Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 936-7151
www.tombergins.com
Parking: $3.50 valet (only available some days), metered street parking
Monday-Friday, 4-7pm & Saturday-Sunday, 11:30am-7pm; $4.75 well drinks, $4 beers on tap, “award-winning Camelot wines,” and their famous Irish Coffee; Select food items from $3.25-$4.95
It was a dark & stormy night...
I’ve been wanting to check out Tom Bergin’s for some time now. Or maybe it’s Molly Malone’s. Both are Irish bars that sit on Fairfax, north of Little Ethiopia. In fact, I had been planning to visit Little Ethiopia for dinner on a misty Friday night, but traffic looked so bad as I headed south on Fairfax that I literally made a U-Turn in the middle of the street and parked right in front of Tom Bergin’s. Unfortunately, the first meter was broken (aren’t they always?!), but found another soon after.
Walking into Tom Bergin’s feels like walking into an East Coast bar – not that I’ve been to that many of those, for JG & I are Midwestern girls :). But I could easily see a dark sports bar like this, papered in shamrocks with the names of regular bar visitors (including, according to wikipedia, Tommy Lasorda & Kiefer Sutherland), quite at home in a Boston location.
When we arrived around 6:15, the bar was already hoppin’, though not so full that we didn’t have our choice of seats at the bar, where Happy Hour is served. And these bar seats were a little weird, mini-bench seats that can sit 2 people, tethered to the ground. We picked a spot by our pal, JC, who just happened to also pop in Tom Bergin’s before he attended the same movie we were going to see at LACMA.
While JC enjoyed the Astro’s game on one of the five flat-screens, Booze & I enjoyed a couple Black & Tans (for her) and Smoothies/Black Velvet’s (cider & Guiness – for me). We were happy to note that each beer was Happy Hour priced with the other regular tap beers at $4/drink. The bartenders were cute & fit & Irish and only worked the bar, so they sent over a non-nonsense waitress who promptly delivered our $4.95 Wee Burgers with fries (for Booze) and mozzarella & zucchini sticks and ranch & marinara dipping sauces for $3.95. The mozzarella sticks were all right, but zucchini sticks were kinda like really-good awesome.
What I like about Tom Bergin’s is the number of patrons, specifically the healthy young adult male population. Although most were watching sports, I don’t think it’d be unfathomable to interrupt a nice-looking guy’s viewing to strike up a light conversation or ask for the ketchup while doing a “bend & snap.”
I also like that the happy hour runs from 4-7 on Monday-Friday AND also from 11:30am-7pm on Saturday & Sunday. I don’t quite understand why more bars don’t run weekend happy hours, maybe Tom Bergin’s can afford to because it has such a healthy client base – judging by the shamrocks all over the walls & ceiling!
JB & the Ginger's!
--JB
Rating: 5 martinis
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