Where the Sun Never Sets

If summer is your season, if the smell of coconut oil and aloe vera lotion are your idea of scintillating and if sun-tanned scenesters are the folks you like to keep company with--the Beach Club is the place for you.

The Beach Club is one of the latest additions to the new and questionably improved Hermosa Beach night scene. But unlike most other places on the newly paved stretch of Pier Avenue, the Beach Club is making summer a mainstay by creating a beach ambience where the sand and sun are frozen in eternity.

The sand-colored stucco walls and barely used outdoor patio that mark the outside of this 2-month-old club are nothing special. But the inside aims for a bright sunny environment like a warm day at the beach.

The crowd is a mostly local bunch that frequents the beach by day and the Beach Club by night, so it’s no wonder that owner Jerry Centofanti brought the sun and fun indoors. Each wall bears a tropical mural. One painting depicts colorful parrots sitting atop palm fronds, another displays the crashing of waves, the sandy shores and the sun-tanned beach-goers.

Surfboards and Frisbees also hang from the walls as well as plastic banners promoting various brands of beer--the kind of signs that are typically hung at beach volleyball tournaments.

In fact, the Beach Club is quite the beach scene. Young twentysomething women, who look like they just got out of college, shake it up on the dance floor with khaki- and T-shirt-wearing beach boys in flip flops.

The thirtysomethings are no wallflowers either. Some sit at the limited number of stools along the lengthy bar and bust a move when songs like “Margaritaville” get played.

Folks here aren’t bashful about dancing and it doesn’t take much to get the crowd moving on the concrete dance floor, which could be called spacious if it didn’t double as prime mingling space. From a stage in front, those who appear to have been drinking the longest tend to lead the crowd through just about every song--the ones that require a conga line and the ones where line dancing comes into play. It all makes for a pretty good time.

The Beach Club is much improved from its former digs, the End Zone, a pool parlor and bar that closed a few months back. Centofanti, who owned the building (he also owns Sunsets bar near the base of the Manhattan Beach Pier), figured it was time to open a beach pub in Hermosa.

The club features a deejay who mixes hip-hop, funk and disco tunes Thursday through Sunday night. Thursday is Ladies Night--better known as a night when drinks are cheap for the women. Monday and Wednesday the club holds a pool tournament with cash prizes.

Like most other beach-side dance clubs, the Beach Club is packed. Be prepared for a long line, little elbow room and for overzealous hip-hoppers who try to dance and drink simultaneously to spill their tropical drinks all over your denim cutoffs.

If it happens, don’t sweat it. It’s just another day at the beach.

BE THERE

The Beach Club, 22 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach. (310) 372-4462. 21 and over. Cover: Friday and Saturday, $5; free all other nights.