My Attic, Monterey

In 1972, 35 years after brothers Sam and Coniglio opened up a brand-new bar dubbed "My Attic" in the Casa Sanchez building on Alvarado street, Coniglio gave the bar's last call before it closed. But his grandson Jason brought the family business back from retirement the minute its old space became available again. Today, the clink of cocktail glasses and peals of laughter recall the misty memories of 1937, when a country still fresh off of Prohibition reveled in the right to drink openly or call someone a "knucklehead" without fear of jail time. Guests belly up to the hand-milled oak bar for a potent Ketel One martini or Bulleit Bourbon Manhattan, pairing them with Italian cheese and salami platters, rosemary foccacia bread, or sweet cannoli. Leather easy chairs, however, make it easier to gaze up at the rustic, wood-beam rafters in the stone-floored parlor.