The bar at Bottega Louie

1.  Bottega Louie – (where the Brooks Brothers flagship store used to be) a very European space, complete with a retail outlet, a patisserie, a restaurant, and a full bar, Bottega Louie is the “talk of the town,” “the entire package,” “an easy place to be happy,” and other quotables easily gleaned from the press page on their blog.  Alternatively, downtown inhabitants will fork out $1.25 for a single cookie, because it really is “that good.”  With a reasonably priced beer and cocktail menu and a house that is packed day and night, Louie is worth it for the post-drinks goodie bag you’ll take home with you. [photo by Anna DeVicariis via Flickr]

2.  The Must Bar – with a kicky name and a website that makes you want to pee as it loads, The Must is a wine bar (that also serves beer and celebrated food) in a warren of specialty bars dotted about the downtown landscape. 

Wine rack at The Must Bar

The creators aimed for a bar that feels like a bar and have created a local flavor with their recurring weekly events that include, ahem, Titties & Wine Tuesdays.  Lest you think this is that kind of bar, return on Sundays for game night when the main events include the more buttoned-up Scrabble and Monopoly. [photo from The Must website]

Outdoors at Casa

3.  Casa – Don’t worry, of course the list includes a Mexican restaurant.  It’s Los Angeles, after all.  Who doesn’t love a plate of greasy nachos after seven Tecates?  Well, you won’t find that exact combination at this very elegant and edgy modular establishment.  It’s divided into casitas, different rooms that have their own special feel and decor, and the entire place joins two of downtown’s larger buildings with its giant patio.  The fare on hand is artfully plated or poured, and happy hours at Casa include drink recipes that read more like magic elixirs than a quick pint after work. [photo from Casa website]

Popular pour at Seven Grand

4.  Seven Grand -One of Cedd Moses’ quad of hip new bars fashioned out of tragic old downtown buildings, Seven Grand is a whiskey bar that encourages patrons to try their whiskey in many ways.  Dark and velvety and often crowded so that you are shoulder-to-shoulder with the town’s hippest folk, this joint is not your dad’s whiskey bar.  But it might smell like your dad after a while, minus the cigarette smoke.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Look out for the resident jackalope when you visit.  Or is it a haremoose?  You be the judge.[photo by pink_fish13 via Flickr]

5.  Cole’s – Another restoration project in the Pacific Electric building, Cole’s is the oldest public taverny space in Los Angeles, lined with red naugahyde booths and saloon lamps.  The Red Car Bar offers up a simple drink menu of wine, beer, and classic and featured cocktails, but an extensive list of – what else? – whiskey.  Cole’s has a special secret bar in the back, for those who want to feel like they’re in the know, all old-fashioned and yes, like a speakeasy.  There’s even the must-have absinthe!  This is one spot worth writing home about.  [photo from Cole's website]

6.  Just next door to Cole’s, in case you decide to create a mini bar crawl on your evening out, is The Association.  In an attempt to provide the residents of downtown Los Angeles with “a proper local bar,” owner Ashely Joyce created a space that could have been lifted from a Bond movie, “with carpeting from a Vegas casino, mirrored ceiling fixtures and sexy banquettes to fit the mood.”  [photo from Angelenic.com]

7.  This one I love for the cheap parking – with validation from The Library Bar, parking is only $5, which IS cheap in this area.  Come to think of it, after a valet told me it was $20 to park outside a club in Hollywood, anything seems cheap to me now.  But I digress.  Have you ever sat in the library, combing through your law school research, yearning for a pint?  Well, the Library Bar, located a block away from the Central Los Angeles Library, has a nice little corner that could answer your prayers of youth.  But now that you’re old, relax, grab a good read, and quaff one of their inventively-titled cocktails, like the Lady Chatterly’s Lover (Hendrick’s Gin, Olive juice, Vermouth, Tabasco).  [photo from Library Bar website]