While perhaps not quite as common on international shores as Irish pubs, Santa Monica is blessed to currently have three English-influenced pubs now that The Daily Pint located at 2310 Pico Blvd reopens today following an extensive renovation.
And in fact there used to be more, but tragically the Cock ‘n Bull on Lincoln Blvd fell victim to the pandemic in the summer of 2020. Like both the Brittania and Ye Old King’s Head, both in Downtown, The Daily Pint has been a regular fixture in Santa Monica for decades.
Current owner George Hemingway, bought the pub in June of last year from Englishman Phillip McGovern, who had run it for over 35 years. Hemingway, who hails from Hungary originally, is a former attorney, pizza restaurant owner and from 2006–2019, was also owner of Budapest Honvéd Football Club.
Hemingway is proud of the changes and improvements that have been made to the pub, including a life-size mural of King Charles III that Hemingway hopes will become an Instagram hotspot, an extensive selection of over 500 whiskeys, even more effective disability access plus a remodeled ladies bathroom, with an all-new and improved gold-colored decor.
“I bought an English pub because I love England and London is one of my favorite cities. People like the English atmosphere and Americans do too,” Hemingway said, clarifying that by “English” he means “British” and by “British” he means the Welsh, Irish and Scots too.
“Being a British pub is the best kind of pub, can you tell me what’s better than a British pub?” he laughed.
Along with one of the best whiskey collections of any bar in Los Angeles that includes offerings from America, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Japan and India to name just a few, the Daily Pint also boasts over 30 beers on tap, three on cask and 100 different bottled beers. Moreover, these are rotated on a regular basis and frequently feature beers from a local craft brewery or microbrewery.
The Daily Pint won’t have a food menu of any kind, but it does feature pool tables, dart boards, shuffleboard and a multitude of television screens covering every type of sport imaginable, even the rugby. There’s even a monstrous 12ft screen plus a 7ft screen, that’s a whopping 144 inches and 84 inches respectively.
“We have about a dozen screens, including some huge screens and we’ll show every conceivable sport, certainly the football, er, soccer games. I’ve been a soccer referee since I was aged 15 and my club [Budapest Honvéd] were Hungarian Champions in 2017, so I’m something of a football fan,” Hemingway said.
With the Rugby World Cup coming up in September and the tournament being played in France, it will mean early starts for any die-hard fans wanting to watch the games live, but Hemingway says that he will be showing the games.
“When there are football games on early, we open early, we’re open to accommodate people, we want to make sure people have a good time.”
