Where should we celebrate New Years in Los Angeles?

December 12, 2006 3:59 PM

Where should we celebrate New Years in Los Angeles? My friends and I are coming down from San Francisco for New Years, and we're looking for something fun and cool to do on NYE. Everything we've found so far is at some big mega-club and costs like $125 to get in. Yuck.

We're thinking -- fun people, good music, low cover.. Open bar not required. I was thinking maybe something at a small to medium sized bar or lounge or something, but those places seem harder to find..

Like, all of the parties on this page seem huge, expensive, and scarily cheesy: http://www.clubzone.com/nye/index.asp

Oh, and if it were somewhere on Sunset in West Hollywood, that would be dope cuz that's where we're staying..

any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!

posted by dennis to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

I would suggest Tokyo Delve's or the Thai Elvis...
posted by Shanachie at 4:35 PM on December 12, 2006

East West Lounge (8851 Santa Monica Blvd.) in WeHo is one of the 'happening places.' It will be hopping on New Year's Eve.
posted by ericb at 8:05 PM on December 12, 2006

NYE at the Rainbow is ALWAYS fun
posted by polexxia at 9:24 PM on December 12, 2006

A few years ago, I went to watch them stage the floats for the Rose Parade in Pasadena. It was a lot of fun, and really interesting to see them up close. I'm not sure, but I might go again this year. It's not a bar, so it might not be what you're looking for, but it's interesting for sure, and a bit different. You might be able to find a bar local to there to spend time at before they start bringing the floats in.
posted by willnot at 10:41 PM on December 12, 2006

First off, the Rose Parade floats are cool. If you've never been, it'd be a very particular sort of Los Angeles (esp. East LA) thing to do, something off the beaten path a bit, and I vividly remember the times I went when, as a kid, I didn't live in town.

That being said, it's about the worst idea for a bangin' New Years as I've ever heard. Maybe earlier in the day? That'd definitely be a good choice.

Alright, dear, we need some more information. Will you be cabbing it? Where on the strip are you staying? Or are you on the strip? I presume you are. What's your poison? What bands do you listen to? Are you a hipster? Are you a nerd? Are you a preppy? Give us some quick and easy stereotypes so we can better pigeonhole you. Why did you choose to come to LA for the Eve?

FYI, the Strip on New Years would be about the last place I'd ever go. Crowded, insane, and generally amateurs. And as you said, lines out the door where ever you went. In my experience, you'd be better off finding a medium-sized bar and getting there early to snag a table and sticking there through the New Year. Depending on your predilictions, there are tons of likely places around town. One such spot would be the Los Feliz/Silverlake area -- get dinner somewhere on Vermont (Electric Lotus for Indian food, Il Capricio for Italian, get your tapas on at Cobras and Matadors on Hollywood just east of Vermont, diner it up at Fred 62, New Mexican at Mexico City on Hillhurst, two blocks east of Vermont) and then digest at the 4100 Bar (that would be 4100 Sunset Blvd, a ten minute walk from Vermont) or sit out on the sidewalk at Figaro (French bistro on Vermont) or catch some kitsch lounge-y action at the Dresden (Vermont), try to make your way into Tiki-Ti's (Sunset, just east of Hillhurst), or gay it up at Akbar, on Sunset, east of Hillhurst (they usually charge a cover on NYE, but they've got dancing and a bevy of hot boys and girls of both persuasions probably getting their groove on). That's a rather comprehensive look at life in that area. Your best bet would be to eat it up at 7 and get to a bar at nine or nine thirty, snag a table, and then watch as everything got crazycrazy by ten or ten thirty. You'll be appropriately soused by the turn of the New Year, and stagger home (by cab) around close. I've done the big club (40 bucks at Hollywood Athletic Club four years ago, it was certainly fun and worth it back then but I have no idea what it's like now) and I've done the Strip, but my most successful New Years have been the 7 o'clock dinner and the 9 PM bar-arrival, which we've stuck to lately. If you've got a good group of friends, it'll be a real blast. Don't try to arrive at a bar later than 9:30 -- the lines at every watering hole around town will be insane.

There are other options -- The Cat & the Fiddle is a mainstay, they're on Sunset west of Cahuenga, closer to the strip, a British-ish pub with a great outdoor area. Go early and get dinner (good-enough fish n' chips) and drink until you can't see straight. Boardners is another LA classic -- they're a straight up bar, but Miceli's, which is near there if memory serves, has decent Italian for the right price and it's also an LA institution. There's also Boy's Town, Santa Monica Blvd in WeHo, which is actually like a shooting gallery for straight guys -- all the gay boys take their gal pals out with them, and it's inordinately easy to find a lady (as well as just being a raucus place, not quite as crazy as the Strip, but the same kind of feel). I don't know what your prediliction is, but I'm just relaying my experience. Santa Monica and the whole of the Westside is out of my purview, so someone else will have to fill you in there.
posted by incessant at 11:33 AM on December 13, 2006

Ooo.. thanks for the suggestions, incessant..

As for what we're looking for -- we're coming to LA just to get out of SF for the holiday, no real reason besides the fact that LA was driveable and we haven't been there in awhile..

Hmm.. pigeonholes.. we're straight, 30's, and our music tastes in the group run the gamut from metal to indie to electronic to hiphop, so I don't think we're gonna agree on a venue, musically..

That said, someone else just found that Boardners place today, and that looks pretty promising, and the Dresden (well, I've never been there, and I wanna check it out).. and last time I was in LA I went to El Carmen, and that was a pretty cool scene..

Do we need to make reservations at these types of places, or can we just show up?
posted by dennis at 5:48 PM on December 13, 2006