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Low Key Echo Park Bar Gold Room Flips Into Neon-Lit Cocktail Den

The longtime Dodgers pregame spot gets a spiffy new look

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Gold Room, Echo Park
Farley Elliott
Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

Longtime Echo Park drink haunt Gold Room has reopened, after unceremoniously shutting down without so much as a note on the door weeks back. Now the place is back up and running as of last week, and there’s a lengthy read posted right outside from the Perez family that owns the place, explaining their absence — and their new, very different look.

Step inside the once-divey bar at Sunset and Echo Park to find a vastly different space than before, with purple neon underlighting running the length of the redone bar. The same is true for the back bar, which is lined with all manner of new drink options to go along with the light-up jukebox on the back wall and the shiny new tabletops running opposite the bar. For a good idea of what that all actually looks like, check out the below Twitter shot from LA Times reporter Javier Panzar.

The menu has been similarly updated, and now reflects a collection of speciality cocktails priced at $13 — including an Oaxaca old fashioned with “Aztec Chocolate bitters” — as well as a section for wine and craft beer from places like Boomtown Brewery, Verdugo Brewing, and others.

As for the note from the Perez family, it reads (in part):

If you haven’t noticed it we have tried to keep up with the so often changing Echo Park. Changing through out the years yet trying to stay true to the dive bar look. Now 2017 has brought in a whole new chapter in this story ... same owner but now with a new look and a whole new menu...

We realized some of you might see it and not feel at home but we want to assure everyone that we will try our hardest to give the best service possible along with new great quality products.

Of course, the Gold Room is far from the first place to feel the effects of change in Echo Park. The hip ‘hood is now home to all manner of new bars and restaurants and coffee shops, from a vegan craft beer brewery to Cosa Buona, located in the former Pizza Buona space at Sunset and Alvarado. Gold Room is now open once again, keeping hours from noon to 2 a.m. daily.

Gold Room
1558 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA