Bars in Maywood

Behind its brick storefront, The Crush Bistro & Wine Bar presents visitors with the opportunity to sample wine from around the world. Pendant lights throw their glow across a towering case filled with stacks of wine and miniature ships waiting to dock in an empty bottle. However, rather than having bartenders manage the sizable stock, 16 self-serve dispensers pour tastes and glasses of reds and whites, letting visitors sample several options to pair with the tapas menu. Small plates create landing sites for smoked Norwegian-salmon crostini and beef-short-rib sandwiches, and the bistro's chefs also cook veggie options such as Asian-style summer rolls that wrap marinated tofu with lettuce and cabbage.

Gone are the days of lazy bar burgers built on beer-soaked buns and soups infested with over-salted peanuts. The cooks at 6740 hand-build custom creations for the people who nest in the place's cozily swiveling bar stools or seek shelter in the pub's sturdy red and gold wall seats below a soothing incandescent glow of booming jukebox tunery. Because any swimming pool needs pool toys, you can fill your stomach pool with fresh fare like garlic, thyme, and rosemary-marinated grilled herb potatoes ($5.95); signature Buffalo wings in spicy, regular, teriyaki, or barbeque sauce ($6.95 for a dozen); and 8 oz. Flatiron steak sandwiches ($10.95).

The unassuming red brick building in the alley behind the Ice House in Pasadena may not look like much, but inside lies T. Boyle's Tavern—a no-nonsense two-level pub with a polished beer menu, hearty eats, 13 flat-screen TVs, and one 8’x10’ jumbo TV. The TVs flicker with the NFL Sunday Ticket’s games or broadcast USC and UCLA teams as they shoot a basketball, throw a football, or punt a volleyball. Nearby, a huge stone tiki head perched on the rough brick wall overlooks live bands as they belt out classic rock covers, blues, or ’80s hits.

Tall, round bar tables next to old wooden barrels hoist buffalo wings, pastrami burgers, and fish tacos that pair with dozens of bottled or draft craft beers, including tasty suds from Bear Republic, Rogue, Sierra Nevada, and Port Brewing. When regulars aren't sharing laughs over beers or frantically trying to answer trivia questions, they can head over to the dartboards or shuffleboard and pool tables.

Of all the things a bar could be well known for, eggs might be low on the list. At Baddeley's Pourhouse, however, pickled eggs become unlikely stars, especially when washed down with iconic crimson, blue, and silver cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon. As patrons cluster in choruses of clinking cans and glasses, games flicker to life on seven high-definition televisions, which helped earn the tavern the No. 3 spot on CityVoter's list of Best Sports Bars in 2011. In a neon halo, a computerized jukebox spills out tunes and secret aspirations of becoming a food replicator on a starship missions. The cinnamon-hued felt of the pool table washes into the colors of red-topped bar stools, where customers perch as they order from the daily specials or discuss forming a synchronized swimming team for sponsorship by the alehouse.

Trees play an important role at Bar Food. They've given their wood for the knotty rafters that support the ceiling, the cubbyholes that make up the bar's Wall of Taps, and the barrels that aged the gastropub's collection of more than 200 whiskeys. You'd expect wood to frame the colorful paintings of music icons that gaze down on the whiskey list with immovable looks of envy, but they hang frameless.

Like a 19th-century dockworker's shopping list, the menu promises hearty traditional public-house fare—fries, cheese plates, sandwiches, shepherd's pie, beef stew, and fish and chips. Guests sup on these and other dishes at cozy wall-length booths or out on the streetside patio. Four and 20 taps keep beer glasses full and diners happily cheering for every chicken that dares to cross Wilshire Boulevard.

A person's choice of drink says a lot about them, though admittedly not as much as the fact that they're drinking it from a handmade amphora carved from the crystal skull of a hippogriff. Today's grapey Groupon lets you ooze sophistication and effortless worldliness from every pore without requiring immediate medical attention. For $20, you'll get $40 worth of pours and plates at Versai The Wine Bar, a Euro-like hot spot in Yorba Linda that specializes in rare sips, small plates, and nightly re-creations of Hannibal crossing the Alps using shadowpuppets. Versai The Wine Bar is open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.