1.99!

And I’m in great company! Check out just some of the many guides available:

• Alcademics’ The City’s Best Cocktail Spots (San Francisco)
• DeepEndDining: Deep End Dining
• Esotouric: Charles Bukowski’s LA and On the Trail of the Black Dahlia
• TastertotsLA: Discerning Dining for Accompanied Adults
• FoodGPS: Global Eats: Southern California; Prized Pig, LA’s Best Pork Dishes
• Los Angeles Conservancy: Top 50 of 60s Architecture
• Modern Hiker: LA’s Best Hikes

Hit the jump to see a complete list of guides.

Feel free to purchase the app here. Happy drinking!

PS: If you like the app, please review it in the iTunes store. But if you don’t, feel free to email me using the contact tab at the top of the page. Hee.

Los Angeles

Aileen Holmes, local artist: OC: Sooo Not the Land of Bland
Caroline on Crack, carolineoncrack.com: Drink Here: LA’s Best Craft Beer and Cocktail Bars
Eddie Lin, deependdining.com: Deep End Dining
Esotouric, tour company: Charles Bukowski’s LA and On the Trail of the Black Dahlia
Francesca Lia Block, author: LA’s Dangerous Angels
Gustavo Arellano, columnist, editor, OC Weekly: The Best OC Restaurants!
Jessica Ritz, tastertots.com: Discerning Dining for Accompanied Adults
Joshua Lurie, foodgps.com: Global Eats: Southern California; Prized Pig, LA’s Best Pork Dishes
LA Bizarro, bestselling guidebook: 50 Ways to Lose Your Mind
LA Freewalls, street art collective: The Biggest Street Art Gallery in the World
Los Angeles Conservancy: Top 50 of ’60s Architecture
Mark Frauenfelder, co-founder boingboing.net: Unicorns, Carnivorous Plants and Other Angelenos I’ve Known and Loved
Modern Hiker, modernhiker.com: LA’s Best Hikes
Raina Lee, author: Karaoke Domination
Rebecca Woolf, girlsgonechild.net: Fashion & Fun (for You & Your Fam)

San Francisco

Burrito Eater, burritoeater.com: San Francisco’s Top 30 Taquerias
Camper English, Alcademics.com: The City’s Best Cocktail Spots
Carolyn Jung, foodgal.com: Ultimate Guide to Bay Area Dining
Catherine Weis, Local Social: Oakland’s Creative Renaissance
Gary Singh, San Jose Metro columnist: Things in San Jose that Don’t Suck
Joshua Lurie, foodgps.com: Global Eats: The Bay Area
San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association: SF’s Secret Parks and Hidden Oases
SF Heritage: Essential SF: The City’s Architectural Icons; The Building Blocks of Auto Row and Pacific Heights: The Epicenter of Old San Francisco
Thinkwalks, ThinkWalks.org: Everything Explained and Local Nerd!
Vegansaurus.com: The Best Food in the Bay Area as Picked by Genius Experts
Victoria Smith, sfgirlbybay.com: Sfgirlbybay’s Bohemian Modern San Francisco
White Walls: San Francisco Street Art

Lacey

Women bartenders have heard every pick-up line and have seen every flirtatious move in their bars. So it’s no wonder it can be a little intimidating to try and romance them. But I asked some of our gorgeous lady bartenders in Los Angeles what’s the best way to woo them and consequently, every woman boozewise. Turns out that basically they (we) want a man with no pretensions. It’s as simple as that. Read on for their answers, including some cocktail recipes that you can make for your special someone this Valentine’s Day.

Danielle Crouch of Cana Rum Bar: I am smitten by a roaring fire, good whiskey, and a man who always toasts before the first sip.

Kiowa Bryan of The Eveleigh: While the movie wasn’t great, the scene in Crazy, Stupid, Love where Ryan Gosling busted out correctly made Old Fashioneds* from his home bar was the hottest thing I could possibly imagine…..if you’re not that crafty, busting out a bottle of Fernet would do the trick.

Kylee Van Dillen of Westside Tavern: The most romantic drink I can think of is a boy buying me a scotch old enough to drink itself.

Lacey Murillo of 1886 and Black Market Liquor Bar: A guy impresses me through his confidence and adaptability  — especially in this industry. If a guy can hold his own at an industry event like Boxing Day at the Spare Room and also hang with my hectic schedule and family. I’m a lot more than impressed. I’m a sucker for sipping on a nice scotch or rye too…I take it neat please.

Lindsay Nader of Harvard & Stone and Pour Vous: Boozewise there isn’t much a guy can do except not be a know-it-all douchebag when ordering a drink or drinking a drink. Otherwise, the element of surprise mixed with humor always gets me. Like little notes left on my car or around my house telling me how amazing my butt is, etc.

Naomi Schimek of Spare Room: I must say, to me, two Miller High Lifes and two good sized slugs of Rittenhouse Rye with Tom Waits playing on the jukebox is just about the most romantic damn thing I’ve ever seen.

Zahra Bates of Providence: I know we bar ladies tend to order spirits neat, not because we are hard-core but rather because we don’t care for pretension. I may flirt with a cocktail or two throughout the evening but the drink that takes me home is a shot of the straight stuff. I love to have a drink that is pure, unadulterated and unabashedly itself and that is what I want from my fella.

* The Varnish’s Eric Alperin actually taught Ryan Gosling how to make a couple of cocktails for the movie!

Hit the jump for boozy woos (cocktail recipes) with which to seduce your Valentine.

The Birds & The Bees
By Lindsay Nader

• 1.5 oz Blanco Tequila
• 1 oz Strong brewed Hibiscus tea (chill before mixing into cocktail) (Suggest using Republic of Tea Hibiscus Superflower Tea, all natural, caffeine-free)
• 0.75 oz Lemon juice
• 0.5 oz  Yellow Chartreuse
• 0.5 oz  Agave syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker, shake, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an edible orchid.

Cansei De Ser Sexy
by Lindsay Nader

• 1.5 oz Hendrick’s Gin
• 0.75 oz Rose syrup *recipe below
• 0.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
• 0.5 oz Lemon juice
• 1 barspoon Gran Classico Bitter

Shake, strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a spritz of rose water and a rose petal.

* Rose syrup

• In a saucepan combine 2 cups sugar with 2 cups water, stir over heat until uniform
• Stir in 2 tablespoons of rose water, or as much to fit your taste (Available at Whole Foods, spice stored or specialty stores)

Barmaid Rumbullion
by Lacey Murillo

[The cocktail I came up with at Black Market is] something for the ladies — something strong, stirred, a rich deep sweetness from booze, and a hint of chocolate. I named it “Barmaid Rumbullion.” Rumbullion means “a great tumult or uproar,” and is said to be where rum got its name. Also a little mix of Fighting Cock and rum can get any barmaid in the spirit of Valentines Day (for or against it!).

• 1 oz Fighting Cock Bourbon ( I figured why the hell not 103 Proof and all)
• 1oz Dos Maderas PX 5×5 Rum (A Caribbean rum shipped to Spain and aged in Pedro Jimenez Sherry Casks)
• 0.25 oz Demerera syrup
• 1 dash Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters

Stir with a large rock in an old fashion glass. Express the oils of one lemon peel and enjoy.

The Eveleigh celebrates Super Bowl 2012

I don’t watch football, don’t really like it. And up until yesterday (today?) I wasn’t sure which two teams are even playing the Super Bowl. New England Patriots and New York Giants, right? But I LOVE Super Bowl parties — the food, the drinks, the running commentary. It’s where foodists and sport fans finally come together. So here’s a hand-picked list of what I think are some of the best Super Bowl parties around town, most notably for their tasty food and drink specials.

Akasha’s Super Bowl Party — All-Day Happy Hour and Special Super Bowl Menu
Enjoy happy hour prices (1/2 off wine, well drinks, draft beer and specialty cocktails) at the bar during the game and all night, and in the dining room from 3 to 5:30pm. The special menu is categorized by Kick Off (bratwurst on brioche, pizza), First Down (onion rings, dips, fries), Third and Goal (pulled pork sliders, Punjabi chicken wings) and Touchdown (Boston cream pie, NY cheesecake). Watch the game on a 9-by-6 projector screen with live game audio.

Beer Belly’s Super Sunday — $5 Craft Beer and Super Bowl Menu
THE place to go for nommy drunk food is boasting the likes of NY pizza mac n’ cheese and catfish n’ chips with chowder aioli as well as $5 pints of California craft beer. And don’t forget the wings, corn on the cob and duck fat fries. Oh my!

City Tavern — All-Day Happy Hour
Get your gourmet game on in Culver City. This gastropub, which will open early at 2:30pm, will be featuring $10 craft beer growlers during its all-day happy hour, as well as “Super Bowl” meatballs and Spanish chorizo pigs in a blanket. Mmm, craft beeeer.

The Eveleigh’s Super Bowl ’12 Sunday Social
Brunch ends at 3pm at this Sunset Strip bar/restaurant but Chef Jordan Toft will offer up hot dogs and chili cheese fries ($8 each) for game time. Order up pitchers of beer as well as the bar’s famous Poor Carlito’s (tequila, lime juice, honey, smoked sea salt) and pitchers of Pimlico Punch (whiskey, lemons, tangerines and mint — $43 and serves six).

ForgeLA’s Super Seoul Sausage Bowl — Open bar
Yup, I said “Open Bar!” Sure, entry is $20 but you get an open bar courtesy of Ketel One Vodka and Deschutes Beer. PLUS there’s a nacho bar, all-you-can-eat Seoul Sausage, photo booth, beer pong, Snow Monkey dessert, halftime giveaways AND two 20-foot screens to watch the game on.

Harvard & Stone’s Super Bowl Bash — Unlimited food and drinks
For $40 via Thrillist Rewards, you get all the Singha beer, wells and specialty punches you can drink before the game (2:30pm) and all the hamburgers, chips/salsa and bbq chicken you can gorge yourself on. Considering that cocktails here usually run around $12, it’s a killer deal. I just love the fact that this craft cocktail bar is even throwing a Super Bowl party, cuz you know the drinks are going to be stellar.

Short Order — Super Bowl Menu
This Farmers Market burger joint is putting up TV screens especially for the Big Game! Add to that mixologist Julian Cox’s cocktails and spiked custard shakes as well as SO LA (bacon-wrapped North Country) Dogs ($7) and short rib chili cheese spuds ($9 with $3 add-ons like bacon and melted aged cheddar) and you can settle in nicely for some football. Or if you gotta dash, you can order those indulgent dogs in a three-pack to go ($18)!

Tony’s Darts Away Vegan Super Bowl — Vegan bar food and $3.50 Golden Road beers
Yes! Bar food that won’t make you feel all erp-y after. At this vegan Super Bowl party, which starts at 12pm, they’ll feature bbq jackfruit sliders (pulled pork for the carnivores), a vegan five-layer dip and vegan buffalo “whings.” Wash all that down with $3.50 glasses of Golden Road Brewing’s beers.

Westside Tavern — Super Bowl Menu
The Westside gastropub will open up its private back room, which is equipped with its own bar and a big screen TV, to the public just for the occasion. There will also be two specials: beer-boiled bratwurst with sautéed pepper and onions or homemade sauerkraut on a pretzel roll for $7, pork belly sliders, apple BBQ sauce, apple-cabbage slaw for $8.

Other Super Bowl roundups:

FinerThingsLA’s SuperBowl 2012
Marpop’s Super Bowl Sunday in LA
The Sunset Strip’s Super Bowl Sunday: Where To Watch, Drink and Dine

Russian River growlers Flickr shot by --Mark--

Every year beer geeks go insane for Russian River’s Pliny the Younger Triple IPA. So much so that labyrinthine lines form around the blocks of the very few bars that are lucky enough to get a hold of the allotted five gallons of the beer.

Yes, Pliny the Younger is only available for purchase at a very few bars because as the brewery’s site says “it is extremely difficult, time and space consuming, and very expensive to make.” Even mothership Russian River brewpub in Santa Rosa doesn’t allow growlers or bottles, rather you are welcome to a 10-ounce glass of the 10.5% ABV beer. And as if its rarity isn’t enough to fuel the fervor, currently Pliny the Younger, not to be confused with Russian River’s more readily available Pliny the Elder Double IPA? Ranks No. 1 out of 100 on Beer Advocate’s list of top beers. Settle down, settle down.

So where can you, a SoCal beer lover, get a hold of this NorCal ambrosia? Russian River Brewery has announced that Pliny will be released this Friday, February 3; and local beer bars Beachwood BBQ (Seal Beach) and Library Alehouse (Santa Monica) will indeed carry it! However the bars will be controlling the chaos by selling $5 raffle tickets for a chance to win/purchase a pint. So you don’t have to stand in line for the beer or suffer Walmart-on-Black-Friday-type crowds, PLUS 100% of the proceeds from the raffle ticket sales will go to the Melanoma Research Foundation, in memory of Beachwood BBQ’s friend Tony Carbone who died of melanoma in 2008.

Beachwood BBQ, both Seal Beach and Long Beach locations, has been selling tickets, to raffle off its 130 pints, since January 17 and will continue to do so til February 18. While Santa Monica’s Library Alehouse will start selling its tickets for a chance at purchasing one of 50 glasses of Pliny for 25 cents, on February 3rd. There’s no limit to how many raffle tickets you can buy but it is cash only.

Winners will then be drawn on February 20 and contacted via email and then have 10 days to fetch their pints. Mmm, can you taste it already?

By the way, other bars that will be carrying Pliny the Younger: Lucky Baldwin’s, Verdugo Bar and The Surly Goat!

Beachwood BBQ
131 1/2 Main Street
Seal Beach, California 90470 (map)
(562) 493-4500

210 E. 3rd Street
Long Beach, California 90802 (map)
(562) 436-4020
Facebook: Beachwood BBQ; Twitter: @BeachwoodBBQ

Library Alehouse
2911 Main Street
Santa Monica, California 90405 (map)
(310) 314-4855
Facebook: Library Alehouse; Twitter: @LibraryAlehouse

Chilcano Bay cocktail at Sunny Spot.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been somewhere that’s made me downright giddy. And leave it to a restaurant called Sunny Spot to do just that. Chef Roy Choi of Chego and A-Frame opened his Caribbean eatery last November, taking over the old Beechwood spot on Washington Boulevard in Venice. And everything about the colorful Shabby Chic venue evokes a smile. From its whimsical floral patterned bar stools to its gold place settings to its rum list to its Rum Den.

I stopped in on a lazy Saturday evening for an early dinner. At 5pm the place just opened so we had our pick of seating in the front room and patio and chose the latter which, although it was a bit chilly out thanks to the setting sun, was sufficiently warmed up by overhead heaters. Note: The restaurant also has a back dining room, the Rum Den, which seats 56 people and is reservation only and also features a standing room-only bar.

Sunny Spot's Sunfire salad

I had meant to visit Sunny Spot ever since it opened but not so much for Chef Choi’s cuisine as for mixologist Brian Butler’s cocktail menu. I’ve liked his flavorful and straightforward concoctions at A-Frame and was looking forward to seeing what he’d do with West Indies-inspired rum cocktails. And the man did not disappoint.

He has 10 drinks ($12 each) listed on the menu, most made with different types of rum like a Nicaraguan 12-year in the Sunny Old-Fashioned and pot still rum in the Dry Harbour. But there’s also the Westfall with tequila, mezcal, lime, falernum and apricot and the Fleur-de-Lis with gin, hibiscus, honey, chartreuse and lime. Since it was still early in the evening and I had an errand to run afterward, I, unfortunately, had to go for something light, even though I had craved my usual of something “stirred, aromatic, served up and not too sweet.”

Our server recommended the Chilcano Bay made with pisco, lime, ginger, lemongrass and Fernet Branca. Now, usually I have a thing against drinks with lime in it. They most often tend to be overpowered by the tart fruit and I can never get past it. But in the Chilcano, amazingly it starts off with that telltale tartness and then finishes with the heat of the ginger. Couldn’t really pick up on the Fernet but still a great drink that I can see myself enjoying on a hot summer’s day. This drink also worked really well with the crazy-hot Diablo rum-glazed prawns ($13).

Attack of the Diablo Prawns.

If, for some reason, you don’t see anything you like on the cocktail menu, check out the accompanying rum guide which not only features Sunny Spot’s rum collection but suggestions on which rummy cocktails would best showcase your rum pick. For instance the El Dorado 15-year Demerara Rum was cited as being “glorious in a Queens Park Swizzle” ($13) and the Wray & Nephew Overproof mixed with Ting grapefruit soda and lime was listed as a Jamaican favorite. Love that!

For beer and wine drinkers, the bar has three beers on tap ($7-$9) and three bottled ($6) as well as a small selection of reds, whites, roses and bubbles ($9-$18 a glass). There’s also a $15 corkage fee if you want to BYOB.

From Sunny Spot’s FAQ:
What is the dress code at Sunny Spot?
As long as you cover your private areas, it’s all good.

As for the food, initially I was afraid that being a pescatarian, I wouldn’t be able to find anything I’d be crazy about on the menu. After all, in other reviews, it seems people can’t stop talking about the restaurant’s Two-Fisted burger or slow-roasted GOAT (“Greatest of All Time”). And based on my past experiences with Chego and A-Frame, the veg-friendly dishes tended to be rich and too saucy for my tastes. But here, Choi hit all the marks with his Sunfire Salad ($11) made with charred cauliflower, pomelo, goat cheese, butter lettuce, radicchio and arugula in chili vinaigrette. Not only was the portion satisfying as either one person’s entree or the main dish split between two people, but it wasn’t overly dressed, it tasted fresh and all the ingredients came together beautifully.

We Be Yammin: Do NOT share.

The Diablo prawns, as I mentioned, were crazy hot and uber saucy but an order of the yellow salty rice soothed the burn a bit. “They should have just made the rice come with it for free,” my bf said. That would have been awesome but then would be more of an actual dish than a small plate item, but I like the way he thinks all the same. To round out our meal we also got the fat fingered Yucca fries accompanied with a banana Thai basil ketchup. I was pleasantly surprised to find these non-greasy, unlike most fries, with a crisp baked exterior and tender interior.

Then we finished off our meal with the We Be Yammin (hee!) dessert ($6) of sweet potato tart with a walnut crust and a scoop of marshmallow ice cream. Oh mon! This actually made me do a little dance in my chair; the Cabbage Patch, to be specific. The marshmallow ice cream didn’t taste all that marshmallowy but I didn’t really care. Its slight sweet flavor and texture complemented the sweet potato tart. Word to the wise: I DO NOT recommend sharing this dessert. You must have it all to yourself else to truly be happy. As it was, bf and I were playing fork hockey over the last bite. It’s amazing that didn’t turn into an all-out brawl.

After the meal, I could not stop grinning, even when the check arrived (not too shabby at $57, not including gratuity). This was the best genuine restaurant experience I had in awhile. The service was friendly, attentive and well timed, and it wasn’t even a media dinner. Everything was excellent. I so can’t wait until my next visit to Sunny Spot. A well-crafted cocktail list, nomlicious cuisine, superb service PLUS ample street parking, how could I stay away?

Best seat in the house: The Bird Cage booth in the Rum Den (date or small group of friends) or hold court at the picnic bench on the patio.

Sunny Spot
822 Washington Boulevard
Venice, California 90292 (map)
(310) 448-8884

Other coverage:
Daily Beast’s Street Food Guru Roy Choi on Sunny Spot
Kevin Eats: Sunny Spot
Thirsty in LA’s Blue Skies Ahead for Roy Choi’s Sunny Spot