Los Angeles

1805 W Sunset Blvd, Echo Park

Sparsely decorated (vintage vinyl, random antique bicycle), the Echo/Malo guys' purposeful beer bar serves up a constantly rotating menu of 8 hard-to-find draughts (Affligem, Anderson Valley Oatmeal Stout, etc), plus simple snacks like "radishes w/bread and butter" and "apples" -- hard to find only because you haven't visited a produce department in years.

This Costa Mesa t-shirtist specializes in gleeful '80s nerdism, with prints shouting out to Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Pong, as well as an alarming glamour shot of a vintage Bill Gates, gazing at you with bedroom eyes (Microsoft Sex-Cel).

Taco lovers, unite: fight the law that effectively bans taco trucks in 65% of LA County by signing SOTT's online petition, emailing the responsible congresswoman their pre-written letter, or printing out a militant poster titled "Carne Asada Is Not A Crime" -- unfortunately, the same can't be said for papering your entire neighborhood with posters.

5515 Wilshire, Mid-Wilshire

DB's new outpost is starting out as a to-go-only spot selling pre-packaged foodstuffs, including most of their famously oversized sandwiches (L.A. Muffallatta, w/ soppresatta, fontina, arugala, tapenade) and manned-up salads like the chicken/potatoes/eggs/asiago-loaded Doughboy, sure to tempt strangers into assaulting you with giggle-inducing belly-pokes.

Fri at Vine Bar: 1235 Vine, Hollywood

From the peeps behind Lip Synch Big Stink, this retro bash features a Tetris tourney upstairs (10-way action, $50 grand prize), plus a downstairs "Space-electro-disco-boogie-funk" party, for people who find Earth-electro-disco-boogie-funk as tedious as waiting for one of those long straight pieces.