At the risk of sounding crass, I will adamantly say that it's nothing short of poetic justice that Sharkeez in Hermosa Beach burned down. I frequented that place because one of my buddies was a regular there, but even he couldn't deny the racial profiling and stereotyping that went down at that joint. If you were a "minority" who didn't wear skin-tight jeans -- forget it, you weren't getting in. While a myriad people who fit the aforementioned description were being turned away by some Jabba-The-Hut looking geek named Tad, numerous Caucasian "regulars" (as "Fat Tad" called them) wearing flip-flops and/or pants as baggy as MC Hammer's back in the day were being escorted right in. The most dubious incident occurred when I went to Sharkeez in Hermosa with a few of my buddies to celebrate our recent graduation from UCLA. There were 11 of us in the group, and believe it or not, they only allowed my 4 Caucasian and 1 Asian friend from the group in. The ones left out in the cold were either Black or Hispanic. I couldn't believe what had transpired and even planned to write a paper on their profiling (accompanied with video footage of other incidents as proof) for one of my grad school courses.
I bring this up now because a pretty co-worker might be heading to Sharkeez in Manhattan Beach this weekend and has already invited me. I sincerely hope that the only similarities between this Sharkeez and the pile of ash back on the Hermosa Beach strip are their names.
Pros: Beautiful women, I'm sure
Cons: Not too many, I hope...
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