Where else in the world (besides the other Beauty Bars in San Francisco and New York) can you get a manicure and a martini at the SAME TIME? This bar has been hip since its inception and the cowd hasn’t slowed down. A typical Friday will find you pushing past Hollywood hipsters for reasonably priced drinks and fighting for a seat in one of the vintage hairdryers—all to pulsating 80s tunes including, yes probably Journey. This place is worth it for the neat decor, but you might as well stay for a drink. Like you have something better to do!

Well, this place sure sounds delicious, doesn’t it? Evoking sweet and sour scents of smooth tequilaey warmth, the actual Velvet Margarita Experience is slightly less comforting.

With a dining room on one side of massive dividing wall and the bar safely relegated to the other side and the patio, this place is massively cozy. However, the flaming red heart decor theme is a little offputting and the giant pinata overhead is a permanent fixture that can’t be pinpointed as kitschy or cheesy. As a matter of fact, I’m not even sure if this place is cool, but everyone inside seems to think so, and that’s really all that counts. Right?

Since 2000, this somewhat miniscule by L.A. standards live music venue has played host to thousands of shows. Now boasting a full bar and acts ranging from local nobodies to…Mandy Moore? it’s far from miniscule in terms of the scene. Some people would probably even say it IS the Cahuenga scene. You know, like those people who are really into music. The ones with the band t-shirts who know the difference between a Marshall halfstack and those orange amps that you have to have specially made. Ok, now I have no idea what I’m talking about. The Hotel Cafe is pretty cool though. And no, it’s not a hotel OR a cafe, just to be clear.

Amongst the haunts of hipsters and club hoppers on Cahuenga is The Burgundy Room. Cheap and less then well appointed, it draws a crowd with rougher edges, though their images are probably just as cultivated, if with a lower price tag. Punks and punk wannabes and just plain old barflys hang out at the old school Burgundy Room, lamenting the demise of Real Hollywood in favor the The Real World Hollywood. Dark and small with the potential to be loud and packed, this place is Not Like The Others.

Supper Club suggests something more old school that this hyper-Zen restaurant/club really is. Rather, ritual is a young Hollywood hotspot that will let the riff raff in to party with the beautiful people if they sit down to dinner in a separate room first. Pricey and exclusive, it’s a place to see and make the scene. Or is that A scene? I can never remember, so I usually aim for both.

A personal favorite that brings back memories of indigestion and video golf. Loud, crowded, greasy, smelly and just generally a good time: it’s like a frat party you have to pay for! If you don’t make it this far south on Saturday night, check it out Sunday morning for the Build Your Own Bloody Mary: a simple concept that is ultimately GENIUS.

Rock candy adorns the walls of this aptly named Cahuenga club. Not as Hotspot as its neighbor Ritual, it’s often the fall back for those who can’t get in across the street. But it’s not as cool and its not any cheaper. I’ve also heard some horror stories about the bouncers. It’s all hearsay, but why risk it? It’s called Sugar, it’s made of Sugar, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it sweet.

This bar used to be so hip it didn’t even want to be associated with CAHUENGA. The only entrance was off of an alley in the back. But those days are over and they now sport a sign, just like everyone else (though theirs is decidedly smaller) and a bouncer outside, just like everyone else (though theirs did seem a little bit bigger…). The Room may be a little more exclusive than a place like beauty bar, but inside everyone is still getting drunk. I think. I don’t know, I don’t really remember.

Another L.A. bar that no doubt wants to draw descriptors like Old and Hollywood and Glamour (preferably all three lined up together), Citizen Smith stands proudly right next to the Velvet Margarita. It doesn’t need to shout about its existence with an electric pink sign or hide with a tiny number next to a recessed door. Something about this bar is confident in its ability to be classy and swank but not pretentious, like a girl in a pencil skirt and flats.

Inside, it’s a little less inviting than the dive bars some people (ahem – me) are accustomed to, but the earthtones that dominate and the juxtaposition of classic accouterments like gothic candelabras with modern touches like light fixtures silk-screened with faces is interesting if not cozy. Yeah, you will probably run into a douchebag or 6, especially on the covered patio in the back, but at least they’re trying to be classy.

-Goa’s url makes this Indian-themed restaurant/bar out to be a supper club like Ritual (goasupperclub.com) but the lackluster website makes it out to be some kind of Indian-themed bar mitzvah from 1999. I guess that Goa isn’t making enough profit from their Japanese menu (I personally don’t want to eat sushi while I’m surrounded by Indian decor, but that’s probably me being close minded) and bottle service to hire a decent web designer. Goa aspires to be Ritual, but doesn’t seem to have made it there just yet.-

Update (8.26.08): Apparently Goa has been shut down, probably forever. GillianS is right again.