Lightening up Silver Lake

Saints & Sinners lounge owner Bobby Green has turned the former under-attended Johnny’s space on Sunset Boulevard into Stinkers, a truck stop-themed watering hole that opens early next month (most likely Nov. 7).

Nearly 5,000 vintage aluminum beer cans (think Hamm’s, Olympia, Ballantine’s, etc.) line the walls. Throw in a few 1970s posters of Burt Reynolds, a chandelier made from 1970s beer can pull tabs and a hood from a 1978 Trans Am and you have the makings of a bar that Bo “Bandit” Darville would approve of.

But the most talked about design feature at Stinkers will surely be the mechanized skunks that line the top of the bar. Green has the stuffed, backward-facing skunks rigged so that when a bartender pulls a cord, steam will come out of their respective backsides.

The food at Stinkers is still being worked out, Green says. “The guy next door at [adjacent restaurant] Local might put together a limited happy hour menu for us.”

Look for the trucker-inspired diamond-plate aluminum door with a mysterious “S” when the bar bows. “I’m doing everything I can just to make people smile,” Green says.

That’s a 10-4, big Bobby.

Stinkers, 2939 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 661-6007.

-- Charlie Amter