Kristal G.
Yelp
This is a super great dive bar in Culver City, tucked into a little strip mall that looks pretty much otherwise closed in the evening.
Came here on a Thursday night because I was tired of the MdR happy hour circuit and yelped "dive bar", and here i came.
First impressions: very unassuming, blink and you miss it. a handful of patrons parked absolutely horrendously, often parking over the boundary line so that even though my car could technically slide in, i was unable to get out, or was pretty convinced that the other driver would angrily feel penned in and kick/slam open their door onto my car and so it took THREE different spots before there was enough space for both my car and myself to be able to get in and out (and to be fair, though i'm slightly overweight, i'm not "can't get out of a normal parking spot overweight," just "i should swap out 2 out of 3 happy hours for gym hours and i'd be fit as a fiddle."
i walk in, a youngish, careerish asian lady and felt almost immediately out of place. the majority of the the clientele looked older, wore plaid and hats, watched the Seahawks game, yelling occasionally, and didn't much take notice of me. i felt like a shiny townsperson walking into an saloon from the old west.
but whatever, i sat down at the bar, asked for a bud light, saw it wasn't on tap, and got stella instead. later i saw there was PBR so started drinking those soon after and made myself mighty comfortable. became acquainted with the wildly handsome gentleman next to me, and pretty soon we were having a rollicking-good time, buying each other drinks, chatting about pool and darts, playing Connect Four, commenting on the Seahawks game and other local dive bars, and accumulating these taco tickets and wondering when the tacos would show up. we had started acquiring them at about one ticket per drink starting at 6 pm, and there was a sign that tacos would appear at 7:30 pm. when the tacos failed to drop from the ceiling like oxygen masks out of an airplane, we started to get all suspect until around 8:30 when we spied out of the corner of our eyes a man stuffing his face with tacos and stopping mid air as we gaped in silent wonder. my cowboy companion swung over and exchanged some words then turned and yelled with glee, "the tacos are outside!" and i swung around with the grace of a drunken ballerina and went outside to find a lady manning a mobile taco truck, with at least four different types of meat, hot corn tortillas, and a healthy little stand of salsa, onions, and cilantro. SCOOOORE!
needless to say, i had an amazing time. the bartenders were friendly and kept our drinks filled, the tacos were free and amazing and somehow i had mysteriously acquired like 7-8 of them and i will not turn down a free taco so i stuffed myself. the mystery cowboy became a friend and we exchanged contact information afterward, and there was this pro hustler pool-playing lady that kept us very much entertained and full of peanut gallery commentary. in short, it was the kind of night that dive bar dreams are made of, and fantastic memories were made.
also there is an electronic jukebox with fun tunes for like $1 or so and did i mention a very decent selection of board games to play. i happen to excel at Connect Four, and so i connected four, and once even connected five for good measure.
two words: TACO THURSDAYS.
totally worth your time, your money, your everything.
