Some friends and I went up to the bar after the beach. I agree it's an awesome view but they don't start serving drinks until around 530 so we had to go elsewhere.

This place is a joke. We tried this weekend and were told we could hang out on the rail since the 5 places to sit were reserved. Who the hell wants to hang out on a rail?…..We walked over to the bar and were told we couldn't order;  that we had to wait on the rail until one of the 2 waitresses had time. We left immediately. Dogtown 13 isn't lying although we will not give it another chance. btw- whoever designed this rooftop bar should be fired. The entire center space is completely unusable due to the skylights protruding from the suites. FAIL.

sorry guy, the whaler blows and cantina is chalk full of frat douchebags + the food is horrendous. Hinano is tolerable because of

their great burgers, but all the places you mentioned are in the marina. this is yovenice, not yomarina.

with the choices we are left with in venice, it looks like a long summer of backyard bbq's…

Easy Cliff Claven…

Lobo – I bet you live south of Washington.

Bob – yup, Baja

the hotel doesnt have permit until september. so take it easy.  just like any new venture it needs some time to fine tune the set.  so all the haters go live in santa monica if you want to be all negative about anything new in venice.  the view is great and thats what u pay for dummies!  just like you would pay almost a thousand dollars more for a ocean side apartment.  how about giving it a chance for a season i bet u change your tune.  i heard a rumor they gonna do some parties with venice originals skateboard shop….wait and see those guys throw the best parties around lol 

Despite some of the negative feedback I decided to check out High with a few friends late Friday afternoon on our way over to AK for the First Fridays festivities.  Knowing that it was a holiday weekend and a new place to boot I put a call in to the hotel to check it out first.  I asked if it was crowded or if any reservations were needed, letting them know I had 5 people in my party and that we would be by in 30 minutes, I was told that would not be a problem and to come on over.  No reservations necessary or being taken.  They did inform me that Sat. the 4th was already booked with no reservations available.

We had people coming from different parts of Venice to meet up at The Erwin, fortunately on bikes!  We lock the bikes up and head to the rooftop where there are people lining up and a woman with a clipboard and a guy who looked like a security guard standing at the front.  The woman made her way back to us and asked if we were part of a party of 30.  I told her no and she said they were at capacity.  We asked about waiting for people to leave and were told that if we were not part of the party of 30 that unfortunately we would not be able to get in.  At the time it looked like maybe 50-60 people max were there.  I let her know that we had just spoke to someone at the hotel and they said to come on over and that no reservations were being taken or necessary and all she said was sorry, I'll have to talk to them.

So we left there and headed over to AK (which was our original plan) to meet up with more friends and spent our money having some really nice summertime drinks made by Devon over at the newly named "The Tasting Room" formerly AK.

As pointed out by a few people High and the Hotel Erwin obviously have a few issues to work out.  We probably won't go back for awhile.  It would be nice if they valued the local business a bit more though and were a bit more friendly when dealing with their own mistakes .  A few years back a new bar opened and offered Venice locals + a guest entrance when there was a line, I'm sure that has gone a long ways for them in local PR.

I think I'll skip it. Most of these newer bars around town smell like douchebag. We need a another good LOCAL spot in this neighborhood.