The Far Bar

The Far Bar

347 East 1^st Street, los Angeles, CA 90012

Little Tokyo is one of those little jewels in LA that’s so small you’d miss it if you didn’t know it was there, but so quaint and distinctive that once you find it, you wonder how you ever did without it.  Founded around the beginning of the 20^th century and one of only three official Japantowns in the United States, LA’s Little Tokyo is the cultural center for Japanese Americans in Southern California.  However, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II emptied the area, and what is left of the original Little Tokyo can be found in roughly five large city blocks surrounding the Japanese Village Plaza – bounded on the west by Los Angeles Street, on the east by Alameda Street, on the south by 3^rd Street, and on the north by First Street.

Despite its small size, Little Tokyo derives its charm from its authentic cultural identity, combined with its unique proximity to the growing Arts District – formerly the Warehouse District.  During the 1970s and 1980s, when Little Tokyo was still reestablishing itself after World War II, artists began moving into the nearby aging warehouse spaces, forming a hidden community in the industrialized area.  As Little Tokyo continued renovating, this integration of culture and art brought it under the national spotlight – the Japanese Village Plaza was awarded a Federal Design Achievement Award in 1986, and the district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1995.  Now, the area has a ton of restaurants, of all types, and a variety of fashion and clothing stores – everything from shoes, to high-end fashion, all the way to great chotsky dealers (I always get my aviators at Popkiller).

The point is this:  Not only is Little Tokyo very Japanese, it is also very artsy, but in a very urban area, beside the train tracks and the dilapidated remains of industrial warehouses, many of which are being converted into chic art studios and lofts.  So the place has a quite unique feel.  Think Skid Row…but clean…with beautiful graffiti murals…and the homeless wearing brightly colored kicks and looking more like hipsters (suspend your imagination)…and speaking Japanese.  And tiny stores hidden in the winding mall in the village plaza where you can buy Japanese VHS tapes and yogurt.

And there, across the street from the Japanese Village Plaza, hidden far back in a very very narrow alleyway, behind the adjacent restaurant is...The Far Bar.

The Far Bar is basically the first bar I located on my quest to find the best hidden places in LA.  And it has pretty much everything I love about Little Tokyo:  it’s low-key but classy; small, but surprisingly accommodating; and its use of space is truly unique, yet not pretentious.  If you can find the entrance, you literally have to squeeze through a long corridor of brick walls, which suddenly open up to a small-but-larger-than-expected patio bar, lit only by small candles and lights strung overhead, zigzagging from wall to wall high above the narrow makeshift alleyway bar.  The place gets loud and boisterous as the night goes on, and will usually have a band in the very back of the patio (which is still only about 5 feet from your table).  The place serves sushi, beer, liquor, cocktails, and of course, sake.

And after The Far Bar, you might want to head to the opposite end of Little Tokyo, across the street, in the very back of the small Honda Center strip mall, and check out Bar C – a low-key wine and sake bar with a weird bordello theme, where the the walls are covered in pink fur and Japanese bartenders dress like French maids. 

And the good thing is that if you have too much sake, you could probably just walk across the street and crash out in an abandoned warehouse for a few hours.  If anybody asks, just tell them you’re an artist.  [Just don’t tell them I told you to say that.]