Sam First - Jazz Club & Bar

On our lists of the best cocktail bars and live music venues in Los Angeles.

A few minutes' walk from the LAX terminals, Sam First built its room without a raised stage, so audiences sit level with the musicians playing modern and straight-ahead jazz five nights a week. Patrons stay quiet through each set, then move to a heated outdoor patio between acts, where the music still carries from inside over cocktails like the Green Beast, made with Pernod absinthe, lime, cucumber, and ginger beer. It runs as a nonprofit, its industrial room furnished with vintage mid-century pieces and original photography.