The Los Angeles cocktail scene was shaken not too long ago when Eric Alperin, co-owner and co-founder of The Varnish, introduced the approaching closure of his groundbreaking speakeasy.
Launched in 2009 by Alperin, Cedd Moses, and the late Sasha Petraske, The Varnish was an extension of Petraske’s imaginative and prescient for his groundbreaking New York Metropolis bar, Milk & Honey. It didn’t take lengthy for Los Angeles to purchase into the bar’s imaginative and prescient, which grew to become a mainstay of the town’s consuming tradition.
Hidden in a former storage room behind certainly one of L.A.’s oldest eating places, Cole’s French Dip, The Varnish targeted on traditional cocktails with intent, objective, and impeccable method.
Over its 15 years in operation, The Varnish grew to be probably the most beloved and influential bars within the metropolis, inserting 14th within the World’s 50 Greatest Bars in 2012, profitable a Tales of the Cocktail Spirited award for Greatest American Bar that very same yr, and snagging a James Beard Award semifinalist nod in 2017. The Varnish was additionally frequented by the late L.A. meals author Jonathan Gold and earned a go to from Anthony Bourdain in 2012 for his Journey Channel present, The Layover.
After a decade and a half, The Varnish is lastly closing its doorways, marking the tip of an period. So what occurred, and what does it imply for the bar panorama in Los Angeles, and past?
Elevating the bar
Earlier than The Varnish, there was a small however rising cocktail scene in Los Angeles that was nonetheless behind different main cities in some ways.
“L.A. was the [misfit] of the cocktail world. No person took it significantly,” says Leandro DiMonriva, who spent a decade bartending at Cole’s and frequenting The Varnish earlier than changing into a full-time educator and cocktail educator at The Educated Barfly.
It wasn’t the primary craft cocktail bar in Los Angeles, however The Varnish marked a sea change within the metropolis’s bar and hospitality neighborhood.
“The opening of The Varnish was just about making a declaration, like, ‘That is what we consider,’ you realize, a philosophical method to cocktails. It clearly resonated in plenty of other ways,” says former Varnish bartender Alex Day, now co-owner of Dying & Co. and a associate with Gin & Luck.
What made The Varnish particular was how a lot all of us individually cared about bringing it to life each single night time.” — Devon Tarby, former Varnish bartender and hospitality advisor
The Varnish’s dedication to its core values set a excessive normal for bars in Los Angeles.
“It was one place specifically that had no drawback saying ‘We’re gonna maintain to our requirements,’” says Gordon Bellaver, Varnish alumnus and associate at Penny Pound Ice. “It wasn’t about, ‘Oh, have a look at how nice The Varnish is,’” he says. “It was extra like, ‘Wow, The Varnish has some sturdy values and a really sturdy standpoint, and I can try this too,’ you realize?”
The magic of the bar was an amalgamation of things, together with consideration to element and real thoughtfulness from those that labored there.
“I may let you know concerning the hand-cut ice and the recent juices and the meticulous consideration to measuring and cocktail temperature and garnish placement and even our playlists, however what made The Varnish particular was how a lot all of us individually cared about bringing it to life each single night time,” says former Varnish bartender and hospitality advisor Devon Tarby.
The tiny 987-square-foot bar supplied a welcome escape for visitors. Low candlelight, dwell jazz musicians, and the fixed clanking of ice shaking towards tin created a timeless, comforting ambiance that invited intimate dialog.
“You walked in and meant to have a cocktail or two, and then you definitely blink, and you’ve got been there for 5 hours,” says Day. “You’ve got made new mates, and there was identical to an unbelievable sense of neighborhood handled inside that house.”
DiMonriva agrees. “There was plenty of camaraderie. It was simply arduous to explain, it was like strolling right into a neighborhood the place everyone is simply on the identical wavelength,” he says. “I received to take in all of the data. It’s majorly answerable for what I do now with The Educated Barfly.”
Day, Tarby, and most of the bartenders who lower their enamel behind the stick at The Varnish have gone on to additional success within the hospitality trade and past.
A altering scene
Though The Varnish feels untouched by time, it’s nonetheless subjected to the fabric realities of the fashionable day.
“There is a sort of overriding narrative proper now that all of us received by way of the pandemic, and the whole lot’s nice, and it is simply not the truth,” says Day. “Town of Los Angeles modified essentially and downtown modified enormously.”
Working a bar shouldn’t be simple work, and the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t make issues simpler. The amount of restaurant and bar closures throughout Los Angeles in 2024 thus far is staggering and well-documented. The prices concerned with working a bar proceed to rise and Angelenos nonetheless have not returned to their pre-pandemic nightlife habits.
“The closure speaks broadly to the housing disaster and to the intense improve in price of dwelling we’re seeing in Los Angeles and in lots of different American cities,” says Tarby. “It feels unjust that The Varnish and so many different small companies are falling sufferer to those systemic points nicely outdoors their management.”
“There is a sort of overriding narrative proper now that all of us received by way of the pandemic, and the whole lot’s nice, and it is simply not the truth. Town of Los Angeles modified essentially and downtown modified enormously.” — Alex Day, former Varnish bartender, co-owner of Dying & Co. and associate with Gin & Luck
Downtown L.A., and particularly the realm surrounding Cole’s and The Varnish, was hit notably arduous by the pandemic.
“Downtown had a little bit sketch, however nothing that wasn’t thrilling within the metropolis that invented noir,” says Alperin. “When the pandemic hit, I do know folks moved out of downtown. They only did not need to be there, and I do not know what number of have moved again.”
Former bar supervisor Samuel Houston was tasked with steering the ship as soon as The Varnish reopened after lockdowns. “There are many days the place I felt like I used to be a flotation machine, just like the bar was simply treading water,” he says. “I felt like the town wanted it, although. For no matter cause.”
The precise factor that made The Varnish so particular made it particularly troublesome for the bar to pivot through the pandemic. To cease utilizing recent juices and clear ice or to start pre-batching cocktails for faster service is totally antithetical to the ethos laid down by the bar’s founders.
“Ardour tasks, or issues that take plenty of labor and are a giant labor of affection, are sadly very simply lower when the fats will get trimmed,” says Day. “ You already know, it is only a troublesome state of affairs. However on the identical time, I believe it was all the time a kind of locations that you just thought could be round without end due to its consistency, due to its notoriety and recognition.”
Final name
With the closing of The Varnish, a lot of those that loved the bar or labored there are feeling nostalgic. One pervasive sentiment was a way of gratitude for having been a part of one thing they felt was particular.
“It is so arduous for people like us to not wrap up a chunk of who we’re and our identification and have it superimposed onto this factor, this concept that we created,” says Day. “And when it fails, it simply doesn’t really feel actual.”
Houston provides that usually, “bars open and shut so shortly we barely discover or have little emotion after they shutter. [But] The Varnish was a bar that fought again and invested on this metropolis, fueled by the bartenders and servers invested in it. It feels just like the bar is able to go be with Sasha.”
The Varnish was a bar that fought again and invested on this metropolis, fueled by the bartenders and servers invested in it. It feels just like the bar is able to go be with Sasha.” — Samuel Houston, former bar supervisor, The Varnish
Ultimately, The Varnish goes out by itself phrases. After surviving the worst of the pandemic, the folks behind the bar nonetheless refused to compromise their values. Due to this, the neighborhood constructed across the bar will all the time bear in mind it because the bar’s founders meant.
“Something actually good and worthwhile has beginnings, middles, and ends. You already know, all stunning issues have an ephemeral high quality to them,” says Alperin. “The Varnish is perhaps this little flash level that helped the remainder of the town do what it wanted to do. It is okay that The Varnish is transferring on.”