Dive Bar · Koreatown · Los Angeles
HMS Bounty
Opened 1962 in a 1924 apartment building across from the old Ambassador Hotel. The booths carry plaques; the drinks carry the night.
The Pitch
Sixty Years Below Deck on Wilshire
HMS Bounty has held the ground floor of the Gaylord Apartments since 1962, when Gordon Fields opened it across Wilshire from the Ambassador Hotel. The building went up in 1924, named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire himself, and the bar's nautical fittings predate the Bounty name, inherited from the room's run as Dimsdale's Secret Harbor.
Time Out keeps it on the Koreatown essentials list and The Infatuation ranks it among LA's best dive bars. Booth plaques name the celebrities who sat there, William Randolph Hearst to Winston Churchill, and Mad Men borrowed the room when it needed 1960s Wilshire without set dressing.
Who would hate it? Anyone who needs a back bar lit like a jewelry case. The Bounty pours strong, charges little, and changes nothing.
The Room
Portholes, Plaques, and Red Vinyl
The room runs dark and nautical: rope, ship lamps, red booths, and decor that Scoundrel's Field Guide traces to the space's previous lives as the Fountain Room and Secret Harbor. The booth plaques are the self guided tour. Slide in early on weeknights; Koreatown's late crowd owns it after eleven.
The Drinks
Stiff, Cheap, and Unbothered
Order well drinks and beer; the pours run generous and the prices run decades behind the neighborhood, the consistent note across The Infatuation's dive bar guide and years of regulars' reviews. The kitchen sends old school American plates, steaks and sandwiches, that match the booths.
The Crowd
Everyone Wilshire Ever Was
Gaylord residents, Koreatown barflies, screenwriters, and history tourists share the booths. Daytime drinks run quiet; weekend nights pack the rail deep.
What regulars say:
- The Infatuation keeps it on LA's best dive bars list.
- Time Out calls it a Koreatown institution.
- Scoundrel's Field Guide documents the booth plaques and the room's pre Bounty lives.
Who it is for:
- Dive drinkers who want their history load bearing
- Mad Men pilgrims doing Wilshire in one night
- Avoid if you want craft cocktails; Beverly Hills is twenty minutes west
Good to Know
Visit Information
Getting there: 3357 Wilshire Boulevard; Metro D Line to Wilshire/Normandie, one block east.
Timing: Daily from late morning into the small hours; weeknights for booths.
Cost: Among the cheapest serious rooms on Wilshire.
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