Welcome to Happy Hours & Hikes #007

For any new subscribers, 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. For any returning subscribers, thank you so much for coming back, and apologies about the hiatus! We’ll be aiming to publish twice a month moving forward!

Happy Hours

Shirubē

Shirubē is unassumingly located at Wilshire and 4th Ct in Santa Monica. It’s an izakaya, a type of Japanese establishment that serves alcoholic beverages and a variety of small dishes, similar to a pub or tavern. Simply put by one of the waitstaff, Japanese tapas, and while the high price point for regular service had kept us away, the happy hour menu will keep us coming back. The food was absolutely delicious, and we had a lovely smörgåsbord of poke sushi tacos ($3), edamame ($5), sunomono ($5), and a show stopping garlic shrimp ($15). Shout out to AS who met up with us for our second round of ordering. Also, 12oz pours of Sapporo started at $5 with a Tower(3L) at $35, and options of wine as well as sake.

HH&H Recommendation: Garlic Shrimp

Zinqué

Zinqué, a casual French bistro, is a household name amongst Angelenos. There are seven Zinqué locations in Southern California, but I find the Venice location to be the most charming for happy hour.

The spacious restaurant has a bar in the center surrounded by high tops, smaller tables, couches, and coffee tables. Zinqué opens at 7AM and is one of the few places on the westside with reliable WiFi and comfortable seating.

As the work crowd wraps up around 4PM, the HH crowd enters. The HH crowd is quite eclectic: solo diners, first dates, group parties, work drinks and friend catch ups. The menu is just as eclectic as the clientele. My childhood friend, GML, and I caught up on life over white negronis ($12), pineapple mezcalitas ($12, the perfect balance of smoky and sweet), spicy tuna crispy rice, zucchini & goat cheese roman petite pizzas, and marinated olives with homemade focaccia (3 tapas for $22).

We sat in the large outside area (a parking lot turned cozy garden seating) and the waitstaff was attentive and helpful with recommendations. There’s really something for everyone at Zinqué HH!

Hikes

Gizmo Trail

A few weeks ago, we started volunteering with the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force (SMMTF), an activist branch of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter. It was the first “Trail Work” since the Palisades fire, and alongside other agencies like SMMTC and CORBA, it was one of the largest Trail Work events in SMMTF’s history.

A group of more than 40 volunteers spanning multiple generations spent the morning repairing two trails: the fire-damaged Gizmo Trail and routine brush maintenance on Rita Walters Trail, which is outside the burn perimeter. Volunteer work started at 8:30AM and were wrapped up by 12:45PM. With the PCH still closed, it’s still a fairly long ride on the way back to LA, but pretty quick in the morning.

Finally, we sincerely hope that you’ll consider giving directly to a GoFundMe initiative that we shared in our previous newsletters: The Little Red Hen Coffee Shop. You can also donate directly to the LAFD Foundation here.

As this is our first attempt curating a newsletter, we’ll be aiming to publish twice a month in 2025, and we are always open to comments, feedback, and questions!

We love L.A.

J + L