RollCall
Stories
RollCall Stories covers venues that do something nobody else does. Short on our channels, told in full here.
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Vandell · Los Feliz, Los Angeles
Shawn Lickliter taught Max Reis at République. Now both run bars in Los Feliz. Lickliter's newest, Vandell, pours a Negroni made with 50-year-old Campari and keeps a red back room its own bartender calls home.
The Troubadour · West Hollywood
On August 25, 1970, an English songwriter almost nobody in the room had heard of sat down at the Troubadour's house piano. By the end of the night he was a star. The club has outlasted Lenny Bruce's arrest, Lennon's ejection and a pandemic.
Daisy Margarita Bar · Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles
Max Reis found mezcal on tour with a heavy metal band. In 2022 he told his staff they would never make North America's 50 Best Bars. Now he has two bars on it, and one is named after the margarita's grandmother.
Lapaba · Koreatown, Los Angeles
In 2014 McKenna Lelah was working the mozzarella bar at Osteria Mozza and Matthew Kim was the sous chef. Now the married chefs make galbi jjim pasta in Koreatown, and it took a lot of tries to get it right.
Tiki-Ti · Los Feliz, Los Angeles
In 1934, four Filipino bartenders made the drinks at the original Don the Beachcomber, out of sight. History kept one name: Ray Buhen. In 1961 he opened twelve stools on Sunset, and his family still toasts him every Wednesday.
Musso & Frank Grill · Hollywood, Los Angeles
In the 1930s, Hollywood hired America's great novelists to write movies, then rewrote them. They complained at the Screen Writers Guild, crossed the street and drank at Musso's. A century on, the family won't even cut the tongue sandwich.
Pacific Electric · Chinatown, Los Angeles
The last Red Car ran in 1961. Sixty-five years later, a Mumford & Sons keyboardist who wanted to be the next Bill Graham opened a 750-person music room by the LA River and named it after them.
Broken Spanish Comedor · Los Angeles
Ray Garcia nearly became a lawyer. Instead he built one of LA's most acclaimed Mexican restaurants, lost it to the pandemic in 2020, and came back five years later in an old IHOP A-frame with a chicharrón that takes five days.
Philippe the Original · Downtown, Los Angeles
Two downtown restaurants spent a century claiming the French dip, and nobody had proof. In March 2026 Cole's closed for good. Two days later, Philippe's retired the sawdust it had spread across its floor for a hundred years.
Lugya'h · West Adams, Los Angeles
For years the best tlayudas in Los Angeles came off a backyard grill on South Main Street, beside the office where Odilia Romero trains interpreters for Indigenous languages. Now Lugya'h is a Michelin Bib Gourmand in West Adams.
The Dresden · Los Feliz, Los Angeles
In the early 1980s, a hairdresser who played drums and a former teenage jazz prodigy started playing a Los Feliz lounge that was, in his words, strictly 40-and-up. Then Swingers happened. Marty and Elayne played the Dresden until 2020.
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