06/05/09

Punch Drunk Love
The Glorious Return of the Punch Bowl

Over the years, to properly maintain the reputation of a refined drinker, certain accoutrements have become wrongfully neglected. Like…the punch bowl. But with endless LA summer days waiting to be whiled away, some of the city's finest booze dens are bringing it back with style. Get ladling…

Cecconi's

While afternoon sun streams in on accented supermodels and faux-accented agents, you now have the pleasure of enjoying, with friends, at your own terrace table, vats of punch in three varieties—Italian Rum, Cecconi's Lemonade and Elderflower Mint Collins.

411:: 8764 Melrose Ave (at Robertson), West Hollywood, 310-432-2000

The London West Hollywood

One of the Sunset Strip's most striking rooftops is technically only open to hotel guests—but nowadays you can usually talk your way up after a dinner reservation downstairs. Here the potent batches of Pisco and Rum Daisy Punches arrive in pitchers, not bowls, but with those views nobody will be complaining.

411:: 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd (S. of Sunset), West Hollywood, 310-854-1111

Edison

Instead of bottle service, Downtown's ginormous underground former power plant offers punch-bowl service. The Whiskey Barrel Punch is normally $60, but you'll want to seek out those times when it's not. During Thursday and Friday happy hours it's $36, and Wednesday nights it's just $25.

411:: 108 W. 2nd St (between Spring and Main), Downtown, 213-613-0000

South

If you prefer your punch a little more…hey-remember-that-one-time-we-woke-up-in-Alabama, there's a seriously dangerous concoction called Voodoo Brew now being served on Wilshire Boulevard. It's a secret recipe that comes in a fishbowl, but we're reasonably certain chlorine isn't involved.

411:: 3001 Wilshire Blvd (at Stanford), Santa Monica, 310-828-9988

Trader Vic's

The original tiki institution can never be replaced, but it can be duplicated. Eye-crossing Tiki Bowls (for two) and Kava Bowls (for four) can now be had by the Beverly Hilton pool, not far from the original, as well as Downtown at the new LA Live spot.