You’ve been stuck at home all day with a turkey and all that dysfunctional family drama. You need to go out and get a drink ASAP. Fortunately the following bars are open on Thanksgiving Day to soothe your post-feast belly aches and post family squabble headaches.

If none of these bars are near you, try your neighborhood dive bar. Happy Thanksgiving!

1886 Bar in Pasadena
The Raymond will be open for its Thanksgiving prix fixe menu, so you know what that means. 1886′s doors are open, too! Give thanks with its barrel-aged Vintage Caprice cocktail.

Barney’s Beanery in various locations
Hard core. Barney’s Beanerys are open ALL day! From 9:30am to 2am. There will be football as well as a turkey breast platter for T Day orphans. But check out the Beer of the Month special where you can get the likes of Magic Hat #9 and Anderson Boont Amber ale for $3.75 a pint.

Big Foot Lodge in Atwater Village
Need some tunes to wake you from your tryptophan-induced haze? Bigfoot Lodge will be spinning rockabilly, garage, surf punk and more. Booze it up with $3 PBR and $4 Bourbon drink specials.

Daily Pint in Santa Monica
This Santa Monica brewpub will open its doors at 7pm, perfect for those seeking a beerpost-dysfunctional family feast. If you want something harder, there is an extensive Scotch collection at your disposal as well as a full bar. Burn off all those calories from dinner with a free game of pool.

Lucky Baldwin’s in Pasadena
Have turkey at home or come here for a turkey dinner with all the fixings. But you really want to come for the brew with over 63 taps to choose from. Drinking starts at noon.

Sunset Beer Company in Echo Park
Sure, this Echo Park beer bar/beer store is only open a few hours on Thanksgiving — 10am to 1pm — but if you’re like me you’ll take tasty craft beer where you can get it. Extra awesome? You can buy some bottles and take ‘em home. Currently on tap: Golden Road Hef (yum), Telegraph California Ale and more.

Beer Chicks introduce their brand-new downtown beer store, 8th Street Bottle Shop.

Yes, I still wanted to hold a grudge against 213 Downtown for banning me from Schmeven Schmand all those years ago. But there comes a time when a girl has just gotta tell herself, “Oh get over it already.” And when you throw in craft beer, the Beer Chicks, a 7-bar beer crawl and a brand-new downtown craft beer store, well that makes it all the more difficult (and silly) to hold a grudge.

I was invited to the 2nd Annual LA Craft Beer Crawl which meandered around Downtown LA through bars that are primarily known for their cocktails. The Beer Chicks had curated the taps which before had been stuff like Stella Artois and they invited renowned craft breweries like Taps, Stone Brewing, Craftsman and Firestone to spread the gospel of good beer to the event’s attendees.

Chelada coming right up!

Unfortunately I couldn’t stick around to enjoy the whole crawl, which went on til 8pm, since my ‘rents were in town, but I made a good show of it. With my beer buddy Lindsay of LAist we ran from bar to bar, trying to enjoy as much of the exclusive pours during the VIP hours as we could. Starting off at Golden Gopher, we checked out the Beer Chicks’ new beer store, 8th Street Bottle Shop (which is now open) and then enjoyed Drakes Aroma Coma and Cismontane‘s coffee-infused Citizen. Afterward it was off to 7G for Ommegang Aphrodite, then Las Perlas for the Raul Yrastorza’s Dusty Road Chelada which featured Uncommon Brewers Siamese Twin Ale. Since the food trucks weren’t coming out til 3pm and we were starving, we braved the wait (and drunk Lotharios) at Cole’s across the street where we shared some garlic fries with Stan of Drink Eat Travel and those wacky Noble Ale Works guys.

Noble Ale Works represent.

Wrapping up the crawl Linds and I adjourned to Cana for the Maui Brewing beer float with banana ice cream and Maui Coconut Porter and ran into LA Weekly‘s Pulitzer-Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold “holding up a wall” and answering culinary questions for $1. (Apparently Cana’s Allan Katz put up the sign over JGold’s head as a joke.) Needless to say, I asked a bunch and found out that no, LA Weekly won’t have a JGold cocktail event this year and that the Varnish is his fave spot for grabbing a cocktail.

Now you’d think it would be almost impossible to learn and drink a whole lotta beer at the same time, but it’s not! Here are 10 other things I managed to pick up during the crawl:

1. The Beer Chicks’ 8th Street Bottle Shop is priced competitively. Christina Perozzi did a lot of comparative shopping to come up with the pricing for her bottles which she says is priced lower than Whole Foods.

2. The beers at the bottle shop are basically categorized by style and then alphabetized. Prices are displayed under each bottle.

3. The employees manning the shop will be knowledgeable enough to help you pick out a beer for any occasion or dish.

4. According to Beer Chick Hallie Beaune, Cole Haan makes heels PERFECTLY comfortable for beer crawls.

5. I haven’t been single for awhile but that move when a guy stretches as an excuse to put an arm around me? STILL not sexy.

6. The distance from Golden Gopher to Las Perlas is actually not as far as it seems, only half a mile!

7. Jonathan Gold actually prefers wine (first) and cocktails (second). Beer? Not so much.

8. Untappd users now don’t have to wait 10 minutes to check in between beers. Crucial during beer crawls and beer fests.

9. You know how Eagle Rock Brewery has a women’s beer forum that meets every third Wednesday of the month? Well, Christina will be speaking at one such forum there soon so stay tune.

10. VIP tickets are $20 more than gen admission and absolutely worth it for the exclusive pourings and short lines. (Of course I got a media pass but believe me, worth it for the elbow room.)

More LA Craft Beer Crawl photos after the jump.

The Beer Chicks Hallie Beaune and Christina Perozzi.

When one thinks of 213 Downtown bars like Schmeven Schmand and Cana, no one thinks “Mm, that’s a great place to grab a beer.” So I just had to ask Beer Chicks Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune why they picked the cocktail bars yet again for their 2nd Annual Beer Crawl. I mean, there are tons of beer-serious bars in the city: Blue Palms Brewhouse, Verdugo Bar or Tony’s Darts Away. What gives?

With the intention of expanding LA’s beer culture and focusing on bars that need some beer lovin’, Christina said that the Beer Chicks are going to take over the 213 taps! She had a lonng conversation with the bars’ owner Cedd Moses and convinced him that if he could take great care to have hand-chipped ice for his cocktails, he should care what he has on his taps. Fortunately he agreed and now the Beer Chicks will curate the taps of the bars, customizing them to suit the themes.

The Beer Do-Over
They’ll start with Golden Gopher, Casey’s and Schmeven Schmand and then hopefully move on to the other bars by the end of the year. Irish pub Casey’s will serve Moylans Irish Stout and Eagle Rock Solidarity, Cana will get Maui Brewing Coconut Porter and she’s hoping to get Mexico’s Cucapa beer for Las Perlas. At Schmeven Schmand, they’ll even do high-end boilermakers.

Not all of the bars will get crafty but some will be equipped with double the taps. The bartenders have also been trained by the Beer Chicks so they will be as knowledgeable about the beers as they are the cocktails.

8th Street Bottle Shop.

The Beer Chicks’ Downtown Beer Shop
And to really kick things off, the girls have taken over that little liquor shop in Golden Gopher, where before you could take booze to go or have it delivered. Now the store has been transformed into the 8th Street Bottle Shop which will feature a selection of craft beers hand-picked by the Beer Chicks!

The store opens the same day as the 7-bar beer crawl on Saturday, August 13. You can still get tickets to the crawl which costs $49 general admission. VIP is sold out.

Here are just some of the craft breweries attending this beer-tastic event: Allagash, Eagle Rock Brewery, Craftsman Brewing, Cismontane, Taps Fish House and Brewery, Ladyface Alehouse and Brasserie, North Coast Brewing Company, The Bruery and Brasserie D’Achouffe to name just a few.

Shouldn't that read "Beer To Go"?

These sharply dressed bartenders at Boadas give our LA ones a run for their money.

I’ve always had a thing for Ernest Hemingway. A real man’s man. Think George Clooney but with bullfighting and daiquiris. That man could drink and I respect that. Fortunately it turned out that my long-range European bar hop became an impromptu “Hemingway Drank Here” bar tour. It was born out of wanting to check out Hemingway’s at the Ritz, home of $40 cocktails. But instead it was Harry’s New York Bar in Paris and in Barcelona it was El Raval’s historic bars, Marsella and Boadas. Both were within stumbling distance of my flat right off La Rambla.

Absinthe at Marsella

How Marsella does absinthe.

Marsella’s claim to fame is that it was where absinthe was introduced to Barcelona back in 1820. Famous artists and writers like Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Papa Hemingway himself got loopy on the green stuff back in their day. If you didn’t know the bar’s history, it would be easy to overlook this unassuming drinking hole, what with its unremarkable exterior, save for the few prostitutes hanging just outside its doors.

Its interior holds the appeal of an ancient painted lady with years of too much smoking, boozing and hard living. If you look long enough you could probably still see the beauty beneath all those years. Thick layers of dust coat the chandeliers as well as the shelves and shelves of old liquor bottles, the walls and ceilings yellowed by centuries of tobacco smoke. The floor is covered with charmingly mismatched tiles. And there are lots of open space with chairs and tables clustered along the walls. Maybe to make way for drunken dancing later?

When you walk up to the small bar, you see an unimpressive collection of liquor — Jack, J&B, Malibu Rum. If you have no grasp of Catalan and with no cocktail menu to point to, you would be tempted to turn around and go back out the door.

Just the start of the evening.

But those who know the bar’s claim to fame can simply utter “absinthe” and then be presented a glass of pre-poured absinthe, one of many glasses sitting on the shelf behind the bar. “For how long?” one can’t help but wonder.

The bartender will also hand you a wrapped sugar cube, a small, chilled bottle of water and a tiny fork, with no instructions. But drinkers of absinthe will already know what to do.

We gathered our DIY cocktail fixings and grabbed one of the many empty tables next to a trio of drunk 20-something frat boys and set to work. 1) Rest the sugar cube on the fork over the glass, 2) drip the cold water oh so slowly over the sugar cube until it is completely dissolved. Now, I’m not an absinthe connoisseur so don’t know how this compares to most absinthe brands (apparently Marsella has its own brand) but I suspect for most who stop by this old bar, it’s more for the anecdote than the taste.

Unfortunately since we went early (around 10pm) the place was still emptyish, save for the American boys who didn’t stay long and the growing group of raucous friends taking up most of the tables in the corner. It wasn’t til 11 or so that the place started filling up and an actual queue began forming out front.

Those seeking a non-touristy Barcelona drinking experience, far from the crowds of La Rambla, would do well to stop by Marsella. It’s a dive bar with a lot of history and not the place for those seeking something beyond a cocktail of liquor and a mixer, but use it as many do as a jumping point for your evening. Marsella closes at 2:30am Monday through Thursday and at 3am on weekends but the clubs in the city close at 6am.

Slideshow of Marsella.

Classics at Boadas

At Boadas, they pour all the way to the rim, to the point of nearly spilling.

Barcelona’s Boadas, on the other hand, was an instant favorite for me. Its founder Miguel Boadas was the head barman at Hemingway’s favorite bar in Cuba, El Floridita, and opened up this classic cocktail-focused watering hole in 1933. His daughter Dolores Boadas now runs the place. They don’t have a cocktail menu either, only offering one specialty cocktail of the day (aka “Cocktail Del Dia”), and a repertoire of classic cocktails.

Because of its El Floridita roots, you’d do well to order a daiquiri or mojito but when I had told the smartly dressed bartender I preferred whiskey drinks, in particular the Manhattan, he insisted on making me a Whiskey Cooler with bourbon, ginger ale and soda. It was disappointingly too watered down for my tastes but it was entertaining watching him make it with his flourishes and sleight of hand.

After my boyfriend was pooh-poohed for requesting a Sazerac because it contained absinthe, which they don’t stock, they fixed him up an Old Fashioned. The chunkiest Old Fashioned I’ve ever seen. The bartender started by muddling maraschino cherries, then added “a shit ton of liquor” (my bf’s words) and filled it with orange slices and peels. Hmm, they do things differently here. The cocktail was potent, drinkable and fortunately not too sugary.

Barcelonan bar fly.

It was fun to watch them mix up the Manhattan, with the bartender mixing the cocktail by transferring the liquid from one tin to the other with a high pour. Cocktail acrobatics. The drink itself was decent. You couldn’t really taste the Maker’s but you caught the vermouth midpalate and the bitters on the finish.

No mind-blowing cocktails at Boadas but loads of atmosphere. This bar is cozier, more intimate than Marsella with only bar stool seating. (The door to the bathroom can be found in the far back corner, almost like a secret entrance.) Since it’s located just off bustling La Rambla, a dress code is enforced as a way to keep at bay flipflop-wearing tourists, who should be showing some respect for the historic cocktail establishment anyway.

Just show up in a nice dress or buttoned shirt and sidle up to the bar. Anywhere in front of a bartender will be the best seat in the house since you can watch them mix those cocktails with flourish as well as enjoy their banter. The night we went, while sitting at the bar, a group of older Brits came in through the doors and one bartender leaned over to the other one and said “Heineken” behind his hand. Sure enough one of the tourists asked the bartender if they served anything other than cocktails. And when the bartender responded with “Just classic cocktails” the Brits left. I couldn’t help but wonder what they had guessed for us when we walked in.

Slideshow of Boadas.

Mya in her going-out clothes.

Ever since I got my rescue pit bull Mya, I want to take her with me everywhere. I mean, wook at that wittle face! Unfortunately, most bars/restaurants usually won’t let me share a table with my new canine bff, something about it being a violation of a health code or something. Pfft! In any case, that hasn’t stopped me from trying to find places within the 1.5-mile radius of where I live in Culver City/Palms where I can booze it up with Mya close by. Here’s what I found.

Akasha: Akasha has a couple of patios, one adjacent to the dining room and one off the café side. Dogs aren’t allowed on the patio but can be tied up outside it. Although I love stopping by here for a little breakfast and the happy hour, I’m squeamish about leaving Mya outside the fence since the sidewalk is kinda narrow so if other dogs walk by there could be a problem. In any case the trick is to score a seat off to the side away from the main thoroughfare. Recommended drink: One of the organic seasonal cocktails (the list on the site needs to be updated).

Bigfoot West: They have a patio enclosed by a fence with slats so you can tie your pooch to the outside of it and pet him/her through the spaces, if your hand can fit, that is. Unfortunately, this is a smoking patio so if you can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke, you might want to skip this one since it seems like a lot of Bigfoot’s patrons like that bad habit. I hate smoke but the appeal of a great beer selection  and whiskey was hard to resist. Happy hour is daily from 5-9pm with $5 cocktails. Recommended drink: Boont Amber Ale on tap — smooth, flavorful, refreshing or a Manhattan. The happy hour drinks are too light (and sweet) for my taste so I stay away.

Father’s Office: Surprisingly the place that doesn’t allow photography, babies or ketchup lets you bring your dog but only if you tie him/her up outside of the patio. What I like about this is that Mya is dog-aggressive but since she’s tucked in behind plants and there’s a lot of room for people and their dogs to walk a wide birth around her she can’t get into trouble. Anyway, yay for enjoying really tasty craft beer alongside man’s best friend. Recommended drink: Can’t go wrong with any of their beers plus they also have a full bar so check out their Manhattan.

Gyenari: OK the food and cocktails here aren’t all that great but gotta love a patio with heated lamps and a place to tie up your doggy nearby. When I went they said I had to tie Mya outside of the fence but shhhh! they didn’t yell at me when she “snuck” onto the patio. Heh. Recommended drink: Stick to straight booze, neat or on the rocks. UPDATE 4/21/11: Gyenari is now closed but has been replaced with MoKo.

Le Saint Amour: The patio of this French brasserie actually has a place designated pour les chiens. It’s tucked in from the sidewalk so your dog doesn’t get stepped on by passers-by. Great place for enjoying wine and bites with friends. Keep in mind that they have delicious bone marrow here. However when I tried to give the leftover bone to Mya, she wouldn’t have it. She’s one picky eater. Recommended drink: Take your pick from beers like Allagash or Le Fin du Monde or from the wine list which features wine by the glass from $9-$15.

Native Foods: If you’re into organic beers (I’m not really), this is the place for you. They have a patio so you can enjoy your En ”Cha-Cha” Lada Bowl and Stone beer with Fido (on the other side of the fence of course).

Rush Street: Now I haven’t taken Mya to this Culver City barestaurant yet but they are right next door to Gyenari and also have a patio that you can tie your dog outside of. Same situation in terms of food and cocktails as Gyenari — meaning meh — but take your pick if you want to sit at a bustling patio or a quieter one. They have happy hour here but it’s only applicable to the second floor. Bew. Recommended drink: Draft beer or straight booze (their cocktails are too sweet for the likes of me).