"Scary movies taught us that ghosts are mostly widows in Victorian dresses and hollow-eyed children with unhealthy doll obsessions, but walk into Chez Jay in Santa Monica, and you’ll realize every apparition here is a bitter sea pirate looking for a light. Open since 1959, this nautical-themed drinking hole is where you go when you’re tired of Ocean Blvd.’s glossy apartment complexes and generic Italian restaurants and need to feel something authentic. Or at the very least, something borderline metaphysical. There are peanut shells on the floor, a jukebox that probably doesn’t play anything later than Earth, Wind & Fire, and a giant fish on the wall that you’re almost positive is staring at you. It is—and so are all the framed photos." - brant cox
