Star Garden

This North Hollywood bar is owned and operated by a husband and wife duo who take pride in the joint’s solid beer selection (57 total, with 28 on tap) and chummy environment. Star Garden could easily be your regular neighborhood watering hole as well as your favorite spot to make it rain. Often hailed as "the Jumbo’s hipsters haven’t ruined yet," the joint skews more toward a punk and rock sensibility and features acrobatics by some of the most talented and diverse pole dancers in LA. (Also, Jumbo's isn't topless—Star Garden sure is.) Saturday nights usually host eight or so dancers of varying shape, size and age. Your neighbors at the bar are a mixed bag, ranging from run-of-the-mill barflies, couples (straight and LGBT) and a growing number of hip twenty-somethings. A dance will run you $20 and there’s not much in the way of privacy, but sometimes the spirit takes you and, if that dancer is good enough, you’ll forget everyone else exists.