It's almost football season! Players are returning to camp, refusing to return to camp, and negotiating contracts as sports bars order extra supplies of wings and beer and hire hotter waitresses. What can you do to celebrate this great American tradition and join in the festivities? Join a flag football team, of course, and get your own game started! One of the biggest leagues in Southern California is Top Gun Flag Football. It's a 5-on-5......

Saturday afternoon on the Pine Meadows Lawn of the Autry National Center in Griffith Park will turn into the site of the "Brew Haw Haw" beer tasting festival to raise money ($50/tix) for the SoCal chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There will be microbrews, food, comedy and bands. And in case you missed it, yesterday's weekly PhiLAnthropist post featured the Skid Row Neighborhood Watch Walk, a Venice Beach clean-up and an event with High......

So this is how the Princeton Review gets press. University of California, Santa Barbara made the Princeton Review's top 20 schools for partying. Coming in at number 9, they also earned a position as the 4th best school for use of hard liquor. Other California schools making some kind of partying (or lack thereof) list was Claremont McKenna College for wide use of beer consumption (#13), UC-Santa Cruz in the "Reefer Madness" category (#6), Thomas......

It's hard to imagine a more un-L.A. cuisine than German food -- it's heavy, it's meaty, it's about as vegetarian-unfriendly as you can get. So how does the Red Lion Tavern in Silver Lake stay so busy? A few reasons, actually: beer. Beer! Also, beer (bier!). The Red Lion has a number of great brews -- pilsners, bocks, weizens, and so much more. These Germans value their beer so much that the interior of......

A redneck, a Hasidic Jew, and Michael Jackson walked into a bar. No punchline here ... just some funny photos. This Saturday a flip cup tournament was held in Hollywood to raise money to fight breast cancer. If flip cup and charity seem like strange bedfellows, well ... yes, they are. Some of the outfits were even stranger. Larry and Cheech's Second Annual Flip for the Love welcomed over 200 do-gooders, with most of the......

Need an activity for your inner philanthropist? Try drinking beer. Larry & Cheech's 2nd Annual "Flip For The Love" is a flip-cup tournament benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Institute and the Vail Valley Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation. It's going down this Saturday in Hollywood. Teams of four pay an entrance fee of $80 (individuals can enter for $25 each), which includes all beer for the tournament. Spectators can enjoy the madness for $7 and additional......

Neptune's Net Seafood Restaurant in Malibu is a biker hang. But that doesn't mean you have to be one to enjoy crab and fried scallops (unless, Malingering, who took these photos, is living a secret life as a biker). Need more options? A little closer to home? Check here. Submit your Eye Nosh food 'porn' photos and mini-reviews to LAist via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr.......

Try hard and you might get this hang loose feeling from checking out the Hawaiian Fest in Northridge Photo by bhollar via Flickr Annual Northridge Ho Olau lea (Hawaiian Fest) Say Aloha to the the 50th state with a taste of the food and fun of Hawaii. Lots of Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts, vendors with all sorts of goods, fresh floral leis, loads of food (shaved ice!!!!), and beer. Luckily it won't be......

A reader commented in today's Tonight in Rock asked about bringing booze to the Hollywood Bowl to this weekend's The Cure show. "Please enlighten me about the Hollywood Bowl's BYOB policy... I've read that is only allowed at LA Philharmonic events and not 'leased' events. BUT I saw plenty of people with booze when I was there for the Jay-Z show. Trying to decide whether to bring stuff tomorrow for the cure... thoughts?" The reader......

There is a city in California called Weed, "named for a man, not a plant. Abner Weed was a lumber baron who served as a state senator from these parts a century ago," writes Eric Bailey of the LA Times. One local business owner, Vaune Dillmann of Mt. Shasta Brewing Co., put a double entendre joke-slogan on the bottle caps of his Weed Ales: "Try Legal Weed." The federal government doesn't like that and wants......

Photo of a burger from The Counter by Malinger/LAist There's two bits of good news and one part bad. First, the good: The Counter, of Santa Monica make-your-own-burger fame, is opening a location in Studio City at Laurel Canyon and Ventura Blvd. It was supposed to open this past Winter, but due to stringent health code standards and rumored pressure from future competitors making it harder for them to start business, the opening of......

Cell phone photo by LAist News Editor Andy Sternberg Found yesterday morning on the 101 south on-ramp at Glendale Blvd. Sign #1: "Honk if you Drink" Sign #2: "'Will work for Beer" Thank you Caltrans, thank you.......

One of Los Angeles' best, and perhaps the most inventive, vegan restaurants is Pure Luck. Located in the unofficial Bicycle District, also casually known as Hel-Mel (for its Melrose and Heliotrope location), the restaurant, simply put, serves up pub food and micro beer. Above, LAist Featured Photos contributor sadjeans shares these jackfruit tacos, which LAist can confirm as delicious. Instead of tofu, jackfruit is a staple ingredient at Pure Luck and also makes an......

Photo by nailmaker via LAist Featured Photos So maybe some of you kids have it easy when it comes to eating green: you're a vegetarian or vegan, you don't eat dairy, and you shop at your local farmer's market every week. You probably bike a lot and never talk on your cell phone while you're driving. Congratulations, you're our editor! But for the rest of us mortals, the recent explosion of articles and blog......

Last night Father's Office II in Culver City* Los Angeles finally opened to the thirsty and hungry, but mostly thirsty, masses. It was supposed to be a soft opening but word got out and the bar/restaurant filled up right quick. A line formed outside the front door but patrons who finally made it in said the wait wasn't too bad, just about 15 minutes.......

Hey, there, beer fans! The word is out on the street, Father's Office II in Culver City finally opens its doors tonight! You heard me. Rumors say 5pm. Our coverage of the preview party probably left you wanting more but starting tonight you get to see it for yourself, taste the gastropub fare goodness for yourself, choose from what looks to be a gazillion beers on tap and guzzle, I mean, savor, for yourself.......

Songkran is the celebration of the Thai New Year. It falls on or around the hottest day of the year in Thailand, and, perhaps as a show of sisterhood, this Sunday's Songkran Festival held in LA's Thai Town neighborhood, took place on what certainly felt like the hottest day of the year...thus far. LAist was looking forward to the 5th annual gathering on Hollywood Boulevard between Vermont and Western, and while some of us strolled......

What's currently a 2-cent tax on beer could be 30-cents if one zealous freshman San Jose politician gets his way in the state assembly (that means that a barrel of beer would go from $6.40 to $89, and that's just the tax). Democrat Assemblyman Jim Beall introduced the idea on Thursday saying that it "would generate $2 billion a year to fund health care services, crime prevention and programs to prevent underage drinking and addiction,"......

All right, you alchie lads and lassies, your day is near, the one time of the year where the bars open up for breakfast and people won't look at you twice for having a little whiskey with your morning cuppa. Take the day off so you can start drinking early to beat the mad crowds and avoid the long lines. These Irish pubs can accommodate your pre-dawn cravings as they open up in the......

National Strawberry Day. Go for it. And a fun event for you strawberry lovers is coming up on May 17 & 18th -- the 25th Annual California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard. Strawberry Beer! You can't beat that now, can you? This beer is specially made for the festival only. Photo by Paraflyer via Flickr.......

In anticipation of their March 4 album debut, What Made Milwaukee Famous will be in LA for five shows this week | Photo by Cambria Harkey As usual on Mondays, it's a big residency night in Los Angeles. Lots of free shows or, at least cheap ones, to pick from. Outside the residency radar, Buddyhead is throwing a belated Christmas party tonight at La Cita. Santa Casper will be there for you to sit......

Fie upon those who wish downfall upon the Westside! We shall smite thee with our flaming elven sword. (That's how we talk to LAist staffers who aren't behaving; nothing whips a writing team into shape like a little dangerous elf talk.) We will now stop being nerds and give you incentive to visit the Westside. Here are some more happy hour specials that'll make you wish you lived on the beachier side of life.......

Barney's Beanery gets rocks the vote. Kind of. RED, WHITE AND BEER If you didn't get enough beer yesterday, Barney's Beanery in Santa Monica is hosting a "Super Tuesday Countdown Beer Vote" today and tomorrow. Alcoholics Drinkers vote for their favorite candidates by choosing which tap to draw their $3 beer from. They'll be serving up plenty of Hillarys and Obamas for sure. A running total will be announced as the votes are tallied.......

Is it still raining? Seriously? Sigh. Since the wet weather is making me loathe to venture very far away from my office, here's a few happy hour spots in Hollywood that were recommended by reader Klodi B. (Okay, and one in Highland Park, but whatevs.) Anyway, she emailed me with her animal-themed picks. I like emails. I like 'em a whole lot, especially when they are all about cheap booze. Or animals. I'm not......

Nudar is GPS software for strip clubs that you can download into your existing gps unit. God is great, right? So if you are on a business trip and need boobies and blow toot sweet, you no longer have to have that awkward conversation with the concierge! I am so not even being a judgemental dick about this--When I read about Nudar earlier this week I actually thought "How in then name of vaj reconstruction......

It’s always a special day at the racetrack--really, it is--and this Saturday at Santa Anita Park is no exception. In addition to the usual characters, inventive cussing and sweet horse action, the kinda bimonthly KROQ microbrew fest is happening in the infield. The 20 or so local breweries will be featuring their favorite beers in 7 oz. sizes for $2.50. And this is all in addition to the main event, which is the Sunshine......

Dudes, it's raining, I know, but that doesn't mean there's still not cheap booze to be found in this city tonight! Here's a few more we managed to dig up this week -- send your secret spots and recommendations my way at carrie@laist.com. Kung Pao Kitty, Hollywood, 3pm - 7pm everyday: Need more, uh, kitty in your diet? Try $3 appetizers like lettuce cups, chicken wontons, and fried tofu, plus $3 drinks. Lucky Devil's,......

I know you haven't been to Gambrinus on the Redondo Pier and had their "Russian style hamburger" called belashi, which they describe as meat-filled fried bread. IF you have, skip this post... But if you haven't then what are you doing wasting your time with these stupid American hamburgers?! Seriously though, people who think they are "in the know" rant and rave about how wonderful it is at Naja's, which is located about 2......

One of the most recent additions to the panoply of nightspots in Los Feliz is Sgt Recruiter, located on the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard that I think of as Wacko-Adjacent. Split off from Cobras & Matadors (it was the private room on the left when you entered), also under Steven Arroyo’s management, and named in homage to a wine bar in Paris, Sgt Recruiter has room for patrons to sit at 14 comfortable stools lined......

In business since summer and reviewed then by LAist, The York is a gastropub in Highland Park located in the same spot that once housed The Wild Hare and before that, The Dragon. Looking nothing like its more quaint predecessors, The York offers drinks and food to the Northeast LA neighborhood in an updated, contemporary style. When business partners/owners, Ryan Ballinger and Gabe Byer took over the space, they tore out the old wood paneling......