The Red Lion

The Red Lion

2366 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles (Silver Lake), CA 90039

The Red Lion is one of LA’s best bars and most unique experiences, hands down.  For those of you who know me, you know the Bar Fly is really focused on hidden places.  In this respect, the Red Lion isn’t really “hidden,” in the usual sense of the word.  But I’m nevertheless including it because based on its unassuming outside appearance, the experience once inside the tavern is unmistakably surprising.  In this sense, the magic is hidden.  (And it’s got 3 bars hidden in 1!)

If it wasn’t for the ocean, I’d move from the West Side to Silver Lake in a heartbeat.  Contrary to common belief, Hollywood, with its chic clubs and hordes of tourists, is not the creative center of Los Angeles.  Rather, the true heart of Los Angeles is in its surrounding neighborhoods – Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Echo Park, and Atwater Village.  In many ways, Silver Lake is truly the creative epicenter of the world – a gritty, eclectic, urban, and ethnic area that is simultaneously an authentically hip neighborhood with a bizarre swank that is quintessentially “LA”; a place where the multitudes of creatives, intellectuals, artists, performers, dancers, and hipsters near and far will flock; a place where the real actors, performers, and musicians live – not the Brad Pitt’s and other A-list stars earning millions and represented by Ari Gold, but the girl you might vaguely recognize from a Dove soap commercial who spends the rest of her year bussing tables and working a double shift; a place where writers hang out at local coffee shops while working on their script; where designers sell their work on the sidewalks and at street fairs; and where musicians perform at free outdoor music festivals and at house parties held in bizarre, seemingly-abandoned apartment complexes.

In addition to this startling authenticity, Silver Lake is also home to some of LA’s greatest treasures:  Intelligetsia Coffee, the Sunset Junction, some of the most famous modernist architecture in North America, and…The Red Lion.

While the Red Lion isn’t really “hidden,” it lies in a very unique, somewhat obscure enclave of Eastern Los Angeles – on Glendale Blvd., up in the hills, near the Silver Lake Reservoir, far above Sunset Blvd. where the masses of bars are expected to be.  From the outside, the Red Lion looks like nothing but a beige building with a large wooden door.  Plain, simple, unassuming.  But once inside, you’re transported into another world...

The first step inside exposes you to an excessively authentic small German gasthaus (“gasthaus” literally translates as “guest house,” and refers to a German-style inn or tavern with a bar, restaurant, banquet facilities, and hotel rooms for rent).  The room is small, cramped, and crowded, with large wooden tables, surrounded by gaudy clocks, ornate German beer steins, an old guy playing piano, and a bar with authentic German draft beer, served by Austrian girls wearing the traditional dirndl.  Even if you spent the entire night in this small room, you’d forever love the Red Lion.  But then you’ll notice the staircase, almost hidden in the back…

The staircase takes you upstairs, past German tchotchkes and giant nutcrackers, and leads directly into an upstairs (“middle”) bar and “cellar” – a smaller bar inside a small room (that looks somewhat like a bar stuffed into a college dorm room).  So pick up another Spaten Optimator, but don’t stop there…  Continue down the hall to the door in the back, which seems like a backdoor entrance for employees…

And this is where the Red Lion literally transports you to Theresienwiese in late September – the back door leads into an open air, loud and boisterous, full-scale beer garden, with a large outside bar, tables, servers, sausage platters, and authentic German beers served in pint glasses, steins, and even das boot!.  On a crowded night, the experience makes you feel like you’re in the Hofbrauhaus tent during the taping of the first keg at Oktoberfest.  [Trust me, I’ve been to Oktoberfest, and the Red Lion is legit!]

And once you’re done prosting your friends, head directly across the street to the Cha Cha Lounge – a dimly-lit hipster/full-on Mexican cantina bar with the vibe of some place you’d stumble into in Tijuana, situated in a building that once housed a colorful local men’s club.

And if you find yourself inadvertently pulled into a clandestine, underground beerfest and challenged by a group of large Germans, remember your lederhosen and don’t forget to turn das boot sideways before the air bubble comes.  People get hurt that way.  [And yes, this is the only place in LA that actually serves beer in das boot.]

Seriously, if you’re in the area, check out the Red Lion on Friday, October 21^st for a real Oktoberfest celebration.