The Bungalow Santa Monica

If you looked up beach bar in a dictionary, Big Dean’s on the Santa Monica boardwalk would have a real shot at the photo: cheap drinks, real bar food, and people-watching the Third Street Promenade crowd never quite finds.

Jay Fiondella bought this place for a reported one dollar in 1959 and opened with showgirls and a circus elephant, which somehow undersold what came next: Rat Pack regulars, a no-photography rule that protected Sinatra and McQueen, the Pentagon Papers allegedly changing hands at Table 10, and an Apollo 14 astronaut who smuggled one of Jay’s peanuts to the moon and back. The sourdough burgers and cheap well drinks have not changed. Neither has the nerve.

Sitting on the actual sand with the Pacific at your feet and the pier in the distance, Back on the Beach makes simple California food and cold drinks feel like the whole point of the day.

The view is free, the cold beer is not, and either way The Waterfront gives you a front-row deck for the endless parade of humanity that is the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

Venice Beach does not do subtle, and Venice Ale House just leans into it, excellent California craft beer with a front-row seat to the most chaotic people-watching on the boardwalk.