I'm going to Ballast Point!

it's not on the "Sunset Strip" area you're thinking of

 

gonna be a really rude awakening when he gets there and thinks "this is it? the famous sunset strip? Where are all the fancy restaurants, lounges and good looking people?"

 

hey, we have good looking people on the East side. but yeah, that area of Sunset is definitely more diverse

 

I personally think Mohawk Bend is in a great area. Echo Park/Silver Lake have a bunch of good/funky restaurants. Not far from Koreatown for more great food and Mohawk Bend is pretty $. My wife loves the food at Mohawk; I could take it or leave it.

 

Sure, but the OP talked about it being on the strip. Very very different dynamic

 

Surprised to not see this one mentioned yet.

El Segundo Brewing Company is fairly close to LAX. If you like hop forward beers, this one is worth a stop.

 

If going to Ballast I highly recommend swinging by Alesmith to check out their new digs, they also usually have about 2-4 specialties on including something on cask.

Also directly in the area is Duck Foot. A little lesser known, but I mean if you're in the area you can just walk over there and grab their double white or porter (at least those are my 2 favorites from them).

 

There are bottles hitting stores now. Saw a post by Mr. K's yesterday.

 

Mike --
I just did a birthday trip to SD with my wife last weekend. I love Sculpin and went to the BP Little Italy location. We really had a good time there and the fresh Sculpin was magical. And I liked the fresh Grapefruit Sculpin more than the canned stuff we get here in Texas. Also went to MT, Alpine, Societe, and Stone and had great beer at all of them. But I sure don't regret going to Ballast Point.

 

One nice thing about hitting BP Little Italy is that it is immediately across the street from Bottlecraft, which not only has a good collection of bottles for sale (especially for the visitors), but often has some interesting stuff on tap.