Hidden Gem Bars in Los Angeles

Hidden inside the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, The Spare Room is a gaming parlour and cocktail bar in one. Vintage bowling lanes, board games, and one of the most thoughtfully composed cocktail menus in the city. Most tourists stay at the poolside bar downstairs and never find it.

Finding Lock and Key requires knowing where to look on Wilshire Boulevard. No sign, just a frosted glass door. Inside: intimate booths, creative cocktails, and the best bar snacks in Koreatown. The mezcal programme is exceptional and rarely discussed in the wider press.

The bar that looks like a dive from outside operates an extremely serious cocktail programme upstairs in the honky-tonk room. Live music, old-fashioned prices, and a crowd of regulars who discovered this place years ago and see no reason to share it.

The various hidden floors and back rooms at Clifton's Republic in DTLA include a Pacific Seas tiki lounge and a basement speakeasy that most visitors to the main bar floor never locate. Worth exploring every corner.

The cocktail bar above the Den on Sunset is invitation-only for reservations and still manages to fly under the radar. The classic cocktail programme here is among the best in the city, executed with minimal fuss and maximum precision.

The art gallery bar in Culver City has a legitimately interesting rotating art programme alongside one of the most eclectic drinks lists in the city. The absinthe menu alone is worth the visit.

Located inside a record shop in the Grand Central Market area, The Love Song Bar operates a small bar programme alongside a deeply curated vinyl selection. The crowd leans toward the interesting end of the Downtown spectrum.

The neighbourhood bar in Silver Lake that the neighbourhood actually uses, rather than the neighbourhood bar designed to look like the neighbourhood uses it. The whiskey list is serious; the pricing is generous; the jukebox is excellent.

The small-format outpost of the Ventura-based brewery in East Hollywood is easy to walk past and nearly impossible to regret walking into. The small tap list rotates constantly, focusing on limited releases unavailable elsewhere in LA.

While the BBQ gets all the press, the bar side of Bludso's is one of LA's most underrated drinking spots. The frozen drinks are exceptional; the local crowd at the bar is some of the most genuine in the city.

The magic show bar in Hollywood is easy to dismiss and hard to forget. The cocktail magic shows run several nights a week; reserve ahead, arrive early, and embrace the theatricality.

The bar that looks unchanged since 1949 because it essentially is. A former Korean restaurant transformed into one of the most atmospheric old bars in the city. The martinis are strong; the wood panelling is original; the prices remain miraculously reasonable.