Welcome to Happy Hours & Hikes #001

Los Angeles is home to over 10,000 restaurants and over 600 marked miles of hiking trails. My wife and I are embarking on a passion project to document a range of each, but with a simple caveat for restaurants, they must have a happy hour menu. There will be a natural skew to the Westside, but we will make an effort to span the vast Greater L.A. area which encompasses five counties depending on where you draw the imaginary lines. We will attempt brevity, yet not guaranteed.

Happy Hours

Forma

Forma is an upscale Italian restaurant towards the end of Santa Monica’s Montana Avenue commercial district. Normally their pasta dishes start at about $26, but drops to $14 during happy hour (smaller portions). Regardless, the value for the quality of food makes it an excellent choice for someone looking to sample the menu.

HH&H Recommendation: Arancini

Library Alehouse

If you like craft beer and cheap snacks, Library Alehouse is a must. While the full menu is outstanding, Happy Hour starts at $2 with Chips & Salsa then ranges up to $10 for Sliders (2) with a wonderful smattering of Wings, Chef’s BBQ Fries, and bar eats in between.

HH&H Recommendation: Soy Honey Cauliflower

Hikes

Mulholland Drive to Fryman Canyon

It was our first time hiking this trail, and came about in part due to a couple of Google map issues. Regardless, it was a great first hike for this new project. Per AllTrails, it’s an Easy 2.3 miles hike with 406 ft of elevation. We ended up going a bit farther on this out & back with Garmin Connect ending with 2.82 miles, 551 ft ascent, and 1:22:01 total time. Parking was easy, and we were just over the cloud cover for some nice views.

Wrapping up with some housekeeping. As this is our first attempt curating a newsletter, we’ll be aiming to publish twice a month on Thursdays in 2025, and we are always open to comments, feedback, and questions!

Happy new year!

J + L