There is a reason that the South Bay has given rise to one of the most vibrant craft beer scenes in the United States, and that reason is because Naja’s Place blazed a trail three decades before the rest of the country caught up and in so doing created both the thirst and the broader beer palates necessary for such a flourishing to occur. Ask most of the local brewers where they got the crazy notion to start their own breweries, and many will say it started over a pint and a slightly drunken night at Naja’s Place. The open air dive bar astride Redondo Beach’s International Boardwalk is legendary far beyond local shores, a legend that began when a sprightly Palestinian woman named Najah Zeinaty founded a little bar called La Petite Fleur in 1981 with seven carefully chosen taps. Her customers called the place Naja’s, and she followed suit, expanding and adding 70 more taps behind the motto: “Life is too short to drink cheap beer.” Naja has since moved to the desert, but her legacy keeps growing. “She had that idea of a tap house a long, long time before anybody else was doing it,” current owner Jim Trevillyan told Beach a few years ago. “It’s one of the oldest multi-craft houses that evolved prior to what the community does… In the craft beer community, I think Naja’s is historical.”
Naja’s Place, 154 International Boardwalk, Redondo Beach, 310-376-9951, najasplace.com.
Runner up: Hot’s Kitchen, 844 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach, (310) 318-2939, HotsKitchen.com.
