A. Scattergood

T. Boyle's Tavern

​Now that musicians and nerds are the cool kids and jocks are the villains, liking sports has become distinctly uncool. So where are reasonable people of average coolness supposed to go to share their now-lame passion for twentysomething physical freaks throwing or kicking roundish objects for millions of dollars (or, in some cases, for an "education")? Never fear. For though it may not be cool anymore to talk about sports at parties, concerts, work or school, there is always your friendly neighborhood sports bar.

Traditionally a humble place, with simple (read: fried) food, good beer at decent prices, plenty of TVs and a lively atmosphere, a good sports bar is an oasis of casual fandom, free of pretensions and full of camaraderie and congenial competition. We have scoured this city, watching game after game, making new friends and rivals, pounding nachos and sampling brews to bring you the following list: the 10 Best Sports Bars in L.A.

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Erika Bolden

Happy Hour at City Tavern

​Last week's State of the Union promoted a generally positive economic outlook. If your pocketbook is more cynical about times ahead, you may find yourself defeated by the meager options at your disposal for living well in an expensive city. If you define "living well" as indulging your craft beer habit, rest easy. That's where happy hour comes in.

Happy hour is a golden moment in a beer lover's life. Peak occupancy is hours away, bartenders are available for information and conversation, and if you're in the right place, the beer you adore is cheaper than at any other time. Not every beer bar offers happy hour, but there are a few places where you can get in before crowds and costs escalate and enjoy a moment of beer bliss. Turn the page.

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L. Bakofsky

A Bakofsky Paintings On The Bar At Little Bear

​Beer sommeliers, mixologists, restaurant social media managers. Ah, the "fancy" job titles for new careers in the food world. Not that artists/brothers Andrew and Thomas "Lee" Bakofsky care. They're too busy painting (literally) while they sip a beer. Now that's a good job.

The brothers are known among homebrew geeks as two of the Yeastside Brewers founders. You'll also regularly find Lee behind the bar at Eagle Rock Brewery serving your pints (the shaggy-haired, laid back guy summing up whether to hand you a Solidarity or Revolution tasting glass). What doesn't usually come out in the average pilsner bar chat is that the brothers have long paid their Friday night pub bills as graphic designers. Very good graphic designers. They're even better artists, as so many local craft beer bar owners have come to appreciate.

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Proud Bird

The Proud Bird, Interior

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The Place: The Proud Bird, 11022 Aviation Blvd.; 310-670-3093.

The Hours: Mon.Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-9 p.m.

The Digs: With all the Mustangs and Spitfires scattered outside, from the exterior, the Proud Bird resembles a swollen bed-and-breakfast that has sprouted up in the middle of a World War II battlefield. We get why there's an aviation theme. It's on Aviation Blvd., next to LAX, so close in fact to an approach runway that dining room denizens can see the whites of passengers' eyes as they descend, lodged in their silvery tubes, bracing for the wheels' collision with the bumpy ground.

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Flickr user casenar (left) + Guzzle and Nosh (cocktail)

Portrait Of Oldfield's Jared Mort + The Dauntless Cocktail

​When we called Jared Mort, manager at the recently revamped Oldfield's in Culver City, with a question about a cocktail, the conversation suddenly took a mixology versus Scientology turn. We'll let you ruminate on that for a moment. In the meantime, we found the hauntingly fantastic portrait of Mort by artist Jaxon Northon, above. ("Hahahaha, my friend Jaxon painted that years ago!" was the "Sent from my iPhone" message we got back upon announcing our online find).

Back to those mixology and Scientology parallels, and our chat with Mort about Oldfield's complete bartender overhaul earlier this fall (the bar was formerly known as Saints & Sinners). And yeah, that "Dauntless" pear-ginger beer holiday cocktail recipe.

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Tantalum

The View of the Marina at Sunset

​Lost in a corner between a Loehmann's and an Acapulco, Tantalum is an Asian-jungle-oasis-escape from the SUV-driving hordes at Best Buy, Ralph's, and Sports Authority. As you enter with the less-than-zero expectations inspired by the front façade, you are greeted by a huge, open series of rooms with such spectacular ambience and striking water views of the marina that you immediately want to sell a few screenplays, buy the place, and turn it into a townhome.

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Anne Fishbein

Cut's Japanese and Kobe beef

​In Westlake, there is an establishment called the Silver Platter. The name brings to mind slabs of prime rib served on shining plates with ornate handles. However, if you go, you'll find no beef, just plenty of wriggling flesh on the dance floor. Over on Wilshire in Beverly Hills, there is Cut, Wolfgang Puck's steakhouse and one of Jonathan Gold's 99 Essential Restaurants of 2011. Yet, if you didn't know better, you might show up expecting washboard abs and house music instead of Kobe steak.

Gay bars and steakhouses tend to attract different clientele -- especially in places like Texas -- but naming protocol can be similar. Both often attempt to evoke both manliness and opulence. What's a feller to do if he's seeking one and worrying about accidentally stumbling into the other? Gosh forbid! That's where Steakhouse or Gay Bar? comes in.

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Interior, Circle Bar

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The Place: Circle Bar, 2926 Main Street, Santa Monica; 310-450-0508.

The Hours: Sat.-Thu. 9 p.m.-2 a.m.; Fri. 8 p.m.-2 a.m.

The Digs: The fact that Jim Morrison did some drinking at this downtown Santa Monica mainstay means nothing to us. He would do it anywhere he could, surely never turning up his nose at the opportunity to, at least in spirit, slurp a slushy cocktail at Chili's or even enjoy an overpriced airport beer. From the tattooed female bartenders crowned in trucker hats to the dance floor high-fives, Circle Bar swims in Spring Break tropes, which the Lizard King, considering his prominence on the walls of college dorm rooms, possibly would not have a problem with either.

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The Three Clubs

​It's spicy, it's smashing and it very well could get you smashed. The Three Clubs in Hollywood, made famous by the movie Swingers, has rolled out some fancy new cocktails created by mixologist Joel Black. One of his most popular new drinks is the savory Pepper Smash ($12), which contains lemon, honey, basil, red bell pepper and whiskey. (With its whiskey base, it's traditionally more of a dude's drink, unless you have a name like Calamity Jane.)

"The Pepper Smash is a cocktail very near and dear to me," Black tells us. "It's one of the first savory cocktails I created, and the recipe has transitioned over the years as I have grown as a mixologist."

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lepere/flickr

Interior. Good Luck

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The Place: Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave. (90027)

The Hours: Mon.-Fri. 7 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sat.-Sun. 8 p.m.-2 a.m.

The Digs: "Do you want a Shirley Temple?" our father once said as we walked past the bar area of our favorite Chinese restaurant. We were on the way to our table, but he'd seen us ogling the bar on prior visits. Age-wise, we were still in single digits, but we were already regulars. The restaurant had a Bible-sized menu, plastic covering the red dragon-emblazoned seats and a piano player running through show-tunes in one corner. The restaurant was bright, but the bar, hemmed off to the side, was all shadows and glowing candles. Although we didn't necessarily want a Shirley Temple, the bar called out to us. It was empty most evenings. When it wasn't, a customer would sit alone, an incandescent fruit-studded bauble of glass tipped against his lips, his eyes trained on a game on the television. We didn't know much about alcohol then, but we liked colored liquid, tiny plastic swords and maraschino cherries. Before long, we'd cobbled together a fantasy: football paired with a huge tropical drink we'd have to devour slurp by slurp. Get rid of the television, add a few splashes of self-consciousness (and rum), and you have Good Luck, the Los Feliz bar swaddled in 50-year-old Chinese restaurant cliches.

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