Smog Cutter
864 N. Virgil Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
map

Some dive bars have no need for a glowing introduction. They simply exist, and will continue to exist, whether you like it or not. As to charms, the Smog Cutter has too few to mention, it is the antithesis of Hollywood nightlife. We at the World Dive Bar Tour wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Smog Cutter is generally shabby. The neighborhood is dodgy. The customer is most definitely wrong in all disputes. It has decrepit bathrooms. There is a rumor of vermin. And finally, the bartenders exhibit an overbearing insistence on Karaoke participation with a two drink minimum policy - two drinks which are not as cheap as typically found in such establishments. In short, the bar is perfectly bad in the finest divey manner. The only way it could be better (i.e. worse) is if they flaunted basic health and safety laws on a more predictable basis…..

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em,

Travis, host

for The World Dive Bar Tour Executive Committee

Ray "Bones" Barboni: “I’m from Miami-fuckin’-Beach and you wanna show me the ocean, huh? And what about sun, does it ever shine around here, or is this smog around all the time?”
Limo Driver With Sign: “They say the smog is the reason we have such beautiful sunsets.”
Ray "Bones" Barboni: “That’s what they say, huh? What a bunch of fuckin’ bullshit.”
~Get Shorty(1995)

Tattle Tale Room
5401 Sepulveda Blvd.
The City of Culver City, CA 90230
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As with the higher concentration of sweat shops, oil-burning, Toyota pickups, and dollar taco stands, in LA, the preponderance of quality watering holes grows exponentially as one nears the outskirts of the WDBT’s radius. This is no doubt due to the fact that, likewise, Los Angeles seems to be a more appealing place to live, the further you venture from it. Tattle Tale Room is no exception to this rule, quaintly situated abreast the Scarlet Lady (a WDBT favorite) on the southern end of the City of Culver City, which technically isn’t LA to begin with.

Home to neighborhood regulars and cordial to cross-towners, bars like this stay open for decades because they offer something that few drinking establishments in LA can; we at WDBT like to call it class. Karaoke, pool, stiff drinks and a large selection of cheap beers are all part and parcel of this Dive Bar experience; but it’s the patrons that make Tattle Tale Room the joy it is.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM an gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em!

"Cindy, you know by tattling on your friends, you’re really just tattling on yourself. By tattling on your friends, you’re just telling them that you’re a tattletale. Now is that the tale you want to tell? - Mike Brady

Prince O’ Whales
335 Culver Blvd.
Playa Del Rey, CA 90293
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In order for our bi-weekly schedule to coincide with the week of St. Patrick’s Day, WDBT will be in full effect this Wednesday and taking next week off.

Not to be mistaken for the "Prince of Wales," the "Prince O’ Whales," this week’s dive bar, does share some similarity with the heir to the UK throne.

The Prince O’ Whales (POW as the locals call it) is situated, much like the country of Wales, in a small, southwestern enclave of a larger territory, and not unlike Price Charles himself has no official role in government or leadership in the territory. That by no means is meant to downplay the importance of its role in the community.

The POW is virtually the largest center of commerce, camaraderie, and Coors Light in Playa Del Rey. Every night is a royal celebration, and with two large rooms, one on each end with 2 large covered patios in the middle (smoker friendly), the entire community could easily fit inside. Live music regularly blares night after night, and the walls are lined with video game and dart entertainment.

Expect to be treated like royalty here as well. It’s not uncommon to leave the POW on a first name basis with the bartender and the whiskey-soaked septuagenarians at the bar who introduce themselves every time you order a beer.
As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em!

Backstage Bar & Grill
10400 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
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Don’t let this establishment’s proper name fool you. Unlike other "Bar & Grill" establishments you may come across that feature the bar-going atmosphere of an Applebee’s, the "& Grill" portion of Backstage is strictly there to put the face of legitimacy on bar tabs expensed by Sony lot employees from across the street. Here at the Backstage, the motto written across the biker gang tattoo-esque logo is "Dedicated to Pleasure", and once you step through the doors, it’s clear that the pleasure of alcohol consumption is the real focus. That’s not, of course, to minimize the glory of their extensive menu of top-notch pub food, and if you’re lucky, you just might get to witness a Co-Czar chowing down on a row of sliders.

When it comes to treating its patrons right, the Backstage does it right, designating Mondays and Tuesdays as "Regular’s Night" and effortlessly creating a Sam Malone-worthy environment on other days unparalleled in the LA bar scene. Karaoke is offered up 3 nights a week, with the notable exception of Wednesdays. In a town where every dive bar seems to place its karaoke on our night, this offers us a welcome reprieve from "Cheeseburger in Paradise" at a bar that knows Wednesdays are for one thing only: The World Dive Bar Tour. Please join us this week for one of the true gems of the Tour.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM an gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis, WDBT Co-Czars

"Heaven blazing into the head: Tragedy wrought to its uttermost. Though Hamlet rambles and Lear rages, And all the drop-scenes drop at once, Upon a hundred thousand stages, It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce"

- Yeats

Smog Cutter
864 N. Virgil Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
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Step through the curtain into in this legendary Silver Lake establishment, and you’ll promptly be greeted by one of three Thai sisters, eager to check your ID. Don’t worry if you happen to be under age, though, as these ladies wouldn’t hesitate to serve a 12 year old — the thoroughness of ID checking is simply so that they can memorize your name, and call you by it for the rest of the night. Under ordinary circumstances, this level of interest in their bar’s patrons would be considered an exemplary model of customer service, except that the things they’ll be calling you for the rest of the night will not be very nice.

This is the Smog Cutter, after all — embodying either the best, or the worst, of all things dive. The place reeks of mildew, the service goes out of their way to insult you, and the drinks are warm and, surprisingly, a little overpriced given just how dire the surroundings are. But still we on the World Dive Bar Tour Executive Committee not only keep coming back for more, but have granted the Smog Cutter the honor of kicking off our 2010 calendar — a year that will undoubtedly be our best and boldest yet.

Many anecdotes come to mind to sum up all that is the Smog Cutter, from instances of crotch grabbings by the bartenders, to glass-shattering displays of karaoke madness, but it really all comes down to one member of the Executive Committee sitting with her hand on the bar, as a cockroach came scampering over her arm. With a quick "whack!", the cockroach was disposed of by a quick-thinking Czar, but the noise caused Sunshine, the legendary lead bartender, to come running.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Sunshine, "You kill Susie!"

As Sunshine cradled the dead roach in her hand, she took a closer look and, with a sigh of relief exclaimed…

"Ah, don’t worry. It just George."

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM an gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis, WDBT Co-Czars

"You must have known that I was lonely, because you came to my rescue. And I know that this must be heaven, how could so much love be inside of you?"

- Stevie Wonder

Backstage Bar & Grill
10400 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
map

Don’t let this establishment’s proper name fool you. Unlike other "Bar & Grill" establishments you may come across that feature the bar-going atmosphere of an Applebee’s, the "& Grill" portion of Backstage is strictly there to put the face of legitimacy on bar tabs expensed by Sony lot employees from across the street. Here at the Backstage, the motto written across the biker gang tattoo-esque logo is "Dedicated to Pleasure", and once you step through the doors, it’s clear that the pleasure of alcohol consumption is the real focus. That’s not, of course, to minimize the glory of their extensive menu of top-notch pub food, and if you’re lucky, you just might get to witness a Co-Czar chowing down on a row of sliders.

When it comes to treating its patrons right, the Backstage does it right, designating Tuesdays as "Regular’s Night", and effortlessly creating a Sam Malone-worthy environment on non-Tuesdays unparalleled in the LA bar scene. Karaoke is offered up 3 nights a week, with the notable exception of Wednesdays. In a town where every dive bar seems to place its karaoke on our night, this offers us a welcome reprieve from "Cheeseburger in Paradise" at a bar that knows Wednesdays are for one thing only: The World Dive Bar Tour. Please join us this week for one of the true gems of the Tour.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM an gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis, WDBT Co-Czars

"Heaven blazing into the head: Tragedy wrought to its uttermost. Though Hamlet rambles and Lear rages, And all the drop-scenes drop at once, Upon a hundred thousand stages, It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce"
- Yeats

The Gas Lite
2030 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90403
map

Every year America observes Memorial day, a solumn day of rememberance for those brave souls who have fallen in battle serving our country. The World Dive Bar Tour would like to extend the holiday into the week and officially dedicate the following Wednesday to the memory of the great Dives of the Los Angeles that have shut their doors, never again to see the light of a neon beer sign.

In observance of WDBT Memorial Day we visit The Gas Lite, a bar that represents the rest, a place that sets the gold standard of dives that others can only dream of reaching. It’s a place that brings the best characteristics of all dives together into a melting pot of shabby "dive-ersity." It’s one of the greats on the west side that has withstood the test of time and remained a rock in the community, unchanged by the gentrification and modernization of the city.

The Gas Lite harkens back to a day when all bars opened at 6am and men could drink their breakfast to the soft sound of clinking glasses and the crackle of a spinning 45. Today, the glasses have been replaced by cheap plastic cups and the 45 by an internet jukebox and nightly karaoke that is anything but quiet, but doors are still open at the crack of dawn, giving a solid 15 hours to imbibe before the ruckus builds.

In the unlikely instance you should you arrive late Wednesday night only to find yourself standing amongst a lot of gelled hair and popped-collars, we assure you this is only temporary. In the past few years, the Gas Lite has absorbed some of the overflow from trendier bars and clubs in the area, and with that has come a slightly higher douche quotient and the presence of the occasional recreational drug. A WDBTour-goer once recounted finding a small baggy of powder on the floor of the ladies room that may or may not have been cocaine.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you, if the friendly regulars don’t find you first).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis - WDBT Co-czars

Scarlet Lady Saloon
5411 Sepulveda Blvd.
The City of Culver City, CA 90230
Map

In honor of the passing of Valentine’s Day, this week The World Dive Bar Tour proudly visits one bar that will never complain the wilted roses you bought at an onramp to the 405 a few minutes prior to picking her up represented a failure to understand her needs and take the relationship seriously. A bar that will always put out after a nice steakhouse Valentine’s dinner, even if she’s apparently in the midst of experimenting with veganism and claims that she told you about it months ago, but you’re just a bad listener. Obviously, we’re talking about the Scarlet Lady Saloon, in the City of Culver City.

The last visit to the Scarlet Lady is of historical note on the tour, due to the invention that night of the LA Car Chase Drinking Game, wherein every time the chyron on KCAL-9’s broadcast of a speeding late-70s Japanese import is updated to a new Inland Empire municipality, the tour chugs. Given that there are far more municipalities than we initially assumed, and that the Datsun is a deceptively fast vehicle, even with only 3 functioning tires and a disabled woman lodged in the grill, little else is remembered from that night.

Be advised that The Scarlet Lady does take credit cards, so don’t let her near your wallet.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em!

Alex, Damien, & Travis - WDBT Co-czarss

Amagi Night Club
6114 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Map

It’s a new year, and you’re ready to hit the gym, finish that big project in your garage, and, most-importantly, make the next American Idol tryouts. What better way to kick off 2009 than by working on a resolution you have no intention of sticking to?! The Fourth Annual Would Dive Bar Tour starts at Amagi in Hollywood this week, the finest sushi/dive/karaoke establishment east of Highland. Once known for its health department "C" rating, and still known for the mediocre sushi and the Karaoke Ninja of Sunset, who visits every Wednesday to sing November Rain, Amagi is the finest amalgam of Japanese and Hollywood culture.

Situated in the famous "Gower’s Gulch" strip mall between a Subway and Rite Aid, across from a free AIDS testing facility, Amagi’s restaurant and bar are separated by a wall, but that shouldn’t discourage you from bringing your tuna roll to the Karaoke stage. You should also bring a couple bucks to tip the KJ. And if you can’t muster the courage to sing, fear not. Liquid courage at Amagi is affordable, and they take credit.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM and gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you).

Carpe Drink’em!

Alex, Damien, & Travis - WDBT Co-czars

Cosmos Saloon
333 E 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

For those who have followed the ebb and flow of dive bar for many years, the name Cosmos might sound very familiar. Last season, on an ill fated full moon, we attempted to visit this fine establishment. Unfortunately for the intrepid group of dive bar goers that night, on the dutch door of the bar entrance a handwritten note was posted. Written mostly Japanese characters, it was the final line in English which hurt the most. "Bar Close Tonight." Those assembled, who had gathered for the promise of a Japanese pre-’scent of a woman’ Al Pacino bartender, karaoke in languages we can’t even speak, and Suntory Whiskey, found solace in a nearby shady hostess bar followed by a local brewery.

On that night, just like General Douglas MacArthur in retreat from the Philippines in the face of Japanese aggression, we of the WDBT vowed to return.

This week marks the day we make good on that promise, and return to Little Tokyo. Where with the help of a few big bottles of Kirin, we will be belting out Japanese pop songs like regulars, smoking an odd cigarette, swapping stories with the old man who always seems to be firmly planted at the bar, and otherwise raising quite a ruckus. Comfortable with the knowledge that in this Cosmos, yes, we can all be a star. Just remember - no dancing.

As usual, the casual debauchery starts around 9PM an gets really interesting by 10:00. Come for one drink, or stay for one too many. Bring anyone and everyone, and join us for a great time in the middle of the week. If you arrive early or late, look for the people having a damn good time (it’ll be us), or start having a damn good time on your own (we’ll find you, if the friendly regulars don’t find you first).

Carpe Drink’em,

Alex, Damien, & Travis - WDBT Co-czars

"Here we are. Earth. Full of things as usual."

-King of All Cosmos