“A much larger version of its popular Manhattan lounge sibling, this Venice Beach outpost features more than 60 domestic, imported and seasonal beers, along with several dozen wines, ports and sherries. Fashionable young professionals slink into low, velvet-padded benches or fill brushed-steel swivel stools along the long, slate-topped bar; weekends attract 30-something singles scoping out the scene. Abstract art hangs on exposed brick walls and indie rock plays via the bartender's iPod.” Randi Schmeizer
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Westside hipsters, artists and performers finally have a hip wine bar and brewery at which to convene thanks to Craig Weiss, owner of the Otheroom in New York’s West Village, who opened the other Otheroom on Venice’s main drag.
Twice the size of its New York counterpart, with brick walls and high pressed-in ceilings, the dimly lit bar uncorks wines by the glass or bottle (port and sherry, too) and more than 70 beers, from imports to microbrews, in bottles and on tap. There are five seating areas, each of which seems custom-designed for privacy, voyeurism or socializing. But the comfy velvet benches in the oversize windows on Abbot Kinney Boulevard are the best spots to eyeball the architects and tech guys headed to the bar for an after-work drink – and on weekends, the packs of sequin-clad women who come to pounce on the hot, employed architects and tech guys. Even on weeknights, there’s a line out the door (which regulars circumvent). The bar doesn’t serve food, but it keeps menus from every local restaurant that delivers. The bartender will be happy to suggest a vintage to perfectly complement your pepperoni pizza.” Shane McCoy
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