Villains Tavern and the Falls are latest additions to downtown L.A. bar scene
Forget ladies night, this is ladies week as two new bars headed up by seasoned female bar owners open for business downtown. Dana Hollister’s Villains Tavern is a swank explosion of turn-of-the-century antiquities blended with very now cocktail mixing techniques; and Michelle Marini’s the Falls is an avowal of love for brash 1970s glitz and current downtown neighborhood-bar appeal.
Hollister, an interior designer by trade, has long been a force downtown as well as in Silver Lake and Echo Park with stakes in Bordello, Cliff’s Edge and the Brite Spot. Marini, on the other hand, made her mark in Hollywood with the Lava Lounge — the little strip-mall bar that could, and did morph into another popular hang called the Woods.
Both women see downtown as an industrious village of forward-thinking business owners and recognize that drinking establishments are the bread and butter of the no-longer-nascent loft scene (home to the youngish, the mildly adventurous and the well paid).
Hollister aimed outside of the box with Villains, which is located in the old Studio Café space in the Arts District where the flat wastelands of industry and pocked early 20th century warehouses come to a shuddering stop beside the railroad tracks at the echoing concrete edges of the L.A. River.
“I have a certain belief in that area of town, it’s kind of magical,” she says. “I think we’re ahead of the curve with it.”
In this virtual no-man’s land, beneath the shine of the globe lights that dot the elegant 6th Street Bridge, with its voyeuristic views of the central downtown skyline, Villains swaggers into view like a bustling Old West saloon in the middle of a ghost town.
Hollister acquired the space several years ago and freely admits that she fell down a rabbit hole once she began designing it. “I wanted this place to be about maximalism — I wanted it to be about time travel,” she says of the space and its baroque design scheme. “It feels like a memory to me when I look at it.”
The dark wood antique bar was found in Utah but was built in the Bowery in 1870; the walls are made of vintage doors laid horizontally and stacked like bricks (which muffles the sound in the room); the gothic balcony looming above the bar was crafted using iron from Argentina; 680 antique apothecary and seltzer bottles line the expansive front window like 3-D stained glass; and detailed woodwork from a demolished Brooklyn church serves as a mirror for the robust scene as you walk in the door.
There is also a vast L-shaped outdoor patio with another bar and a small stage that Hollister plans to use for unusual live performances and jazzy, acoustic acts. “Forgotten songs, great B sides, that sort of sound,” she elaborates.
Food is served alongside handcrafted, artisanal cocktails made using fresh syrups and juices. Right now, the menu is small (burgers with bacon-cherry marmalade, farro salad with wild beets, bourbon-bacon caramel corn and an assortment of salads), but it will grow and weekend brunch is a distinct possibility. And you’ll always find the bar’s signature mix-and-match option: a jar of beer (there are 28 options) and a shot of top-shelf liquor for $8.
In stark contrast to the frontier-like environs of Villains Tavern, the Falls is an urban sophisticate, albeit one in snug gold lamé pants.
“My concept originally started off as a lot more ‘70s ‘Scarface,’ but just hanging out downtown I began taking it in a more old-timey direction,” says Marini. The result is kind of like if the ‘70s and the ‘40s mated and had a casually stylish baby.
The wide-open room (located next door to the newish Spring St. bar in the City Lofts building) has a woodsy feel with gold metal-plated tree trunk lounge tables; an elongated bar shaped like a wide smile and topped with fake wood; a video sculpture featuring frothy water and waterfalls rushing through acrylic ice cubes; and a back wall covered in mesmerizing two-dimensional wallpaper made of razor-thin stainless steel powder-coated in brass.
“That was pretty much inspired by my parents’ bathroom wallpaper from the ‘70s,” says Marini of the latter.
The drink list was put together by Marini’s partner Al Almeida, who was once a bartender at the Lava Lounge. “He’s fanatical about fresh-squeezed juice and handcrafted bitters,” says Marini. “And he wants to do Jell-O shots made out of natural Jell-O.”
On a recent Tuesday, while the bar was operating in soft-open mode (its grand opening is Saturday night), friendly bartenders joked around with a modest stream of curious newcomers.
“Where do you live?” was the question commonly bandied between customers. The answer, invariably, was “Around the corner.”
jessica.gelt@latimes.com
Where: 1356 Palmetto St., L.A.
When: 5:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays
Price: Cocktails, $11 to $13; burgers, salads and appetizers, $5 to $14
Contact: (213) 613-0766; https://www.villainstavern.com
Where: 626 S. Spring St., L.A.
When: 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily. Happy hour coming soon.
Price: Beer, wine and cocktails, $5 to $12
Contact: (213) 612-0072
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