Your local chippy: The Pikey is open in Hollywood
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The Pikey officially opened just Sunday but still has much of the patina of its former incarnation as landmark dive bar Ye Coach & Horses (whose previous owner was evicted in 2010). There’s the British kitsch, amber glow and red-leather-topped bar stools, and by 7 o’clock the regulars already have parked themselves for the night at the dark wood bar. But the current owners, Sean MacPherson and Jared Meisler, have installed a drinks list from Damian Windsor of the Roger Room (another MacPherson-Meisler production) and a menu from chef Ralph Johnson, whose bona fides include having worked at the Spotted Pig in New York.
The cocktails are tasty and easy drinking. The Ginger Minge mixes Famous Grouse Scotch with ginger beer and lemon juice. The Stanley features Starr African rum, Pimm’s No. 1 and lemon juice, served up. In the Pony Boy are chamomile-infused absinthe Mata Hari, St-Germain elderflower liqueur and lemon juice. The commemorative Coach and Horses is a shot of aged whiskey and a PBR ‘tall boy.’
What’s nice about the Pikey is that it’s a neighborhood bar with the plus of a smart menu. There’s Welsh rarebit, a dense piece of toast topped with melty, mustardy Cheddar. Arctic char crudo is accompanied by blood orange segments, and seared squid by curried chickpeas. There are greens, too, a tartly dressed salad of fresh baby and purple kale and Bloomsdale spinach and curly endive sprinkled with ricotta salata, for example. You probably won’t be able to stop eating the thrice-cooked chips -- crispy seasoned fries served with a Worcestershire aioli. And the fish and chips are just how Winston Churchill would describe them -- ‘good companions.’
7617 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 850-5400.
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