London is arguably the financial capital of the world.

Though recent banking and market scandals have rocked the city's standing atop the Global Financial Centres Index, its small business scene has exploded in recent years — giving a good name to the capital city of the U.K.

Europe's rival to Silicon Valley has sprouted a digital wardrobe concierge service, a cat cafe, a monster supply store, and a grungy bar with a nationally trending hashtag. Even Business Insider is opening an office in London later this spring!

The 22 coolest small businesses in London are model examples of how to carve out a niche market, get people talking, and create an unforgettable experience for your customers.

Alice Through The Looking Glass

14 Cecil Court

What it is: An "Alice in Wonderland"-themed shop.

Why it's cool: At Alice Through The Looking Glass you'll find all sorts of Wonderland-inspired knick-knacks and curios, from framed illustrations to Victorian top hats to chess pieces. The store is also home to the resident white rabbit, Harley, who lives in a little burrow in the shop's front window.

Archipelago

53 Cleveland Street

What it is: An exotic meats restaurant.

Why it's cool: Archipelago invites you on a sensory culinary journey amid the glow of golden Buddhas, dwarf palm trees, and giant peacock feathers. This dimly lit, exotic dining destination serves crocodile, wildebeest, kangaroo, zebra jerky, alpaca, and other fare you might recognize from a Disney animated film.

Channel your inner "Survivor" contestant and top off the evening with a memorable dessert: Chocolate Covered Locusts.

The Bowler

Follow them on Twitter for locations

What it is: A meatball-peddling food truck.

Why it's cool: Greasy hamburgers and limp hot dogs, be gone. This restaurant on wheels, nicknamed the "Lawn Ranger," specializes in meatballs made with love— containing free range meats and fresh, seasonal veggies. 

And when in London, do as owner Felwick says customers do: stroke the van's "grass-fed," astroturf exterior while you wait for your food to be prepared.

Le Bernardin — a high-end seafood restaurant in Manhattan helmed by celebrity chef Eric Ripert — is the best restaurant in the U.S.

That's according to Business Insider's recent ranking of the best restaurants in America. 

Robert Young, a Flickr user and software engineer based in London, was fortunate enough to take a date there in March 2014. He shared photos of the pair's amazing à la carte lunch, which totaled $350, including a few cocktails.

"What really struck me about the experience (beyond the sublime food) was the service," Young told Business Insider in an email. "Our wait staff weren't at all stuffy or distant, but rather relaxed, joking, and engaging. My girlfriend and I were there for hours — swapping plates and drinks and asking annoying questions, but everything was met with great humor and whenever we swapped plates another set of cutlery arrived."

"Le Bernardin really surprised me by being close to a perfect meal!" he added. Keep reading to see why.

Eric Ripert's award-winning restaurant is located in midtown Manhattan, on 51st Street and 7th Avenue.

The interior was redesigned in the summer of 2012 by Bentel & Bentel, with white tablecloths and rippling aluminum walls.

There's also the Le Bernardin Lounge, which serves more affordable food and cocktails.

The Cossacks— an ethnic minority of East Slavic people who recently helped Russia annex Crimea from Ukraine— send kids as young as 7 to military training camps to learn how to become “defenders of the homeland.”

Ukrainian photographer Maxim Dondyuk spent parts of the last four years attending a military training camp in Crimea to see how the pro-Russian, militaristic Cossacks train their young soldiers.

Dondyuk shared some photos from the project with us here, and you can check out more of his work on his website. 

The training camp is called a "sich," which is also the administrative and military center for Cossacks. It comes from the Ukrainian word siktý meaning "to chop," as in to clear a forest for an encampment. This training camp is located in and around Eski-Kermen, a medieval cave fortress located in a mountainous, forest region.For two weeks, boys age 7-16 learn military techniques from Cossack officers who have fought in many conflicts.The boys train with real weapons and live ammunition.Because most Cossacks are devoutly Eastern Orthodox, religion is a major part of the camp. The boys say prayers during the day and are guided in Bible readings."If we train them to kill but don’t give attention to spiritual training, we educate an ordinary killer and not a defender of [a united Cossack] Motherland,” Dondyuk overheard one officer say.A typical day begins with a morning run before moving on to breakfast and combat training.More often than not, according to Dondyuk, the boys' parents are former or current military officers.Cossack communities are tight-knit. Most live in large clans of extended family led by an elder patriarch with the title Ataman/Hetman. Cossacks use the same title for the head of their military and the leader of the camp.The boys also get training in hand-to-hand combat, climbing, and survival skills.While most of the boys are Cossacks (and the camp is run by Cossack officers), the camp is open to anyone for 5 euros per day.When Dondyuk first arrived at the camp, his impression was very negative. However, the longer he stayed, the more he appreciated what the officers were trying to do.This particular camp has been around for 10 years. Some of the first attendees are already sergeants in the Russian or Ukrainian army, Dondyuk says.Despite how long it has been around, most Crimeans and Ukrainians have no idea the camp exists. “This camp isn’t widely publicized,” Dondyuk told Slate.

In the past, Ukrainian authorities were highly suspicious of Cossacks, even going so far as to raid training camps for weapons and to accuse them of creating paramilitary groups.

In Russia, however, Cossacks have the status of a state-backed militia (which is how they have operated during the Crimean crisis). The fact that the group got better treatment in Russia spurred many Cossacks to help bring Crimea under Russian control.

After the events in Crimea, it is uncertain whether the camp will continue in its current form because of ongoing conflict in the region.

SEE ALSO: CHILDHOOD LOST: Haunting Photos Of 10-Year-Old Boy Working In A Syrian Weapons Factory

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In 1904, 110 years ago Thursday, the Olympics came to the U.S. The games, only in their third session, were basically a disaster.

St. Louis, the city hosting the event, failed to draw much participation, with the games featuring competitors from only 12 other countries. They even  had to wear their own uniforms.

On top of that, the selection of sports was strange. Some were blatantly racist — while others endangered competitors and overlooked cheating.

In 1901, Pierre de Coubertin, considered the father of the modern Olympics, wrote to President Theodore Roosevelt, urging him to preside over games in the U.S. Originally, Chicago won the bid from the International Olympics Commission, but Roosevelt rallied for St. Louis, the host of the World's Fair that same year.

The 1904 World's Fair celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. The two events became tied together, and unfortunately, the fair, with its own line-up of sporting events, overshadowed the games.

The Russo-Japanese War also put a damper on the festivities. The tensions kept many European competitors from attending.

A Romanian castle from the 13th century went on sale this week for a jaw-dropping £47 million, or roughly $80 million at today's conversion rates, according to The Daily Mail.

The hilltop fortress, known as Bran Castle, is a huge tourist attraction with 560,000 annual visitors — many attracted by its reputation as “Dracula’s Castle.”

Click here to skip right to the pictures >>

The castle dates back to 1211 (it was completed in 1388) and is believed by some to have been the inspiration for Irish author Bram Stoker’s description of Dracula’s castle in his 1897 book:

The castle is on the very edge of a terrific precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.

Of course, the bloodsucking Count Dracula was fictional and there's no proof that his real life inspiration — Vlad the Impaler, prince of Wallachia in the 15th century — ever lived in this fortress either.

In reality, the castle was occupied by warriors and knights during its early history before being gifted to the Habsburg royal family in 1920.

When the Communists came to power in 1948, the Habsburg heirs were forced to leave the country. Today, those heirs run the castle as a tourist destination, but are looking to sell it to a new owner who will continue to run the museum and potentially open a small hotel.

The Daily Mail reports the Romanian government has been offered the castle for the price of £47 million, but the owners are open to other bids. Mark Meyer of Herzfeld and Rubin, a New York law firm handling the sale, told The Daily Mail: “If someone comes in with a reasonable offer, we will look at who they are, what they are proposing, and will seriously entertain the idea.”

Bran Castle is located in Romania, near the city of Braşov.

It was built between 1211-1388, and housed warriors, knights, and the Habsburg royal family.

Queen Marie, the last queen consort of Romania and granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and later her daughter Princess Ileana were the last owners before a Communist takeover in 1948. That's Queen Marie and Princess Ileana on the left, and Ileana by herself on the right.

Melissa Hie does what probably most of us dream of doing: stuffing our faces while traveling in the world.

She just documents it in a really cool way.

The Singapore-based 29-year-old posts selfie-like photos of food or drinks with cities in the background on Instagram.

She started snapping these shots the summer of 2013 when she took a solo trip across Europe.

"If I wasn't traveling by myself, my pictures would have been just generic travel pictures," Hie said. "But since I was alone and I don't like asking people to take my picture, I just started taking them myself."

Some of her photos include a chocolate cookie in front of Big Ben, a Nutella-covered waffle in front of Brussels' Grand Palace, and even a Butterbeer in front of 4 Privet Drive.

Although her travels are mainly in Europe and Asia, she says on her profile that she will "eat absolutely anywhere."

Here are her photos and original captions from her Instagram account, girleatworld.

These eggs are regular chicken eggs, but were boiled in high temperature sulfur spring water which gives the color to its black shell. Eating each one is said to extend one's life by seven years, but you shouldn't eat more than two. They sell the eggs in packs of five though, so I ate all five. This was in Kurotama at Owakudani in Hakone, Japan.

Takoyaki at a small festival in Ueno, Asakusa area. Takoyaki is a common snack sold at such festivals in Japan. It's a ball of batter filled with diced octopus, ginger and green onion, served with takoyaki sauce, a bit of mayonnaise, and topped with aonori (seaweed shavings) and bonito (shavings of dried fish). It's then cooked in a special takoyaki pan to give its round shape. Delish!

Hello Kitty Donut at the Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, Japan! This was too cute to pass up, from the basement of Hikarie building, one street away from Hachiko.

The Brazilian word for pickup soccer — "pelada"— means "naked" (specifically, a naked woman).

It's soccer at its most basic. All over Brazil there are pickup games going on at all times, despite the constraints of space, equipment, and money.

This pickup soccer culture is often cited as an essential component in the Brazilian national team's "joga bonito" style — which is the most flamboyant and improvisational in the world.

And many of the players who went on to become stars in Europe started on the makeshift fields of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Looking through these photos gives you the flavor of Brazil. Some of the fields are crammed in between buildings, some are cut out of the rainforest, and others sit right on the edge of the beach.

The Mare slums complex, one of the most violent areas of Rio de Janeiro, surrounds a field.

A "quadra"— a fenced-in field that have become more popular in recent decades — in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

An field with artificial turf overlooks Sugarloaf Mountain.

Creativity starts with having a method for finding ideas. 

In "The Idea Hunter: How To Find The Best Ideas And Make Them Happen," management scholars Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer examine the world's most creative people and companies — with tons of best practices to be found inside. 

"Habits and behaviors are more important than sheer brain power," Fischer says. "It's not the brightest who perform the best, but it's people who have figured out how to really prosper in an idea-rich society."

We've highlighted some of the best takeaways from the book, and added in a few more methods brilliant minds have used to make breakthroughs. 

Aimee Groth and Jhaneel Lockhart contributed research to this article. 

Get to know your competition.

Sam Walton's curiosity is one reason Walmart's become one of the world's largest corporations. 

He was constantly on the road, visiting stores and figuring out everything he could about how they worked. In "The Idea Hunter," former COO Don Soderquist recalled his second meeting with Walton: 

"The next day was Saturday, and I went shopping, dressed in a pair of mangy cutoff jeans — at the Kmart near my house. I walked over into the apparel section and saw this guy talking to one of the clerks. I thought, 'Jeez, that looks like that guy I met yesterday. What the heck is he doing way out here?' I strolled up behind him, and I could hear him asking this clerk, 'Well, how frequently do you order? ... Uh-huh ... How much do you order?' ...

"He's writing everything she says down in a little blue spiral notebook. Then Sam gets down on his hands and knees and he's looking under this stack table, and he opens the sliding doors and says, 'How do you know how much you've got under here when you're placing that order?'

"Finally, I said, 'Sam Walton, is that you?' And he looked up from the floor and said, 'Oh, Don! Hi! What are you doing here?' I said, 'I'm shopping. What are you doing?' And he said, 'Oh, this is just part of the educational process. That's all.'"

In other words, get to know how your competition works, so you can top them.

Listen to your customers.

Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Company, known for Samuel Adams Boston Lager, came up with the idea for selling beer while talking to a stranger he met in a bar.

The man was drinking a Heineken. He said he liked the imported beer even though it tasted "skunky," Koch recalls.

Then, a realization dawned on Koch: There was a market for a high-end beer with a fresh taste, which could come from a domestic brewery. 

"To me, ideas come from real-world stimulation," Koch said.

Take long walks.

Big thinkers are often brisk walkers: Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, and Aristotle all made long walks a part of their idea-generating process. 

Now, Stanford researchers Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz have confirmed the connection between steps and thoughts. 

In a new study, they found that participants who went for walks saw an 81% increase in tests measuring divergent thinking, a thought process associated with creativity in which you generate lots of ideas.

"Given what we found, if you have a task that requires many ideas, going for a walk — even around an office — appears to give you a fresh perspective," Oppezzo says. "Also, if you can't do a walking meeting because it's awkward or you need to take notes, going for a walk beforehand seems to be a good prescription."

Getting married in New York can be a nightmare.

The sheer number of vendors, boutiques, florists, musicians, and locations to choose from means that New Yorkers who are tying the knot can be overwhelmed.

“First of all, New York weddings are more expensive than any other part of the United States,” Harriette Rose Katz, founder and president of Gourmet Advisory, an upscale event planning and party coordination consultancy, told Business Insider. “Secondly, there’s a lot of great competition here."

That intense competition led Katz to dip into her knowledge of the event industry to start The Chosen Few. Just like the Michelin Guide for restaurants or Consumer Reports for gadgets, Katz hopes that The Chosen Few will help brides and grooms choose the absolute best NY has to offer in catering, décor, entertainment, invitations, lighting, music, photography, and more.

“I’ve been in the business for 35 years,” Katz told us. “And it’s such an unregulated business. Anybody can be a party planner, anybody can be a florist, or a caterer, or whatever. I thought it was time for someone to say these people are not only the best at what they do, but then also why they’re the best.”

Katz plans to keep her picks as up-to-date as possible and make sure that her list showcases companies that display excellence, artistry, and professionalism across every category.

“I give my stamp of approval to every single [company] that’s in here,” Katz said. “They cannot be in here if I have not worked with them over and over and over through the years, and if they’re not fundamentally great.”

You can find out more information at The Chosen Few website. The full 2014 group of industry leaders is below.

CATERING

Abigail Kirsch Catering

Catering by Restaurant Associates

Creative Edge Parties

Michael Scott Catering

Stephen STARR Events

DESIGN/FLORAL

DeJuan Stroud Inc.

Diana Gould Ltd.

Ed Libby & Company Events NYC

Frank Alexander NYC

Mark Rose Events

Stonekelly Events

ENTERTAINMENT

Total Entertainment

Untouchable Events

INVITATIONS

Alpine Creative Group

Fancy That

LIGHTING

Frost Productions

MUSIC

Element Music

Starlight Orchestras

PHOTOGRAPHY

Gruber Photographers

Hechler Photographers

Michael Jurick Photography

TENTS

Stamford Tent & Event Services

Starr Tent

SEE ALSO: Go Inside The $80 Million 'Dracula Castle' That Just Went On Sale In Romania

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At the first official meetup of the image-sharing site Imgur in San Francisco, head of community Sarah Schaaf says that people started running up and wrapping each other in huge hugs. They had never met in person before, but had been exchanging jokes and photos online for years. 

The giant outdoor picnic had a bounce house, lots of games, and "Imgurians" flying in from as far as Georgia.

Schaaf, the wife of founder Alan Schaaf, has been working with him on the site since the beginning, and says that she's found that Imgurians have this undertone of niceness that you don't see on other sites. Even though people usually come to the site because of some sort of negative feeling — like boredom or loneliness — they get hooked because of the positive, close-knit community, Schaaf says.

Right now, Imgur is getting 130 million monthly unique views, making it bigger than Reddit. People upload more than 1.5 million images every day, and, on average, Imgur users leave more than 5.5 million comments each month.  

"We want to get people off of the internet, and into the 'outernet,'" Schaaf says.

And when they do, it can sometimes even lead to falling in love ...

Imgur was the gateway for Nate and Sasha's relationship.

Sasha joined Imgur and an Imgur-related Facebook group in 2012. She was going through a divorce and her grandmother had just died. She says that Imgurians "sent me messages, photos and funny songs to help me through a horrible time in my life.”

Sasha: “I met Nate in a thread about him trolling for women at a funeral, which is not his proudest moment, I’m sure. A few days later, we were both talking in another thread and realized that we had some things in common."

More and more startups are setting up offices on Los Angeles' west side, making the nickname "Silicon Beach" even more appropriate. Santa Monica and Venice in particular have grown to be tech hotspots — Google, Snapchat, and Whisper are just a few of the companies with offices there. 

These communities are known for their proximity to the beach and laid-back lifestyle, but there's a huge foodie scene there as well. Chefs at the area's top restaurants source ingredients from the Santa Monica Farmer's Market nearby, and the juice movement is still going strong. 

We've asked some of our friends working in Silicon Beach startups where they like to eat and drink in their neighborhood. Whether it's for a quick power lunch or after-work drinks, the focus is on fresh, high-quality ingredients they can enjoy on the go. 

Gjelina

1429 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice

Gjelina has a menu of inventive small plates meant to be shared among groups. Diners especially rave about the pizzas — options include a gruyere version served with caramelized onion, fromage blanc, and arugula, as well as one that comes with house-made chorizo, tomato, cream, fennel, and basil. 

Though techies say they enjoy Gjelina for a power lunch, it's a popular spot for people in lots of different L.A. industries. Plenty of celebrity sightings have been reported here. 

OpenTable recently named it one of the hottest restaurants in the country. 

Bar Chloe

1449 Second Street, Santa Monica

Bar Chloe's intimate atmosphere makes this lounge an ideal spot for after-work dinner or drinks. There are lots of cozy details inside, including vintage bar stools, maroon upholstery, and backgammon boards anyone can use.

The menu features upscale comfort food like bruschetta and macaroni cheese, while the chamomile mai tai and a classic sazerac are highlights on the cocktail menu. 

Lemonade

1661 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice

With more than 20 types of salads, eight pot roasts, and a huge variety of flavorful soups and side dishes, Lemonade is an innovative, if overwhelming, take on the cafeteria lunch. There are currently 13 southern California locations, but the brand is growing, and there's even one heading to Dubai soon. 

Don't forget the lemonade — there are six flavors to choose from daily. 

"Godzilla" opened in theaters late Thursday evening.

If you've seen the trailers, you know one of the coolest parts is a skydiving sequence, showing members of the military paratrooping from a plane in order to engage the monster.

Check it out:

You may have also noticed something that struck you as odd.

After the jump, you see these red streaks of smoke follow the paratroopers on the way down.

It doesn't only appear in the trailers.

The smoke was also a big part of one of the film's promotional posters.Then in the film's main trailer, while the U.S. military is attacking Godzilla with its standard weaponery like giant aircraft carriers, one of the scenes shows soldiers shooting tiny red flares towards the massive monster.

Obviously, red flares and smoke are no match for Godzilla, so why are they so prominent? What is their purpose?

When we spoke with the film's Military Technical Advisor, retired Sgt. Maj. James Dever, he explained how something as small as red flares could be effective against something as big as Godzilla.

"The use of the red flares was never to attack the creature," said Dever. "It was used to divert the creature ... to distract him."

The flares — and red smoke — divert the monster's attention long enough for the military to use its more powerful artillery or even clear the area.

In real life, the military uses smoke and flares in similar ways.

Smoke can be used to create smoke screens for cover and the different colors of the smoke can signify enemy targets and identify landing areas for aircraft.

While flares can be defensive countermeasures, which can be seen in the clip below of a CV-22 Osprey military helicopter testing their flare defense system. 

SEE ALSO: Here's How The Military Would Actually Fight Godzilla

AND: "Godzilla" is bogged down by a bunch of boring characters

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San Jose, a hub of Silicon Valley, is the best city for small business in the United States, according to Biz2Credit's new ranking, out in time for National Small Business Week. 

This is the second annual report by Biz2Credit, an online credit marketplace for small businesses. The rankings are based on a weighted average that includes local small businesses' annual revenue, credit score, age in months, cash flow, debt-to-income ratio, incorporation, and the business owners' personal credit scores. All data is from 2013. 

A small business is defined as one with fewer than 250 employees and less than $10 million in annual revenues. 

San Jose's No. 1 ranking is based on Main St. stores rather than tech startups. "The uplift in the northern California economy has not just benefited tech-centric startups," says Rohit Arora, cofounder and CEO of Biz2Credit. The money and workers brought in by high-profile tech companies boosts all Silicon Valley businesses, including gas stations, restaurants, and boutique shops, he explains.

Perhaps surprisingly, Detroit ranks as No. 2 on this year's list. Arora says Michigan's government has made credit more accessible, and the automotive industry's rebound has benefited businesses in the Detroit-Dearborn area.

You can find the data breakdown for each metro area in the complete report at Biz2Credit.com.

25. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida

24. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Delaware-Maryland

23. Jacksonville, Florida

A beautiful Mediterranean-style home in San Francisco's Telegraph Hill neighborhood has hit the market for $16 million. According to Curbed SF, the Villa de Martini is one of the most expensive homes currently for sale in San Francisco. 

What makes this house unique, though, is its detached garage and motor court. According to the listing, it comes with its very own Tesla charging station, though there's no word on whether the car is part of the package. 

The four-bedroom house is gorgeous, with travertine marble walkways, Venetian plaster walls, and Italian-inspired art throughout. 

The Villa de Martini sits on a triple-wide lot on the top of Telegraph Hill.

It dates back to 1929 and was reportedly the first building in the city to be built using concrete.

Here's a look at the detached garage, where you'll find a Tesla charging station already built in.

Humans are so blasé. When you take a trip to a place as epic as Kenya, why not spend your time with the country's other residents?

Specifically the really tall, four-legged, patchy ones.

Giraffe Manor, located southwest of Nairobi, lets guests spend quality time with local giraffes: The long-necked friends roam the property and even partake in meals.

The herd of endangered Rothschild giraffes visits the Manor in the mornings and evenings "to greet guests and sniff out some snacks" before venturing out into their 140-acre sanctuary run by African Fund for Endangered Wildlife's (AFEW) Giraffe Centre, according to the website.

Initially built as a residence, animal-activists Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville purchased the Manor in 1974. They developed the AFEW to rear and re-introduce Rothschild giraffes to the wild.

Access to the Giraffe Centre is within walking distance and included in the hotel fee. Also included is transportation to the nearby Karen Blixen Museum, Kazuri Beads store, and the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphange.

Rooms at Giraffe Manor start at $505 per person per night. 

This is Giraffe Manor. It is located between Nairobi and the Ngong Hills Nature Reserve.

The hotel is an iconic historical building dating back to the 1930s. It is described as "reminiscent of the early days of Europeans in East Africa."

But the real reason the people come here is to encounter the hotel's other visitors.

The recent explosion of craft breweries in the U.S. has shifted the beer industry's attention to quality, not quantity. May 12-18 is American Craft Beer Week, which means it's the perfect time to discover a new artisanal brew.

We found the 24 coolest American craft brewers making waves in the industry, from a Latin American-style cervecería in Chicago to a sustainable brewery in Maui that uses local Hawaiian ingredients to make its brews.

A brewery is considered a craft brewery if it produces fewer than 6 million barrels a year, with 75% or more of the company owned by the craft brewer, according to the Brewers Association.

5 Rabbit Cervecería

Located:Bedford Park, Ill.

Located outside Chicago, the first Latin American-style brewery, or cervecería, in the country infuses its brews with ancho chili, piloncillo cane sugar, and other Latin flavors.

5 Rabbit was inspired by an Aztec myth, and the names of the beers all coincide in some way with the Aztec calendar.

The brewmasters believe in enjoying and savoring life, so every few weeks they publish a recipe on their website that would pair well with one of their beers.

Alchemist Brewery

Located:Waterbury, Vt.

Alchemist sells just one beer: Heady Topper, which is found only in Vermont. They say they'd rather focus on doing one beer perfectly instead of doing many imperfectly.

Heady Topper is a double IPA brewed with a proprietary blend of six hops that blend together to make a great beer.

Amplified Aleworks

Located: San Diego, Calif.

Amplified Aleworks isn't the only craft brewery in San Diego by a long shot, but it's one of the coolest.

Operated out of the popular California Kebab and Beer Garden, their best deal is on Sundays when you can pay $20 for four Amplified beer samplings and some thick-cut hickory smoked bacon. It's pretty hard to go wrong with bacon and beer.

Real Madrid, from Spain's La Liga, is once again the most valuable soccer club in the world according to Forbes.com.

Real Madrid is currently valued at $3.4 billion, nearly $1 billion more than the New York Yankees ($2.5 billion), the most valuable sports franchise in the United States.

Spain's La Liga actually has the top two most valuable soccer clubs. However, the English Premier League has more depth, with five clubs in the top ten this year.

#10 Liverpool — $691 Million

League: English Premier League

2013 Rank (value): #10 ($651 million)

2012-13 Revenue: $313 million

2013-14 Record: 26-6-6, 84 pts., 2nd in the Premier League

Highest-paid player: Steven Gerrard, $13 million

#9 Juventus — $850 Million

League: Italian Serie A

2013 Rank (value): #8 ($694 million)

2012-13 Revenue: $354 million

2013-14 Record: 32-3-2, 99 pts., 1st in the Serie A

Highest-paid player: Carlos Tevez, $7.5 million

#8 AC Milan — $856 Million

League: Italian Serie A €

2013 Rank (value): #6 ($945 million)

2012-13 Revenue: $343 million

2013-14 Record: 15-9-13, 54 pts., 8th in Serie A

Highest-paid player: Kaka, $10 million

Now that it's almost summer, food trucks are about to start rolling onto streets across America.

“Food trucks are popular due to their convenience, adaptability, and low barrier of entry,” Ross Resnick, founder of Roaming Hunger, a website that keeps tabs on all things street food, told Business Insider. “Although food trucks do not have the décor that a traditional restaurant might have, food trucks make up for it by offering interesting ways to deliver food to people in concentrated areas.”

According to Roaming Hunger’s database, there has been a 197% increase in number of food trucks nationally from 2011 to 2013. In major markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, food trucks seem to be everywhere. But turns out, some unexpected cities are leading the boom in the mobile restaurant industry.

We asked Resnick and his team to provide us with numbers for each of the 32 U.S. cities he covers for Roaming Hunger, not including street food carts or hot dog stands. And though certain cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Austin lead the pack when it came to the sheer number of food trucks (269, 172, and 156 food trucks, respectively), when we factored in populations, Orlando turned out to have the most food trucks per resident.

Orlando was followed by Miami, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, and Austin to round out the top five.

New York — the city that Business Insider anticipated to be the mecca for food trucks — not only came in 6th for number of food trucks (110, compared to Los Angeles’s 269), but was also the lowest-ranking city on the entire list once its enormous population was factored in. For every 100,000 people, New York only had 1.3 food trucks.

SEE ALSO: 34 Things Every New Yorker Should Do This Spring

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Clubs in New York City are like snowflakes, each one's different... and you can only stand them for about a month before you lose interest.

New York’s club scene has always changed at a rapid pace, but with new arrivals like Gilded Lily and Up&Down, the nightlife has become a short life.

We have compiled a list of the freshest, most exclusive, and most unique clubs in New York City. We'll give you details on how to get in, who you'll see, and why these clubs are truly some of the hardest to get into in the world.

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Top of the Standard

848 Washington St, New York, NY 10014

Door Rating: 10

Average Attendee: Your friend's friend's friend whom you secretly stalk over social media.

Celeb You’ll Probably See: Everyone. Anyone.

Recently in the headlines for being the site of the Solange vs. Jay-Z smack-down, the Top of the Standard is truly the Mecca of New York City clubs. It is the place where Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Sarah Jessica Parker can be found after the Met Gala.

It is where most six degrees of separation lead to. Once known as the Boom Boom Room, the Top of the Standard is New York City's watering hole for the world’s top models, musicians, and movie stars. You will have to either make a pact with the devil or leverage some serious connections to get on the guest list most nights.

Once you do get in, you will be graced with one of the best views in NYC. Even the bathrooms are enjoyable at the Top of the Standard, with a view so great you might actually want to recite the alphabet a few times while washing your hands. 

Electric Room

355 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011

Door Rating: 9

Average Attendee: A leather-clad hipster wearing a Rolling Stones t-shirt

Celeb You’ll Probably See: Any surviving member of your favorite rock band or Miley Cyrus

Few walks are more daunting than the walk down the industrial ramp that leads to Electric Room. As you walk down, you’ll pass a collage of everything from S&M graffiti to Georgia May Jagger’s face, along with a few rejected people trying to be nonchalant as they make their way back up the ramp.

Once inside the main entrance, you’ll need to pass the chrome covered co-ed bathrooms before you’re finally in. Electric Room is truly a “room.” Take a high-school basement party, fill it with models and musicians, supply some Dom, and you have Electric Room.

It's no wonder the tiny space is so difficult to get into, the occupancy is half that of a “small club” in NYC. As a result of its size and its ambiance, Electric Room has become one of the top clubs for exclusive after-parties, including Miley Cyrus' post-tour party last month.

Up&Down

244 W 14th St, New York, NY 10011

Door Rating: 8

Average Attendee: A 20-something model in a choker and dark purple lipstick, with violet hair, wearing a black “Homiés” beanie.

Celeb You’ll Probably See: Leo, Lindsay, and plenty of future celebrities

In a few short months, the old Darby has become the hippest club in New York City. If you were one of the people on the guest list who waited outside for hours during Fashion Week, you understand why the newcomer is so high on the list. The club is a playground for downtown’s young, gorgeous, talented & unique.

Up&Down is anything but a suit & tie club. The crowd includes normcores, ghetto-goths, and hipsters from all corners of lower Manhattan. Many nights are themed, including May 15th's "Zombie Ball" featuring Busta Rhymes. With said clientele, you can imagine what Up&Down’s interior design looks like.

With two separate floors covered in tribal art, palm trees, and nude Polaroids, Up&Down keeps it interesting. If you aren't loving the music upstairs, venture downstairs and get some variety. While wandering, try to snap a selfie in one of the floor-to-ceiling mirrors in the back stairway before one of the bouncers tells you to choose a floor.

This is how one horse racing reporter described the experience of hanging out in the infield during the 2008 Preakness Stakes:

"I was in Vegas for New Year's Eve a couple times, and until I had been to the Preakness infield, that was the craziest I'd ever seen people behave. Preakness was another level of human behavior. I remember telling friends back here, 'You had to see it to believe it.'"

That era is now over.

After years of debauchery in the infield, the Preakness Stakes banned outside beverages in 2009 and instituted a plan to suppress the rowdiness. This weekend's 2014 Preakness will be much, much different than it was six years ago.

Depending on your point of view, these photos of mud, drunkness, and "toilet runs" are either deeply nostalgic or slightly terrifying.

Running across the porta pottys while people threw beer at you was the favorite pastime.

Potentially painful.

You could bring in whatever alcohol you wanted.