CLUB REVIEW : Nostalgic Night Owls Alight at the Lava Lounge
If contemporary thinking holds true, L.A.’s disparaged strip malls may very well be the artists’ lofts of the future. And Hollywood’s Lava Lounge could be spearheading the development.
The plush venue is neighbored by a coin laundry, a dental office and a run-down liquor store on strip-mall central--the decidedly un-trendy part of La Brea Avenue between Sunset and Hollywood boulevards.
The tiny tiki-room, with its lava-textured walls, sting-ray hangings and nostalgic music selection, has been drawing a heavy turnout of night owls in search of something different since it opened a month ago.
The Lava Lounge’s main appeal to its patrons, most of them in their 20s and 30s, is a deejay-engineered return to their childhoods, when Petula Clark and Engelbert Humperdinck reigned supreme. As couples snuggle in the five booths, the deejay spins hit singles from the late ‘50s and early ‘60s by the likes of Clark and Humperdinck, Lulu and Tom Jones.
On Wednesdays, a nameless trio plays standards such as Stan Getz’s “Girl From Ipanema” and Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat (Day-O)” with a practiced lounge precision that Bill Murray would envy.
The one disconcerting thought that lingers as you put down your umbrella-adorned drink and leave the club is that the old adage has proven correct--you do indeed become your parents.
* Lava Lounge, 1533 North La Brea Ave . No cover . (213) 876-6612 .
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