Santa Monica: Happy Hour at Little Ruby

 

I stopped into Little Ruby in Santa Monica for happy hour a couple of weeks ago. Happy Hour is Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Little Ruby is closer to the ocean, right near 3rd Street Santa Monica Promenade. It’s across the street from a number of popular eateries including my fave fish and chips spot, Ye Olde King’s Head pub. I would say Little Ruby fits right in with the UK and Australian expat communities as well as the surrounding LA/ SaMo crowd.

Little Ruby has beer and wine as well as low ABV drinks. We tried a couple of the vermouth cocktails made with the Australian Regal Rogue vermouths. I couldn’t decide which of the two vermouths I liked better but I definitely preferred the Lively Rogue drink.

Ruby’s Spritz (Aperol spritz)

Lively Rogue – Regal Rogue lively white vermouth, watermelon juice, soda, lime, mint

Wild Rogue – Regal Rogue wild rose vermouth, housemade basil lemonade, soda

I picked the spicy Italian sausage pasta which comes with a glass of wine during happy hour.

Apparently Little Ruby gets some flack over the inclusion of peas in the rigatoni. Personally I liked the little pops of flavor. It helped break up the creamy tomato sauce a bit. It’s a solid pasta and very warming for those breezy Santa Monica nights.

And you can add fries or a salad for a $1. We went with fries.

Other happy hour choices include the chicken pasta, cheese burger, Bondi burger (chicken burger), or the chicken avo salad.

 

The crispy Brussels were nicely done. Not overly fried so that you couldn’t recognize these as vegetables anymore but still very tasty. What’s great about the happy hour are all the sides are half off.

 

The seasonal sauteed greens turned out to be mostly kale and a lot of garlic. So naturally I loved this dish. My friends were a bit more willing to chance it in case we met any vampires that night. Being more cautious, I just ate more of the garlic-y greens. You know.. because vamps are real. No, I just like veg and Little Ruby’s dish was just so fresh.

 

We also got the fries with truffle aioli. And they were the kind I like; thin cut and well-seasoned. It hardly needed any sauce.

Little Ruby was lovely and a great stop when at the beach.

Little Ruby

109 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401  —  (424) 322-8353

 

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