The Galley is a bar in Main Street, Santa Monica.
Editorially verified August 18, 2026 by Lewis Vaughan, TableJourney editor. Source.
Food program: Bar menu
Tip: Sit at the South Seas Bar under the year-round fairy lights; the East Coast littleneck clams are the classic starter.
Address: 2442 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Chez Jay has kept its nautical dive-bar dining room on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica since 1959, a city Historic Landmark of steaks, peanuts and lore.
Signature drink: Martini with free peanuts
Food: Bar menu
Tip: The sandy-floored front room is the landmark bit, designated by the city in 2012; the Backyard patio opened in 2019.
Father's Office on Montana Avenue is the Santa Monica gastropub where Sang Yoon's no-substitutions Office Burger was born, backed by 36 craft taps.
Signature drink: One of 36 craft taps
Food: Bar menu
Tip: No ketchup, no substitutions, 21-plus only; the burger comes one way and the bar means it.
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.
