Hitting a Brick Wall
Chicago-Style Restaurant and Lounge in Culver City

As for that saying "go big or go home," well, you always go big...but you rarely go home.

So you're always on the lookout for a standout establishment that can handle all your away-from-home needs, be they raucous happy hour, casual dinner date or unadulterated balcony blowout. Maybe even all in the same night.

Turn promptly onto Rush Street—the cavernous Chicago-inspired restaurant, bar and lounge opening Saturday.

Far below the open-beam ceiling, you can take a seat at the 36-foot concrete slab of a bar for BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders and a pint, or grab a booth by the brick wall for a proper dinner of Roasted Marrow Bones with Braised Pot Roast Marmalade. (We like the table under the graffiti-ed portrait of Gwyneth Paltrow by that movie star/edgy artist Viggo "Aragorn" Mortensen—brings a little LA to the place named after the famed Chicago drive.) If you're feeling rubberneck-y, there's the sidewalk patio out front, but the large U-shaped enclave in back can be roped off for a more private affair.

And there's more upstairs—the rear balcony overlooking the dining room has another bar, DJ booth, lounge seating and, behind that, a walled-in rooftop patio they'll tell you is the only one in Culver City.

Another reason not to go home just yet.