LAGuide
LA’s Most Exciting Bar Openings
photo credit: Wyman Bar
Much like LA restaurants, if you tried to keep track of every brand-new bar in the city, you might feel a little stressed. So, just use this guide instead. Here, you’ll find tropical speakeasies, wine bars making history, and taprooms specializing in “botanical brews” (yes, it’s a thing). Keep in mind, these are just the new bars that have the most potential - we haven’t actually visited them all - so for the ones we haven’t tried, we make no promises. Go forth and be a pioneer.
The Bars
The Wyman Bar is Downtown LA’s fanciest new bar, and the only one housed in a former Bladerunner set piece. It’s in the historic, 128-year-old Bradbury Building where you’ll find crushed blue velvet sofas, exposed-brick walls, and a variety of coffee, tea, and cocktails to sip while shouting “enhance” at things. A note: Wyman Bar is owned by NeueHouse, a members-only social club, so eventually you’ll have to pay to get in. But for the time being, NeueHouse will offer membership day passes, subject to reservation availability.
Although we hate to watch Imperial Western Beer Co. leave, luckily the fantastic Union Station space isn’t going to waste. Homebound Brew House has officially opened in its place, a Dodgers-themed sports bar and beer hall serving small bites like German pretzels, chicken tenders, chicken cobb salads, street dogs, and plenty of cocktails.
After going dark for over a year, The Wolves in Downtown LA has reopened. As reported by Eater LA, the Parisian-style cocktail bar has kept most of the interior the same (think dark and moody with lots of cast-iron, like the movie Hugo), but completely flipped the menu. Now, there’s a bunch of very French dishes like sauteed duck hearts, pommes frites, and ratatouille, plus an extensive specialty cocktail menu.
In Burbank, there’s a new cocktail bar that’s strange, fantastical, and maybe just a tiny bit scary? So, on par for Burbank. It’s got sky-high views of The Valley, an emerald-green bar, steak tartare “cigars,” luxury seafood towers, and an absolutely garish dessert called Up Up N’ Away that’s a three-tier pyramid filled with marshmallows, key lime pie, M&M cookies, ice cream, and two lit sparklers at the top. Like we said, it’s Burbank.
One of our favorite rooftop bars, Cha Cha Cha, has added a new speakeasy to their Arts District space. Called La Barra, this walk-in-only bar serves a completely different food and drinks menu (think carnitas-filled tacos dorados and carrot flan smeared thick with cream cheese frosting) in a bright, airy space. There are palm trees in full bloom, plenty of rattan furniture, and vibrant cocktails infused with everything from mezcal to smoked nopales to Oaxacan rum.
Inglewood’s first and only wine bar is here. Run by two sisters who grew up in the neighborhood (one a luxury wedding planner, the other an attorney), 1010Wine is an upscale bar that’s both a community space and a great place to grab a drink. There’s a huge, unmatched selection of Black-owned wines as well as small bites like kobe beef sliders, grilled steak, and pesto linguine. Plus, they usually hold various special events throughout the week - check 1010Wine’s Instagram for all the latest details.
LA Guide
LA’s New Restaurant Openings
After a year-long closure, Pinky’s in Los Feliz is back. With its slick, teal walls, disco ball rotating overhead, and DJ spinning Frank Ocean remixes, it kind of feels like a Miami club, but in an enjoyable way. Open every night from 7pm-2am, you’ll find a wide variety of musical acts here, ranging from soul and funk dance parties to all-vinyl DJ sets.
The Grant is an intimate neighborhood bar serving cocktails, natural wine, and craft beer in Glassell Park. It’s run by the team behind Bar Bandini in Echo Park and is housed in an old, historic building filled with blue velvet couches and soft, brown leather bar seats. They specialize in mezcal-heavy cocktails and serve drinks made with bourbon and Burma tonic water, plus a small selection of bar snacks including Bub & Grandma’s focaccia and gorgonzola-stuffed olives, with an expanded menu coming down the road.
LA Guide
The Hit List: New LA Restaurants To Try Right Now
photo credit: Wonho Frank Lee
Melanie, a natural wine bar in Beverly Grove, feels like a party in a friends’ living room, just as it’s starting to peak. The space is small, more of a hallway than a restaurant, but is filled with an electric buzz that’s part-chatter, part-glasses clinking. There’s a well-curated list filled with mostly European biodynamic wines, as well as snacks like plump mussels bathed in vadouvan curry and stone fruit toast, but what makes this place great are the people behind the bar. Much like the owner’s other spots (Sushi Note, Augustine Wine Bar), sommeliers here know what they’re talking about, but are 100% approachable.
We checked out Melody and added it to The LA Hit List: The Best New Restaurants In Los Angeles. Read more about it here.
This cozy wine shop in Virgil Village also has a new food menu. It’s filled with small, shareable plates like prawn omelets covered in spicy ’njuda and cheeses sourced from producers in France and Spain. All of which, of course, are designed to go incredibly well with their selection of over 400 bottles of wine.
ETA, a wonderful bar in Highland Park known for its bare-bone space and knock-out cocktails, has reopened with a brand-new food menu. There’s shrimp cocktail, chips served with salsa negra, and Thai-marinated cauliflower, in addition to Moscow mules on draft and house-made daiquiris. Plus, come for their Happy Hour (from 5-8pm daily) and you’ll find $1 oysters, $6.50 pilsners, and $10 glasses of wine.
There are over 100 varieties of Californian and Italian wines at Enoteca 5, a sleek wine bar in the Pacific Palisades. With its dark wooden ceilings and bottle storage built right into the wall, the dining room almost feels like someone’s very fancy wine cellar. There are dessert wines made in Cinque Terre, mineral white blends from Linguria, and bottles from a small, woman-run winery in Piedmont, all of which can be paired with deep-fried stuffed olives, jamón Ibérico, and various European cheeses.
This Arts District taproom specializes in botanical brews, beers, and cocktails. This Ojai-based brewery now has a cozy, barn-like taproom on Industrial Street in the Arts District where you’ll find antioxidant-rich hard kombuchas, beer flights, watermelon basil seltzers, and “sparkling botanical teas” poured straight from the tap.
Located in a huge, 8,000 square foot space in North Hollywood (which, fun fact, used to be a film rental house) is Lawless Brewing’s first-ever taproom. Like any good taproom, there are plenty of places to sit and a shiny, industrial aesthetic, plus the entire gamut of craft beer, including light and crisp lagers, West Coast-style IPAs, and limited-edition imperial stouts with coconut and vanilla flavors.
