Father's Office is a bar in Montana Avenue, Santa Monica.
Editorially verified August 19, 2026 by Lewis Vaughan, TableJourney editor. Source.
Food program: Bar menu
Tip: No ketchup, no substitutions, 21-plus only; the burger comes one way and the bar means it.
Address: 1018 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90403
Ye Olde King's Head has poured pints a block from the Santa Monica Pier since the mid-1970s, the British pub whose fish and chips built its name.
Signature drink: Imported bitter on draught
Food: Bar menu
Tip: Afternoon tea is served Monday to Saturday until 16:00 in the tea room; the gift shop bakery sells sausage rolls to go.
The Daily Pint stocks more than 500 whiskies behind a Pico Boulevard dive-bar front in Santa Monica, with sharp rotating taps, pool and shuffleboard.
Signature drink: Whisky flight from 500-plus bottles
Food: Bar menu
Tip: Ask the bartender to steer a whisky flight; the beer list turns over constantly and skews serious.
The Gaslite has held its Wilshire Boulevard corner in Santa Monica since 1962, a come-as-you-are karaoke dive open 06:00 to 02:00 with free popcorn.
Signature drink: Well drink with free popcorn
Food: Bar menu
Tip: It bills itself as Southern California's longest-running karaoke; sign up early because the nightly list fills by 21:00.
Harvelle's books blues, burlesque and soul into a low-lit 4th Street room in downtown Santa Monica, one of the Westside's longest-running music bars.
Signature drink: Whisky cocktail at the stage
Food: Bar menu
Tip: Tickets go through Seat Engine on the venue site; the long-running Toledo Show jazz and burlesque revue owns Sunday nights.
Basement Tavern hides under the 1890s Victorian on Main Street in Santa Monica, a candlelit whiskey bar with live bands packed in most nights.
Signature drink: Old fashioned
Food: Bar menu
Tip: Enter down the side stairs of the Victorian; it gets shoulder-to-shoulder after 21:00 when the band starts.
Big Dean's Ocean Front Cafe has anchored the boardwalk below the Santa Monica Pier since 1902 as Loring's Lunchroom, burgers and buckets on two patios.
Signature drink: Bucket of beers on the boardwalk
Food: Bar menu
Tip: It became Big Dean's in the 1970s; grab a patio rail seat, order the burger and watch the boardwalk crowds.
