The vending machine tops our list. Do you agree?
10) It's decked out like a Mexican fiesta, with a thatched-roof bar tended by artists and musicians. Sometimes they’re famous, like the Melvins’ Dale Clover.
9) Beer’s cheap as sin, especially on Foosball Tuesdays, when PBR's only $1.50.
8) Rumor has it that an Olsen twin was kicked to the back of the line.
7) It serves over-the-top gourmet bloody Marys for $2.50 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. It's like an all-in-one dinner-and-drinks special.
6) There's a photo booth built into the back wall, and while the photos take forever to print, strips cost a mere $2.
5) It's covered in art, from painted tabletops of Latin drag queens to Alan Hurley's mural of marching yellow-masked men.
4) There's a Tecate beer-can shrine in the men's room. (Sometimes research calls for a girl to go into the wrong loo.)
3) A life-size cutout of Willie Nelson, by artist Heather McMillan, chills out by the door guy—and has graced a million MySpace photos as a result.
2) There's a wooden plaque next to the front door that warns, “If you are sexist, racist, homophobic, or an asshole, don’t come in.”
[Drum roll, please.]
1) The vending machine! It features a cornucopia of goodies, from Rubik’s Cubes and “Yo! MTV Raps” trading cards to Japanese snacks, Nutter Butter cookies, Funyuns and Wonka Bars. The hot-ticket item is the $2 box of 12 Fantasy condoms, which owner Kevin Willis is always restocking. That’s not a bad deal, but even better are the local zines, like the one for sale now about the Cha Cha’s regulars (totally meta). Willis says he’d fill the whole dispenser with zines if he could, but there aren’t enough people making them. He urges, “Get to work. There are views to be had, points to be made and things to be said.”
Maybe the Cha Cha should start a zine party; I’ll bring a stapler and a list of bright ideas. There I go again with the lists.
Alexandra Le Tellier is Bars & Clubs editor at Metromix Los Angeles.
