A Hidden New Rooftop Hangout Arrives Friday in the Arts District

There’s a new bar to know about in the Arts District, and it comes complete with its own semi-hidden entrance. The new La Barra, a rooftop experience attached to the leafy LA Cha Cha Chá restaurant on 3rd Street, opens this Friday, October 8 with a tight menu of colorful cocktails and street snacks that call back to the group’s origins out of Mexico City.

Like LA Cha Cha Chá, the new La Barra is the work of Mexico’s Groupo Palmares, and comes with food from Mexico City-born, LA-raised chef Alejandro Guzman. While separate both in entrance and menu, La Barra is physically an extension of the Arts District rooftop’s footprint, acting as an indoor bar and hangout while wholly separate full meals are available on the lush rooftop.

So what to expect from the newcomer? Drinks in the $15 to $18 mostly, served with color and flourish and occasionally a little bit of heat, like the old fashioned riff that leans into blue corn tortilla Abasolo Whisky, or a take on a highball with smoked nopales-infused vodka and aloe. The cocktails are paired alongside snack and plates like tacos dorados filled with carnitas, or guacamole and chips, or pambazo sandwiches on telera bread with chorizo, avocado cream, and butternut squash, among other dishes.

As for timing, the new La Barra opens this Friday, October 8, with plans to keep hours Tuesday through Saturday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Better still, the bar area will continue to offer food every night until 1 a.m., a rarity in Los Angeles. Expectant drinkers and diners will access La Barra not from the La Cha Cha Chá doorway on 3rd Street, but from a separate door at 803 Traction Avenue; just look for the glowing lemon sign.

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