Looking for the best bars and nightlife in Culver City? This walkable Westside city has a stylish, fast-growing nightlife scene of craft-cocktail bars, breweries, and rooftops in its revitalized downtown. This local guide covers Culver City’s nightlife scene, the best neighborhoods to go out in, the kinds of bars the city does well, and how to find where locals actually drink.

Culver City’s nightlife scene

Culver City’s nightlife has boomed with its downtown revival — it’s now a genuine Westside going-out destination, with craft-cocktail bars, breweries, wine bars, and rooftops packed into a compact, walkable footprint. Downtown and the Arts District are the hubs, and the scene skews trendy and design-forward rather than club-heavy.

Best neighborhoods for bars & nightlife in Culver City

Downtown Culver City (around the Culver Steps and Main Street) is the walkable heart for cocktail bars, restaurants-with-bars, and rooftops. The Arts District along Washington and Helms Avenue adds breweries and trendy independents, and the Ivy Station area near the Expo Line has newer spots. For how these areas compare, see our guide to the best neighborhoods in Culver City.

What Culver City does well: bars, breweries & more

Culver City does craft cocktails, breweries, and rooftop-and-patio bars especially well, in a walkable, trendy setting. It’s a stylish, food-and-drink-focused scene rather than a late-night club district.

What to know about going out in Culver City

Downtown and the Arts District are genuinely walkable — park once and stroll, or take the Expo Line (which connects to Santa Monica and DTLA). The scene is trendy and fills up on weekend evenings; reservations help at the buzzier spots.

Where Culver City locals actually drink

The best bars change constantly — the hot new spot, the beloved dive, the patio that’s perfect right now — and the honest picks rarely match the tourist lists. On Neighborhood Nurturers’ Culver City community, real Culver City neighbors share where they genuinely go out. Planning a night out? See our guide to the best things to do in Culver City too. Join your Culver City neighbors free and get real nightlife recommendations →

Where this fits in Culver City

The best bars here reflect the neighborhoods around them, so where you drink shapes the whole evening. The picks in this guide make the most sense once you know how Culver City is laid out. the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook and the Culver City Stairs sit at the center of where locals actually spend their time, so planning a great night out around one of them rarely goes wrong. When you want something calmer, the Ballona Creek Trail pulls you away from the busiest blocks, and the historic downtown is the kind of spot regulars mention but visitors miss. Anchor your plan to one of those and the rest of the day in Culver City tends to fall into place.

More Culver City guides

Culver City rewards people who dig a little deeper. These related guides map the same neighborhoods from different starting points: Best restaurants in Culver City, Date ideas in Culver City, Things to do in Culver City — enough to plan a whole day or two.

Ask a Culver City neighbor

The best tips never make the guidebooks — they come from neighbors who know which spot is worth it this week. That is what the Culver City community on Neighborhood Nurturers is for. Ask Culver City locals what they would do, or join free and get honest answers from people who actually know Culver City.

Frequently asked questions

What is the nightlife like in Culver City?

Stylish and fast-growing — craft-cocktail bars, breweries, wine bars, and rooftops packed into a walkable downtown and Arts District, trendy rather than club-heavy.

Where are the best bars in Culver City?

Downtown Culver City around the Culver Steps and the Arts District along Helms Avenue are the walkable hubs for cocktail bars, breweries, and rooftops.

Where do locals go out in Culver City?

Locals favor the walkable downtown and Arts District cocktail bars and breweries — Culver City neighbors share their picks in our community.

Sports bars in Culver City

The definitive one is Joxer Daly’s at 11168 Washington Boulevard — a classic Irish pub that has been the city’s matchday hangout for years. It shows up properly for football and soccer, with plenty of screens and, more importantly, a crowd that actually watches rather than glancing up between conversations. It is open until 2am every night, from 11am on weekdays and 10am at the weekend, and it is dog-friendly. If you want to watch a game with people who care about it, this is the address.

Breweries and craft beer

Culver City is not a brewery town in the way that Torrance or Inglewood are, but the beer here is better than its reputation. LA Ale Works at Ivy Station (8840 National Blvd) is the local brewery presence, sitting in the mixed-use development beside the Metro station — which makes it the one you can reach without driving. 33 Taps covers the wide-tap-list end.

The best craft beer list in the city, though, belongs to a restaurant: Father’s Office has been in the Helms Bakery Building since April 2008, and chef Sang Yoon’s Culver City room pairs a deep, seriously curated tap list with the burger that made the name. It is spacious with substantial outdoor seating, and plenty of locals go for the beer alone.

Worth knowing before you plan around it: Smog City has announced a taproom and kitchen at Culver Commons, but it is slated for early 2027 — it is not open yet, whatever some listings suggest. If you want a full brewery crawl, the Three Weavers and Torrance breweries are a short drive away rather than in the city itself.

Wine bars and a quiet drink

For wine rather than beer, Bacari pairs small plates with a lively patio and is the easiest place to start an evening. Folks Pizzeria at 3273 Helms Avenue built its original reputation partly on a tight natural-wine list, and it is a genuinely good place to drink a glass even if pizza is not the plan. Bianca has a dining room and patio that work for a drink alongside the Italian, Argentine and French cooking.

The most atmospheric drink in Culver City, though, costs nothing to walk into: the lobby bar of the Culver Hotel at 9400 Culver Boulevard. The hotel opened on 4 September 1924, was built by city founder Harry Culver, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and housed much of the cast of The Wizard of Oz during filming. You do not need to be a guest.

Bars in downtown Culver City

Downtown drinking here is patio-and-happy-hour rather than late-night. The restaurants around the plaza at The Culver Steps all run happy hours, Laurel Grill sits at the top of the Steps, and the Culver Hotel is directly opposite. The advantage of drinking downtown is that you can walk between all of it and then take the Metro E Line home from Culver City Station — about 26 minutes to 7th Street/Metro Center, trains roughly every 15 minutes. Our downtown Culver City guide maps the whole core.

One correction worth making, because stale listings still carry it: The Cannibal Beer & Butcher at 8850 Washington Boulevard is shown as closed, and that address is now Bianca. Bar Bandini, which turns up on some Culver City lists, is in Echo Park and not here at all.

Which bar for which night

• Watching a game: Joxer Daly’s, open to 2am daily.
• Serious craft beer: Father’s Office at Helms.
• A local brewery you can reach by train: LA Ale Works at Ivy Station.
• Wine and small plates: Bacari, or Folks for natural wine.
• Atmosphere and history: the Culver Hotel lobby bar.

Happy hour, timing and getting home

Happy hour in Culver City is a genuine institution rather than a token discount, largely because of the studio and office population that empties out at six. The window is typically late afternoon into early evening on weekdays, and the plaza restaurants are the densest concentration of it. The practical consequence is that the best value drinking here happens early, and the rooms that are pleasantly busy at 5:30pm are packed and loud by 8pm on a Friday.

Getting home is the part Culver City does better than most of the Westside. The Metro E Line runs from Culver City Station at the edge of downtown, so an evening built around the plaza or Ivy Station genuinely does not need a car. If you are driving to Helms or Washington Boulevard instead, both have parking, and the usual advice applies — park once and walk between places rather than moving the car.

To turn a drink into a night: the restaurants guide covers dinner, the pizza guide covers the Helms block, and the date ideas guide puts it together.