Eat Out. Glendon Bar and Kitchen [Thirsty Thursdays!].

Thanks to the unsympathetic 10 and 405 freeways, you're never as stuck and hopeless as you are if you're in West L.A. during rush hour. But what a perfect excuse for a happy hour! Even in the equally sympathetic area of Westwood, reduced-priced drinks and food is a welcome distraction until traffic dies down.

The Glendon Bar and Kitchen understands. It offers not one, but two happy hours, where most things off their menu are HALF OFF. Pretty decent, I would say. That means you can get the delicious garlic fries (see above), which are crispy and not too garlic-y, for $4, or any of their good-sized pizzas (perfect for sharing between two people) for $6-7.50. Drinks-wise, you can grab wines for $6 or drafts for $4, or go for their martinis, which are $5 all day. If you're doing the math, you can easily have a few drinks and dinner for under $20!

Cheap grub comes at a small price though. The atmosphere when I sat at the bar for happy hour was quite a ruckus, thanks to a huge birthday party happening behind me. All the demands by the party made the bartenders obviously frazzled and distracted, so that meant we had to try and grab their attention on many occasions (we even got up to go get our own plate of fries sitting on the side of the bar because the bartenders were too busy to see it sitting there). We were forgiving because the service was nice when we got it, and we weren't in any rush to get drinks or food, but I can see this becoming a problem. Also, despite Glendon's close proximity to UCLA, the happy hour crowd was older and more business-type, but that may just be due to it being summer.

Come casual and prepared to sit back and you'll have a great time with great deals. I mean, it's better than sitting in traffic, right?

The Glendon Bar and Kitchen is located at 1071 Glendon Ave. in Westwood. Happy hours are every night at 4-7pm and 10pm-midnight.

-- Chau Tu

Photo credit: the BEAT