The Best Hidden Gem Bars in Los Angeles

A room that takes its name from the original occupant and its attitude from somewhere more serious. The Roger Room has been one of the best cocktail bars in Los Angeles for a decade, operating without much fanfare on La Cienega. The menu is built on classics executed with precision, the room is dark and genuinely comfortable, and the bartenders are the kind who remember your order on a second visit.

Order: The house Negroni or whatever they are riffing on tonight

A Silver Lake whisky bar on Sunset that has been the neighbourhood's honest answer to the flashier options to the west for years. The bourbon and American whisky selection is broad and thoughtfully priced, the back room has booth seating that actual Silver Lake residents use for actual conversations, and the bartenders are friendly without performing friendliness. Go on a weeknight for the room at its best.

Order: A neat pour from the American single malt section

An Old Hollywood supper club that survived the 1990s, the 2000s, and every subsequent wave of LA dining fashion by simply refusing to update. The Dresden has had the same house duo playing the same kind of jazz for decades. The cocktails are technically simple and served in proper glasses. The room is the kind of place that film directors use as a location because it already looks like a film set.

Order: A classic Sidecar or a Stinger — they do both correctly

Downstairs on Broadway, Caña is one of the most serious rum programs in the country operating in one of the quieter rooms in Downtown. The collection spans the Caribbean and beyond, the cocktails use rum as a foundation for serious building rather than a sweetener, and the space is intimate enough that you end up talking to whoever is at the bar next to you. LA's most underrated hidden gem bar, full stop.

Order: A neat aged Barbadian rum or a proper Daiquiri built with the good stuff

Through the back of Cole's — Downtown LA's oldest bar — a door leads to The Varnish, a small room that has been one of the best cocktail bars in Los Angeles since it opened. The programme is built on pre-Prohibition classics executed without compromise. The room holds around thirty people and fills up by 9pm on any day of the week. Reserve ahead on weekends; the walk-in list moves slowly.

Order: A Jack Rose or a Corpse Reviver #2 — they nail both

A natural wine bar on Traction Avenue in the Arts District that occupies the ground floor of a converted warehouse and takes its list from producers in France, Italy, and California who are doing things that the mainstream wine world is still catching up to. The food is good — small plates built to drink with — and the crowd is the creative industries contingent of the neighbourhood who discovered the place and told nobody else.

Order: Something from the rotating Jura or Loire selections by the glass

On Abbot Kinney, where every other restaurant has a three-month waiting list, Tasting Kitchen keeps a bar programme that rivals the best cocktail bars in the city without making a fuss about it. The wine list is deep and European-leaning, the cocktails are built by people who take the work seriously, and the food is worth staying for. Our pick for the best bar on Abbot Kinney that does not require advance planning.

Order: A glass from the grower Champagne list or the bartender's current seasonal

A dark room on the corner of Doheny and Santa Monica that has been doing honest late-night drinking since before most of the bars around it existed. Not a cocktail destination — a place to drink good whisky, talk, and stay past midnight without feeling like you are in a venue. The playlist is the right kind of loud: present but not intrusive. The crowd mixes industry people and serious West Hollywood regulars.

Order: Scotch neat or a simple Whisky Sour

A neighbourhood wine bar in Eagle Rock that has been doing more with a small list than most of its downtown counterparts do with three times the selection. The wines are natural and small-producer, the prices are genuinely fair by LA standards, and the terrace is the best outdoor drinking spot east of Atwater Village. Go before 8pm for a seat outside; after that, the locals have already claimed the tables.

Order: Whatever the by-the-glass special is — usually something from Beaujolais or the Rhone

In Koreatown on Sixth Street, this restaurant-bar hybrid runs one of the most interesting cocktail programmes in the city from a bar that seats only a fraction of the room. The drinks draw on the restaurant's global pantry — unusual spirits, house-made ingredients, produce from the kitchen — and the results are consistently surprising without being strange. Reserve a bar seat if you are coming specifically to drink.

Order: The agave-forward seasonal or the menu selection with Korean spirits