The New Hotspot - Beechwood

822 W. Washington Blvd., Venice, CA 90292 (at Abbot and Washington)
T: (310) 448-8884
BAR MENU: 6pm-11pm Tues-Sat, 6pm-12am Sun-Mon
www.beechwoodrestaurant.com

Beechwood is the new spot that's still relatively unknown enough to make you seem cool if you know about it. While they don't have a Happy Hour, I'm including it to let you know just how cool I am.

The decor is straight out of the Design Within Reach catolog. The space is hipster cool, perfect for the Westside trustfund kids who wear ripped jeans and brooding expressions. The lighting is nice and moody, and the outside patio has a fire pit that makes it ideal for friendly gatherings. I foresee this becoming the new Birthday joint.

We only spent time in the bar area, so I have no idea what the back restaurant is like. The latest craze with food these days is small wannabe tapas dishes, which is certainly the case with their bar menu. We had the shittake mushroom broth and the marinated skirt steak and frites, which sounded good on the menu but tasted like a large guinea pig salt lick. The food was SO salty, I had to down my vodka tonic and a glass of water to regain feeling on my tongue. My cohort loves salty food, and it was too salty for HIM. Of course, this may not be the fairest evaluation of their food based on two plates, but it was enough to make me never want to pay for their over-priced bar menu again. I feel like I'm still retaining water from my visit two weeks ago.

My summation of this joint: come here to have an after dinner drink with your date, he/she will be impressed. It's a nice place with good ambience to ease you into some date night sucky face. The dessert menu sounds divine and I might try something if I come back, but the food is on my blacklist unless someone forces the pressed pulled pork sandwich down my throat and I actually like it.

I think the run-off from the Shane crowd will make this place their new hangout. It's a little bit Hollywood with that Westside cool factor. We were sure John Stamos was sitting at the bar - it's that kind of place.

Beechwood gets:
Food: 3 shots out of 10
Drinks: 7 shots out of 10
Booty Potential: 7 shots out of 10
Ambience: 8 shots out of 10 (more if you can get a couch)
Overall: 6.8 out of 10