One unlikely, but seemingly certain future downtown...

One unlikely, but seemingly certain future downtown hot spot is Charlie O’s, the seedy dive bar at 5th and Spring streets. The folks behind downtown’s Bar 107 recently signed a lease to take over the notorious watering hole (with a dangerous-looking exposed ceiling and frisk-happy security guards) adjacent to the Alexandria Hotel. Vice magazine threw two well-attended parties at Charlie O’s recently, where DJs and bands played to bearded and bespectacled hipsters. Manager Brian Traynam says he has permits to knock down a wall to make way for a large smoking patio by early 2008, but he vows to keep the bar “dirty” and dangerous, since, he says, “everyone is already going high-end downtown.” Look for a big night at Charlie O’s on Saturday during the LA Weekly Detour Festival as San Diego punkers the Long and Short of It take the stage.

Speaking of going “high-end” downtown, Elevate, the 21st-floor lounge adjacent to Takami restaurant, is doing well -- on Friday nights, especially. The chic rooftop destination has been packing in the platinum-card set on weekends, with the kind of lines outside the elevators usually associated with the Downtown Standard Hotel’s rooftop lounge. . . . Another venue making noise downtown with a younger, less-moneyed crowd is Crash Mansion. The 14,000-square-foot destination, formerly Vertigo (and a host of other clubs over the years, including Myron’s Ballroom), has been in soft launch mode since they bowed in June. The massive, raw space (1,200 capacity with five bars, two stages and a smoking patio bigger than some bars in Hollywood) has already seen decent turnouts for a recent Dave Navarro gig, and events for Nikki Sixx and Wyclef Jean. Crash Mansion, which is the new outpost of the already established Lower East Side/SoHo club Crash Mansion NYC, had hoped to make a splash this Halloween with a Marilyn Manson-hosted event (since removed from their schedule). But look for an official grand opening in November with a major artist performing at the space, which is located near Staples Center.

For every new hot spot opening up downtown, it seems one has to close. A different kind of downtown institution, the Spot, is having its last two events this week to make way for a new city-owned building. The beloved underground alternative space will host parties tonight and Saturday night (a Detour fest soiree) for downtown dwellers in the know (a password and/or name on the guest list is required for entry) before closing out. The folks behind the Spot are looking to open a new place in the next few months. . . . And Andrew Meieran’s Mercury Liquors, the hotly anticipated 6th Street bar inside a bank vault at the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Building, has been delayed until at least mid-2008. . . . Sophisticated downtown drinkers are looking forward to Cedd Moses’ latest ultra-exclusive venture, the Doheny, set to open in late November -- at a location to be announced. . . . And in Chinatown, Firecracker, the every-other-Friday promotion at the Grand Star, celebrates its ninth anniversary.

A seedy attraction

It’s up in the air

Ex marks the Spot

-- Charlie Amter