Longtime Venice dive bar the Brig has received an interior overhaul on busy Abbot Kinney, with operators Dave and Patti Reiss adding restaurateur Jared Meisler (Roger Room, the Friend, Nueva) to create the third iteration of this storied watering hole. House cocktails like the Bantamweight include passionfruit and aperol with prosecco, though classic shot-and-a-beer options remain on the menu for that friendly neighborhood approachability.

Heidi and Alan Jackson (Lemonade, Jackson’s) are back in the formal sit-down restaurant business with this gorgeous modern steakhouse in a new Playa Vista space. Cocktails veer toward new takes on classics, like a smoked thyme old fashioned and tequila sunrise tinted with beet syrup.

Beverly Hills has a great modern Mexican destination in Mírame, with chef Joshua Gil’s Baja-style fare wowing the ritzy neighborhood with deep-fried snapper and fresh ceviches. The cocktails are also worth checking out, featuring plenty of agave and even Mexican whiskey in refreshing, shaken form.

West Hollywood has a scene-y new Spanish-inflected restaurant with a massive outdoor dining area, plus indoor seating with midcentury modern vibes. Drinks are refreshing and easygoing, like the passionfruit-flavored Weekend in Palm Springs, mixing vodka, lime, orange, and feijoa.

With a Mediterranean-influenced dining room that doesn’t change too much from its days as Jaffa, Theia serves fresh cocktails in space filled with thumping electronic dance music and approachable Greek cuisine.

A massive indoor-outdoor space with a focus on craft beer and large-scale bar games, the former Firestone Building on La Brea serves solid takes on familiar cocktails using quality ingredients, good booze, and well-made ice. Mezcal palomas come from the draft while the sazerac and penicillin are much better than they need to be in a laid back setting like this.

With a gorgeous New York City-inspired space, wraparound bar, and wonderful, colorful drawings, Gigi’s is already the see-and-be-seen place for Hollywood insiders. Drinks by bartender Courtney Rose have a classic look but show more creativity in the glass, like the clementine, grapefruit, and vermouth rouge-infused La Parisienne.

One of the latest interiors from antique-oriented designer Matt Winter, this bar adjacent to West Adams’s Johnny’s is one of the hidden gems of LA’s cocktail scene.

Boyle Heights’s Brooklyn Avenue Pizza Co. is an ode to the cultures in the neighborhood’s history from chef Mario Christerna, who grew up in the area. Christerna tasked bar veterans Lauren Corriveau and Matthew Belanger to construct flavorful drinks like the elote old fashioned or boozy guava-jamaica agua fresca.