The ’Entertainment Capital of the World’ has a range of nightlife - nightclubs, cabarets, jazz, rock, blues and country and western can all be found somewhere in town. Clubs offer a mix of live bands and recorded music on different nights of the week. Comedy clubs are also big in LA.

Sunset Boulevard (with its famous ‘Sunset Strip’) still boasts some of the city’s most famous clubs but is by no means the only hotspot. Other good nightlife areas are Santa Monica, especially along Third Street Promenade; Hollywood and West Hollywood, the latter a centre for gay nightlife. Pine Avenue in Long Beach and Pasadena’s Old Town also have a good number of jazz clubs and other night spots. Admission prices for clubs and live music vary widely according to the entertainment. Entertainment listings can be found in LA Weekly (website: www.laweekly.com), a free paper distributed around town. Because of LA liquor laws, bars stop serving at 0200. The minimum drinking age is 21 years and you should carry photo ID at all times, as you may not even be allowed in a venue without it. There is no smoking inside any public place in Los Angeles and this includes bars and nightclubs. However, many offer outdoor areas where smoking is permitted.

Bars: Starting with the Sunset Strip, the Rainbow Bar & Grill, 90015 Sunset Boulevard, attracts the music industry and is known as the hair-metal drinking spot of the 1980s. The SkyBar, at the Philippe Starck-designed Mondrian Hotel, 8440 Sunset Boulevard, is a very smart spot for LA’s beautiful people and has a great view as well as the glamorous look of this hotel chain. Another hotel bar, The Standard, 8300 Sunset Boulevard, a former nursing home, is slightly less difficult to get into, but equally popular and stylish. Still on Sunset, make sure you stop off at number 8358, the Sunset Tour Hotel, a splendid 1920s building, whose authentic art deco lounge bar extends to the pool area complete with statues of pink flamingos. The Cat’N Fiddle is an English-style bar with courtyard and fountain, at 6530 Sunset Boulevard. Two other good choices include Spider Club at 1737 Vine Street and the Velvet Margarita Cantina, a late night trendy Mexican lounge, 1612 North Cahuenga Boulevard, both in Hollywood.

For LA gay life, try any bar along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, including the reliable Gold Coast at number 8228, or the crazy Fubar at number 7994, with drag queens and bingo nights. The biggest are probably Rage at number 8911, and Circus Disco at 6655, and Micky’s at 8857. Lesbians in this boys’ paradise have Palms, at 8572. For a mixed, hipper crowd, try Akbar, 4356 West Sunset Boulevard.

For fans of the film Swingers, it is worth making the trek to Los Feliz, where the Dresden Room, 1760 North Vermont Avenue, all white leather upholstery and cork walls, is good for sipping cocktails while listening to the loungey crooning of resident performers Marty and Elayne.

The Observation Bar, aboard the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, is an art deco joy - a great place for a romantic martini while the sun sets. In the same area, the Rock Bottom Brewery, 1 Pine Avenue, is a good place to try handmade beers brewed on the premises. Downtown, the best views of the skyscrapers can be had from the revolving cocktail bar, BonaVista at Westin Bonaventure Hotel, 404 South Figueroa Street. With souvenir glasses, floor to ceiling windows and piped music, it’s all very 1980s but hard to beat. Also Downtown, The Roof Bar at The Standard, 550 South Flower Street, is a very stylish place to check out the skyscrapers.

Clubs: The eclectic Viper Room, 8852 Sunset Boulevard (website: www.viperroom.com), owned by Johnny Depp, is a small, dark, hip hangout for rock musicians and groupies, although its club nights tend to be more funk and disco. River Phoenix died there in 1993 of a drug-induced heart failure.

In Santa Monica, Gotham Hall, 1431 Third Street Promenade (website: www.gothamhall.com), with its clubby look and popular billiards hall, is populated by pretty boys and girls. The sophisticated Club Cohiba part of Mum’s Restaurant, 110 East Broadway, Long Beach (website: www.mumsrestaurant.com), features a cigar and billiard room, a Martini lounge and a roof top terrace with live salsa on Fridays and Saturdays. Swing-dancing is making a comeback in LA and the Derby, 4500 Los Feliz Boulevard, is the best place to jive - also featured in the film Swingers.

LA is getting a dance club scene, as international DJs start to play there more and more. A former 1920s speakeasy Boardner’s, 1652 North Cherokee Avenue, Hollywood (website: www.boardners.com), is now a state-of-the-art dance club where dancers grind to everything from goth to funk to erotica. For serious style, long queues and sexy dancing (including semi-naked dancers on glass-encased podiums), try Deep, 1707 Vine Street, on the corner of Hollywood and Vine Streets (website: www.deep-la.com). Run by the same man (Ivan Kane) as Deep is the new Forty Deuce, 5574 Melrose Avenue (website: www.fortydeuce.com), a sultry cabaret-style lounge-bar, complete with burlesque. A bit further out in Santa Monica, but equally good, is The Space, at 2020 Wilshire Boulevard.

Comedy: The Comedy Store, 8433 West Sunset Boulevard (website: www.thecomedystore.com), is a good starting point as it features three rooms, which offer a variety of acts, from mainstream to fledgling. In the past, it has seen the arrival of people like Robin Williams, David Letterman, Whoopi Goldberg and Gary Shandling. The Laugh Factory, 8001 West Sunset Boulevard (website: www.laughfactory.com), is a smaller venue where you may see famous names, like Jerry Seinfeld or Rodney Dangerfield, testing out their routines. Groundlings 7307 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood (website: www.groundlings.com) is another premier venue where several Saturday Night Live members (Laraine Newman for example) got their start.

Live Music: The House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Boulevard (website: www.hob.com), features top blues and folk names. It is also committed to hosting rap and hip hop artists - other venues and promoters have tended to shy away from this in more recent years. Harvelle’s, 1432 Fourth Street, in Santa Monica (website: www.harvelles.com) is another good spot for blues.

Top jazz entertainers perform at the packed Catalina Bar & Grill, 6725 Sunset Boulevard (website: www.catalinajazzclub.com). Booking is essential. Another good spot, the Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Boulevard in Culver City (website: www.jazzbakery.com), offers up world-class music every evening.

Two venerable rock clubs, hosting fairly mainstream acts, are The Roxy and Whisky A Go-Go at 9009 and 8901 Sunset Boulevard. The Staples Center, 1111 South Figueroa Street (website: www.staplescenter.com), is the venue for mega-concerts and events, such as the Grammy Awards. Located nearby is the new 7,100-seater NOKIA Theatre, 777 Chick Hearn Court (website: www.nokiatheatrelalive.com), which also hosts well-known bands and award shows.

© 2006 Columbus Travel Publishing Ltd. Disclaimer

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