The Sunset Strip’s New Cocktail Bar Aims for Retro Reliability

The newest Sunset Strip drinking den is here, and it’s called (appropriately enough) Bar Next Door. Pitching itself as a “classic neighborhood haunt,” this mellow new Sunset hangout aims to bring back all the tile, dark wood, and rustic leather from decades past along one of Los Angeles’s most important nightlife boulevards.

The new Bar Next Door opens Thursday, May 4 at 9159 Sunset Boulevard, just down the street from big nightlife names like Bootsy Bellows, the Viper Room, and the Whisky a Go Go, with restaurants like the original Night + Market and the newer Lavo around the corner as well. That’s all to say: it’s a busy area for drinking and dining already, though owner Lawrence Longo has long thought that the strip could use a more everyday drinking destination. Hence Bar Next Door, with its stable of cocktail staples, from riffs on a Jack and coke to musts like a Manhattan, old fashioned, and negroni. Brynn Smith (Rossoblu, Sotto) is on as the bar director to oversee the drinks; her opening menu is below.

For the design, Longo turned to Adam Greco of GRECODECO (Soho House) for the build-out, along with Rebel’s Wood — a contractor group that has also worked on West Hollywood establishments like the reborn Tail O’ the Pup and Harlowe. Expect lots of vintage touches like an old reel-to-reel machine and gleaming neon, while inside the dim lighting and creamy leather gives the whole room a tobacco tone, ideal for evenings with friends before or after a show.

Previously an office building for a defunct talent agency that used to represent names like Marilyn Monroe, now the space is home to booths and bar seating on diner-style stools, with service well into the night. Holly Mattson (Apotheke, Hotel Per La) is on as general manager, and Kara Rosenblum is a managing partner for Bar Next Door.

While Bar Next Door won’t serve its own food, customers won’t have to go far for a bite from Longo’s growing empire. His West Coast expansion of Prince Street Pizza is just next door, while the rebuilt icon Irv’s Burgers from Longo and partner Sonia Hong is just down the hill. Of course, the area is already filled with restaurants that cater to the high-end Hollywood Hills crowds; expect things at Bar Next Door to be a bit more mellow than all that.

The new Bar Next Door opens at 9159 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069 on Thursday, May 4, and will keep daily hours from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. moving forward.