Sharkeez had everything – great music, sports, those awesome surf videos, fantastic food and strong, creative drinks served in big plastic buckets. To many, the original Sharkeez (where FishBar is now) was not just a great locals’ watering hole, it was a drinking landmark. Lively bartenders helped make the original Sharkeez a favorite spot for locals. The Original Sharkeez, Manhattan Beach The party at Sharkeez, one of the all-time top bars in the Beach Cities. It was at its peak in the early mid 80s.ģ). Long-time locals fondly remember Beach Bum Burt’s bar. The roof opened up and there was a catwalk around the top where you could look down on the action, then go dive in it yourself. It had excellent coconut shrimp & mahi mahi.īut on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, the singles swarmed in and it turned into one of the South Bay’s all-time great pick-up bars. Located where the Cheesecake Factory is now, Beach Bum Burt’s was a nice and classy Hawaiian restaurant and bar. It was located where the upscale Strand House now sits, quite the contrast! Its prime time was from the 70s, thru the 80s and into the very early 90s. It pretty much only served beer but that was enough to get people buzzed, often until well into Monday.
But on the seventh, its upstairs patio was full of sunshine and every single person who was smart enough to get there before 3, Sundays at La Paz was a weekly ritual. Probably the wildest of them all, this was a dark dive bar six days a week.
Future articles will be on the Top 10 Sunday Bars and Best Current Bars, Top Bars With Speciality Drinks and whatever else we can think of to celebrate the rich history of nightlife in the Beach Cities. This is the first of many stories on historical drinking landmarks in the South Bay. They are the wildest, most fun, best pickup places and best hangouts in the history of the South Bay. This list went through many changes and placement adjustments, but this is what our team of South Bay experts – veterans of the bars – deemed to be the most worthy establishments. This is the best of the best in Hermosa, Manhattan and Redondo Beach. "We hope the new building owner will give us the chance to sign a market value lease and allow us to keep this historic bar a space where everyone is welcome.Hermosa, Manhattan & Redondo Beach Drinking Landmarks The party crew gathers at the original Sharkeez before a Jimmy Buffett concert.Īfter personal experiences, consulting with several others – over drinks, of course – and running down memory lane, has assembled a list of the Top 10 iconic bars of all time in the South Bay Beach Cities.
"We have the funding, resources and talent to make The Stud a profitable, successful business," said co-op spokesperson and drag queen VivvyAnne Forevermore. The newly formed 15-member Stud Collective is made up of drag queens, performers, DJs, bartenders and LGBT business leaders, all of whom have business skills in areas such as bar and restaurant management, public relations, accounting, historic preservation, arts funding and land development. McElhaney, who has owned the bar for 25 years, announced last month that he planned to sell the bar after learning of a 300 percent rent hike. "If these awesome folks can't make it work, no one can." "I've made the choice to move forward with transferring ownership of the bar to the Stud Collective based on the diverse, multitalented, qualified group that they represent," bar owner Michael McElhaney said Thursday in a statement. SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - The Stud Bar, a 50-year-old gay bar in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood threatened with closure because of a rent hike, will be sold to a collective that plans to run it as a co-op, the bar's owner said Thursday.