So Cal Bachelor Party-- Help!!

August 23, 2009 4:52 PM

Uh oh, time to plan a memorable, one of a kind Southern California bachelor party and strippers aren't an option! Please hive mind, help!

The party will be happening at the end of September/early October.

Things we are considering but know nothing about:

A boat/fishing trip of some kind? Catalina?

Paintball? Any great places to do it?

Great steak house and classic cigar bar afterwards? Any recommendations?

And any other idea under the sun would be appreciated!

Some of the ideas we've had so far seem great but I've never done them in the So Cal area and have no idea about quality of establishments, feasibility at that time of year, et cetera.

Thank you thank you!

posted by my homunculus is drowning to grab bag (13 comments total)

How many people? Is it just for one day/night? And SoCal is a big place. Where are you (or the groom) in SoCal?

By the way, if it's a large group of people who regularly don't fish, you might want to skip that. You never know what the day is going to be like. Rough weather = rough seas = people throwing up for all the wrong reasons.

For steaks, I'm partial to Ruth Chris in Beverly Hills. But I realize that might lack appeal because it's a chain. But it's So Good So Who Cares.

Lawry's is great too.
posted by ryecatcher at 5:06 PM on August 23

Maybe look into deep sea fishing. I did that once with my boyfriend. You rent a boat with a captain and small crew - they have beer, snacks, whatever available. It was great. I'd fished before but only in lakes, luckily there was a crew member who was there to unhook the scarier fish, even filleted them for us. We cooked them that night.

I can't remember how much it cost or who we used but there are a lot of operations out there to Google. We had to buy temp. California licenses and rent poles at the pier. We bought weights and hooks there as well.

I've been to Catalina a couple of times and found it really, really boring. It's beautiful, but it doesn't say "male bonding" to me. However, I've never done any diving there or anything like that.

There's the Grand Havana Room in Bev. Hills for cigars. I like The Palm for steaks.
posted by Kloryne at 5:19 PM on August 23

How about a Baseball game?
posted by Confess, Fletch at 5:23 PM on August 23

Seconding ryecatcher's deep sea fishing warning. My brother just planned a bachelor party and they did that, and almost all of them puked at least once, including my brother, who didn't drink too much and went to bed reasonably early the night before. (The others...not so much, I think.)

He said they did have a good time despite the hurling, though.
posted by nosila at 5:28 PM on August 23

There's Go Kart World in Carson. I actually went to a bachelor party there that was a surprising amount of fun. The only real danger is once you get back onto the 5 after 4 hours of racing.
posted by mrmojoflying at 5:34 PM on August 23

Pacific Dining Car for steaks. Very L.A. noir. You'll feel like Phillip Marlowe walking into a swank joint that's just a little too classy for a bum P.I. like yourself, 'specially if you go in the middle of the night, since they're open 24/7.
posted by Diagonalize at 5:34 PM on August 23

A fishing trip is cool if the seas allow it also you can rent a party bus. go bar hopping strict time rules at each bar. you will find a lot that will wave a cover for a small group having 1 drink & moving on. Eat lots of food 1st & party all night. drink water in between. We had everyone meet at one place & then they all got dropped off at home at the end of the night. No DUI's just lots of fun!
posted by patnok at 5:55 PM on August 23

Oh right - high seas hurling... that IS a concern with deep sea fishing. Actually I am prone to that so I got a seasick patch from my doc. May be too much of a hassle though.
posted by Kloryne at 5:56 PM on August 23

(oops sorry - I didn't know Grand Havana Room was members only - scratch that I guess.)
posted by Kloryne at 6:04 PM on August 23

laser tag == paintball but without the groom getting a bruise on his face, and still pretty fun
posted by bottlebrushtree at 7:36 PM on August 23

Last year I had to plan a bachelor party, and for us as well, no strippers. We did some pitch and putt golf and then a 'dirty pub crawl.'

Pitch and Putt is golf with only two clubs (a pitching wedge and a putter). All the holes are very short, and very easy. It makes it more fun than normal golf, as you start out so much closer, you don't have to be very good to still have a few good shots, and it's much less about watching the few good guys hit well while the rest shag balls. Beer is a great companion to this.

And the dirty pub crawl: Basically, I found some of the crustiest bars I could within a reasonable distance to each other, and the bachelor had to find a guy at each bar and have a 10 minute conversation with him. I picked bars with some down-and-out fellas, and once they found out we were a bachelor party, almost all of them tripped over themselves trying to give advice. It created a lot of funny memories, and some great quotes. Plenty of inside jokes from that night, and no strip bars needed. I had all 20 of the guys tell me it was the funnest bachelor party they'd ever been on. Also, crusty bars are much cheaper than fancy ones, so it didn't cost everyone a bunch of money...

Hope that helps.
posted by adrock31 at 9:07 PM on August 23 [1 favorite]

ryecatcher- it should all take place in one day (unless it's particularly awesome) and will involve 10-20 people. This is also L.A. area.

Thanks for the steak house recommendations! Pacific Dining Car looks great (as do the other ones).

Thank you everyone! Please keep the ideas rolling!
posted by my homunculus is drowning at 9:27 PM on August 23

I went fishing on a charter from Davey's Locker last February out to Catalina. The water was really calm, with only minimal big rolling swells. From what I understand it's generally like that on the bay side of Catalina - but once on the pacific side it can get really nasty. Several people were non-fishermen and they had a good time, even though we didn't really catch much. The crew did give us the "Bachelor Party $1 Beer Special" which helped. From my fuzzy memory of the day my tab was somewhere around $30 with a cheeseburger thrown in.

Oh and one of the engines went out on the return trip and we limped back into port three or so hours late. But for $1 beers while fishing, there is a lot I can tolerate.

Needless to say we did nothing the evening except try to rid ourselves of the fish smell. No one had any energy to extend activities.
posted by Big_B at 11:49 AM on August 24