FROM LEFT: Bigfoot West; Alibi Room
RAISE YOUR GLASSES, Culverenos, Mar Vistans and Palmsites: You no longer have to hightail it to Hollywood to hit a hip watering hole. The once nearly flatlined Westside nightlife finally has a firmly beating pulse.
Bigfoot West
You can skip that hike to the wilds of Los Feliz now that Bigfoot Lodge has launched a western companion cabin just above Culver City. Here, wild Westsiders knock back the signature Toasted Marshmallow cocktail (vanilla vodka, butterscotch liqueur, Frangelico and Baileys Irish cream, topped with a flaming marshmallow) amid woodsy walls, getting as stiff as the stuffed critters surrounding them. 10939 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, 310-287-2200; bigfootlodge.com
Alibi Room
This onetime dive bar has been converted into a minimalist hipster haven complete with a to-die-for menu straight from the Kogi truck. The servers are as spicy as the Korean fries, and this watering hole offers that rarest of amenities: a parking lot. 12236 Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, 310-390-9300; alibiroomla.com
Mandrake
This nondescript ex-dive bar has become the gathering place for the eclectic art-gallery crowd painting Culver City’s east end red. It’s a perfect spot for swilling bellinis and deconstructing one of the nearby gallery’s current exhibitionts or for sizing up the living works of art grooving to DJ beats in the bar’s dance space. We may not know art, but we know what we like. 2692 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, 310-837-3297; mandrakebar.com
Carbon
Loud, dark and hot—what’s not to love? The überlow lighting and ultracramped quarters are by devious design: It means you’ve got to groove up close to get a good look at that sexy Westsider funking it up next to you at this diamond in the rough. 9300 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, 310-558-9302; carbonla.com
