Things We Need is a new section devoted to pointing out areas within Los Angeles that have not become a “thing” yet, obvious gaps in culture, food, drink, or any other area. They are things we need to make Los Angeles better, from the simplest little details to the large, gaping holes in our city no one seems to be talking about.

A few weeks back, we Tweeted about looking for a place to grab a beer and get some work done. We only got two responses, surprisingly: the guys at Golden Road chimed in that they have great brews and Internet capabilities while a reader pointed us to the Pasadena Intelligentsia, who serve up beers and wine alongside coffee and teas. This was a little bit alarming to only hear about two places, both of which we “knew of” and which were a bit of a trek from where we were. This got us wondering why in the hell there aren’t more places in LA where you can do work *and* get an adult beverage: why?

Yes, there are plenty of places to grab a coffee and work or grab a tea and work or just grab a drink. That’s great! However, sometimes you have finished your work day and need to get another project done or have a meeting outside of the office. It’s been a long day and you don’t want to, you know, go to grab a tea–you want a beer or glass of wine. You’ve earned it! But, you also need Wi-Fi in order to get stuff done: where do you go? There doesn’t seem to be many options, at least not very many obvious options. It’s 2012: every establishment should have Wi-Fi. Places should even have “Come in and work!” happy hour specials that go from 6PM to 9PM to catch the still-working-after-work crowd(s). And, while we are on that: who can seriously go to happy hours that start at 4PM and end at 7PM? Most people aren’t out of work until at least 7PM!

Of course, there are plenty of places to do work with Internet accessibility. We know and have taken advantage of Vintage Enoteca‘s Wi-Fi and are counting down for when Palihotel will carry beer and wine (any day now!!!). Those are two great, relaxed, affordable places to work that are fairly central: they’d be perfect Internet-and-beer spots. When searching for places, LAist pointed to a few; however, the list is from four years ago and is full of really douchey places like The Pig N Whistle, Mr. T’s Bowl, Cabo Cantina, Big Wangs, and Barney’s Beanery, all places we’d never dream of going to to begin with. Yelp has a few ideas, some of which sound OK, including Koretown’s Beer Belly, Mid-City’s Lola’s and Rascal, and Downtown’s The Escondite and Bottega Louie. They have some silly answers as well, specifically the extremely douchey Dillon’s Irish Pub And Grill and the extremely exclusive Soho House. It does show that the Cahuenga Corridor (AKA, The Burger District) is full of Wi-Fi spots and drinking holes like Saint Felix, The Blue Boar Pub, Kitchen 24, The Mercantile, and others (however, those are the only ones worth noting…). This makes sense: there are tons of working men and women in this zone and it’s right by the highway. This area would be remiss if it didn’t have Wi-Fi to cater to post-work-but-still-working drinkers.

Again: it’s 2012. Every restaurant and bar has wireless Internet: why not share it with your customers? Why not encourage them to come in and get work done? Take customers from Starbucks! I’d much rather write and drink beer than write and sip tea. Of course, not all places are environmentally friendly to getting work done, as I could not imagine chilling in a place like Big Wangs trying to get work done because it’d just be too out of hand and, you know, the place is called “Big Wangs. This problem has an easy solution and is totally something we need. For now, we’ll keep hitting up spots like Vintage Enoteca when we want to get some work done, a place where we can grab a beer or glass of wine while keeping our eyes wide for new spots like it with Internet access.

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