Bars in Santa Monica Open Late
Six Santa Monica bars pour until 2:00 AM every night of the week: The Daily Pint on Pico, The Gaslite and Sonny McLean's Irish Pub on Wilshire, and Ye Olde King's Head, Barney's Beanery and Harvelle's downtown. The other seven save their latest hours for Thursday through Saturday or just the weekend, so midweek those six are the surest bets.
Later in the week the question becomes what kind of room you want at 1 AM. The thirteen run from a karaoke dive (The Gaslite) and a blues club (Harvelle's) to a dance floor (The Room Santa Monica), a sports bar with over 60 TVs (Barney's Beanery) and a small 1930s-styled cocktail parlour (Bar Chloe). Seven of them sit downtown around the Promenade, while The Daily Pint is the pick for a laid-back pint well inland from the beach crowds.
Our picks
- Hot food after midnight downtown: Barney's Beanery. Its kitchen keeps going well past midnight, and the doors stay open to 2:00 AM, 365 days a year.
- Singing on a weeknight: The Gaslite. Karaoke runs from 6pm to 1:30am, and the bar is open until 2:00 AM every night of the year.
- Live music any night of the week: Harvelle's. Blues, R&B, soul and jazz seven nights a week from 8pm to 2am, though most nights are ticketed.
- Actually dancing: The Room Santa Monica. DJ nights Thursday to Saturday until 2:00 AM, with a 9 to 10:30pm happy hour at $6 beers and $9 cocktails.
- A quiet late pint away from the beach: The Daily Pint. A laid-back dive on Pico Boulevard with pool and darts, open to 2:00 AM every night.
At a glance
| Option | Address | Latest Close | Late Nights | Bar Type | Part of town | What's On | Food |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2310 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405source | 2:00 AMsource | Every nightsource | Dive barsource | Pico Boulevardsource | Bar gamessource | Drinks onlysource | |
| 2030 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90403source | 2:00 AMsource | Every nightsource | Dive barsource | Wilshire Boulevardsource | Karaokesource | Bar snackssource | |
| 1657 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401source | 2:00 AMsource | Friday and Saturday onlysource | Dive barsource | Ocean Avenue & the Piersource | Full kitchensource | ||
| 132 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401source | 2:00 AMsource | Every nightsource | British or Irish pubsource | Downtown & the Promenadesource | Full kitchensource | ||
| 2907 Main St. Santa Monica, CAsource | 2:00 AMsource | Thursday to Saturdaysource | Sports barsource | Main Streetsource | Sports on TVsource | Full kitchensource | |
| 1351 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401source | 2:00 AMsource | Every nightsource | Sports barsource | Downtown & the Promenadesource | Sports on TVsource | Full kitchensource | |
| 1432 4th St, Santa Monica, CA 90401source | 2:00 AMsource | Every nightsource | Live music venuesource | Downtown & the Promenadesource | Live musicsource | ||
| 1325 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monicasource | 2:00 AMsource | Thursday to Saturdaysource | Dance clubsource | Mid-Citysource | DJ and dancingsource | ||
| 1449 2nd St. Santa Monica CA 90401source | 1:00 AMsource | Thursday to Saturdaysource | Cocktail loungesource | Downtown & the Promenadesource | Bar snackssource | ||
| 2615 Wilshire Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90403source | 2:00 AMsource | Every nightsource | British or Irish pubsource | Wilshire Boulevardsource | Sports on TVsource | Full kitchensource | |
| 101 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90401source | 1:00 AMsource | Thursday to Saturdaysource | Hotel loungesource | Downtown & the Promenadesource | Bar gamessource | ||
| 101 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401source | 2:00 AMsource | Friday and Saturday onlysource | Beach barsource | Downtown & the Promenadesource | Sports on TVsource | Full kitchensource | |
| 1240 3rd St Promenade Santa Monica, CA 90401source | 2:00 AMsource | Friday and Saturday onlysource | Cantinasource | Downtown & the Promenadesource |
Which bars stay open past midnight on a weeknight
Latest Close is each bar's latest night, not every night, so read it beside Late Nights. Chez Jay shows 2:00 AM, but only on Friday and Saturday; the rest of the week last call is midnight. Tavern on Main runs to 2:00 AM Thursday through Saturday and closes at midnight earlier in the week, and The Santa Monica Whaler goes to 2:00 AM on Friday and Saturday, 1:00 AM on Thursday and midnight otherwise.
Cabo Cantina is the weekend bar that does not fall back to midnight: it reaches 2:00 AM on Friday and Saturday and still runs to 1:00 AM on other nights, with a second happy hour from 10:30pm to 12:30am. The Bungalow Santa Monica and The Room Santa Monica open Thursday to Saturday only, so early in the week they are not on the table at all.
Where to eat late: full kitchens and bar snacks
Six of the thirteen list a full kitchen: Chez Jay, Ye Olde King's Head, Tavern on Main, Barney's Beanery, Sonny McLean's Irish Pub and The Santa Monica Whaler. Only Ye Olde King's Head, Barney's Beanery and Sonny McLean's pair that with 2:00 AM every night, and Barney's is the one that says its food keeps coming past midnight. Chez Jay's steaks and steamed clams come with a bar that runs late on Friday and Saturday only.
The Gaslite hands out free popcorn and Bar Chloe does grilled cheese in place of a kitchen. The Daily Pint reads drinks only, on a reviewer's word rather than the bar's. A blank Food cell for Harvelle's, The Room or The Bungalow means no page we could read said what they serve, not that they serve nothing.
Cover charges, tickets and dress codes
Harvelle's is a show as much as a bar, and most nights are ticketed, so check its calendar before heading over. The Room has a smart-casual dress code and, depending on the night, a small cover. Bar Chloe is walk-ins only and 21-plus, and its door turns away flip flops, shorts and beach attire.
Drink prices spread as widely as the rooms. Cocktails at The Bungalow, inside the Fairmont Miramar, run around $22, with a queue at weekends. At the other end, The Room keeps cocktails at $9 during its happy hour and Cabo Cantina pours two-for-one drinks all day.
The options in detail
The Daily Pint
A British-themed neighbourhood dive on the quiet end of Pico, well inland from the beach crowds. It keeps an ever-changing craft tap list, a whisky collection reviewers put north of 500 bottles, and billiards and darts in the back. It runs to 2am every single day, which almost nothing else in Santa Monica manages. Time Out's own warning is fair: this is a laid-back locals' hangout, not a night out.
The Gaslite
Southern California's longest-running karaoke bar, going since 1962 and open 6am to 2am every day of the year. Singing starts at 6pm and runs to 1:30am, the popcorn is free, and the crowd is a genuine cross-section of Santa Monica rather than a scene. It sits at the divey end of the spectrum and is proud of it. If you want a quiet drink and conversation, this is the wrong room.
Chez Jay
A 1959 surf-and-turf shack across from the beach on Ocean Avenue, and an official Santa Monica landmark: red-checked tablecloths, taxidermied fish and heavy pours. The kitchen still does steaks and steamed clams at prices that have not caught up with the neighbourhood. It only runs to 2am on Friday and Saturday; the rest of the week last call is midnight. A breezier outdoor annexe, the Backyard, closes earlier.
Ye Olde King's Head
The big British pub a block off the Promenade, with a formal dining room, a proper pub side, and a bakery and shop attached. Fish and chips, Cornish pasties and scotch eggs alongside English and Irish taps, with the doors open until 2am seven nights a week. It is the most reliable late option downtown if you want real food with the drinks. One caution: listings disagree on whether it sits at 116 or 132 Santa Monica Blvd, so check before you walk.
Tavern on Main
The Main Street corner bar that spent decades as Rick's Tavern, now reopened under new ownership and voted Santa Monica's most loved happy hour of 2025. TVs inside and out, the unofficial home of Detroit sports in LA, and Main Street's only pool table. The kitchen sticks to burgers, wings and other pub standards. It goes to 2am Thursday through Saturday and closes at midnight earlier in the week.
Barney's Beanery
The Third Street Promenade branch of the 1920 Route 66 roadhouse, and the most dependable late-night kitchen downtown: food keeps coming well past midnight and the doors stay open to 2am, 365 days a year. Over 60 HD TVs and a couple of hundred beers make it the default for catching a game. Thursdays are trivia at 9pm and Fridays are karaoke. It is loud and touristy, which is either the point or the problem.
Harvelle's
The oldest surviving music venue on the Westside, running since 1931 in a small, dark room off Fourth Street. Live blues, R&B, soul, jazz and the long-standing Toledo Show fill the calendar seven nights a week, 8pm to 2am. Most nights are ticketed, so check the schedule before you turn up. It is a show more than a bar, but it is a bar that is still going at 1:30am.
The Room Santa Monica
A dim, no-frills dance bar on Santa Monica Boulevard, entered from 14th Street, and one of the few rooms in the city where people actually dance. It runs Thursday to Saturday only: reggae and dancehall on Thursdays, 90s night on Fridays, open-format on Saturdays, all to 2am. Happy hour from 9 to 10:30pm keeps beers at $6 and cocktails at $9. There is a smart-casual dress code and, depending on the night, a small cover.
Bar Chloe
A small, dim 1930s-styled cocktail parlour tucked between a hotel and an office block on 2nd Street, walk-ins only and 21-plus. The list is classics done properly, with grilled cheese and a few other snacks standing in for a kitchen. It is the quietest late option here: Thursday through Saturday it goes to 1am, midnight the rest of the week. Mind the door policy, which rules out flip flops, shorts and beach attire.
Sonny McLean's Irish Pub
A Boston-leaning Irish pub on Wilshire that doubles as the Westside's most serious sports bar: 23 HDTVs inside, six more in the beer garden, and close to every sports package going. Forty beers on tap, a long whiskey list, and a kitchen doing both Irish standards and New England dishes. Open to 2am every night. There is no live music, just a jukebox, so it is a watching-and-talking pub rather than a going-out one.
The Bungalow Santa Monica
The indoor-outdoor lounge inside the Fairmont Miramar, a block from the beach, and the most polished room on this list. Baja-styled bungalow rooms, fire pits, pool and ping-pong, and cocktails at around $22. It opens Thursday, Friday and Saturday only, 5pm to 1am. Expect a queue and a crowd at weekends, and hotel prices to match.
The Santa Monica Whaler
A big beach bar at Ocean and Broadway, sibling to the long-running Venice original, built around sunsets, sports and fish tacos rather than anything fancy. Ocean views from a spacious room, and happy hour from 2 to 6pm on weekdays. Friday and Saturday are the late nights, running to 2am; Thursday it closes at 1am and midnight covers the rest of the week. A sensible landing spot coming off the Pier.
Cabo Cantina
A Promenade party bar with two-for-one drinks all day every day, a loud jukebox and a patio facing the shoppers. Margaritas and Mexican bar food, plus a second happy hour from 10:30pm to 12:30am that is the reason people end the night here rather than start it. Fridays and Saturdays it goes to 2am, other nights 1am. It is not subtle and does not try to be.
How we researched this
The line we drew was 1:00 AM: every bar here keeps serving at least that late on its latest night, since in a city where last call is 2:00 AM a midnight closer is just a bar. That rule keeps out The Galley (11pm on weeknights, midnight at weekends) and Time Out's Santa Monica favorites The Misfit, Vamos Vamos, Father's Office, Esters, Offhand and Calabra, which all close between 9pm and midnight. Several bars still named in late-night guides were left out as closed: The Coco Club (listed closed as of July 27, 2026), Senator Jones, Surfer Rose, Renee's Courtyard Cafe and O'Brien's on Main Street. Basement Tavern was dropped because its listings disagree on its hours and its own sites are gone. Tavern on Main is the bar many guides still call Rick's Tavern.
Hours come from each bar's own site where one exists, and from Tripadvisor or the Downtown Santa Monica business directory where it does not; when they disagreed, the bar's own page won, which is why Bar Chloe reads 1:00 AM. Part of town is our grouping from each street address, not a label any source prints, and a blank What's On cell means the bar advertises no live music, DJ, karaoke, games or sport. Ye Olde King's Head is the least certain row, because listings place it at either 132 or 116 Santa Monica Blvd. These hours were read in early September 2026, and late nights can change, so look at a bar's hours on the day you plan to go.