Echo Park’s New Cocktail Lounge Feels Like the Perfect Mexico City Mezcal Bar

There’s never the sense that Echo Park can have too many small, intimate places to grab a drink. Ostrich Farm owners Brooke Fruchtman and Jaime Turrey have completed the rather lovely build out of their new mezcal lounge called Bar Caló, and it opens July 6 at 4 p.m. With an unlikely strip mall location that takes inspiration from Turrey’s Chicano heritage and the couple’s trips to Mexico City, Bar Caló feels a lot like Bósforo, which serves top notch mezcals and small plates to a sophisticated crowd.

Fruchtman and Turrey bring on Jeremy Simpson, most recently at Bestia and Good Housekeeping, for a creative cocktail list that riffs on the classics but uses seasonal produce. There’s a “market margarita” that takes the well-known formula and employs whatever’s tasting great in the bar’s garden.

Ostrich Farm vet Carrie Funk puts together a tight list of small plates like a twice-baked sweet potato with chorizo, Oaxaca hot chicken, or quesadilla de jamaica with hibiscus flowers and mezcal salsa. Despite a small space, Bar Caló intends to be open for breakfast daily at 9 a.m., so Funk prepares a short stack of savory corn pancakes or chilaquiles en mole in the morning. See the full menu on the lounge’s website. Bar Caló is open 9 a.m. to midnight daily, with a later 5 p.m. start on Tuesdays.

Bar Caló. 1498 West Sunset Boulevard, Echo Park, CA. 213-278-0901.

Wonho Frank Lee

Wonho Frank Lee

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