You had high hopes for 2012. These high hopes involved barbershop speakeasies, massive dancing puppets and boozing inside hardware stores. We’re pleased to report these hopes were met—nay, exceeded—thanks to these places.
Your usual barbershop requests: a hot shave. A little off the top. A massive speakeasy for when you’re through. The usual response: a blank stare. Until this year, when Blind Barber came along—a barbershop whose unassuming back door leads into a dark cocktail den. Like Narnia, but with more bourbon.
“Only in LA.” You hear that a lot, and as for what it means... well, you go to a Rat Pack-y club, you order pie for dinner and you watch David Arquette take the stage with a bunch of dancers, some puppets and who knows what else. That’s what it means.
Whispers started circulating. Whispers became roars. All this for the opening of an old hardware store. Okay, there were one or two rather fantastic-looking changes made inside. Occasionally, you even found a seat, tracked down a drink and enjoyed them.
Hard to hate the Roger Room. Really solid drinks. But it’s notoriously shy on potted chicken liver. Yes, owners Sean MacPherson and Jared Meisler finally decided you could use an English pub, too. English pubs have food and beer. So everyone seems to be in agreement about this.
Happens all the time. Naive Southern belle shows up in Hollywood, stars in her eyes. Only this time, it wasn’t a girl—it was an entire Southern plantation, dismantled and rebuilt inside a bar on Vine by the owner of the Thirsty Crow. And unlike all those girls, this place is already famous.
It was just... palpable. Great chef, from Osteria La Buca. Great location, right there in Venice, with a Scrabble-tile sign. The people wanted whatever was happening. And they wanted it five minutes ago. What was happening was smoked pasta, faintly salty Venice air and lots of beer sangria. Yeah, that sufficed.
Honestly, you watch Ron Swanson on Parks and Rec. And that could’ve been enough. You never dreamed the man behind TV’s densest mustache (that’d be Nick Offerman) would have time between running lines to sell you a coffee table. To put your feet on. While watching Parks and Rec.
