The Fifth

4821 Whitsett Ave.
North Hollywood, CA 91607
818.753.8297www.vintagebargroup.com
twitter.com/vintagebargroup

Parking: free lot in strip mall
Daily, 12pm-8pm, $2 Tecate & Stella, $1 off wines (about $6), $4 well drinks all day
What is it about Vintage Bar Group that makes drinking in strip malls so cool? Seriously. If any other bar (by a group or otherwise) were in a strip mall, I’d expect all types of shadiness inside. But when Vintage Bar Group does a bar, they do it well, with little to no questions asked. For one reason or another, The Fifth has been coming up a lot in conversations so my girlfriends & I figured it was finally time to pay it a visit on a summer Friday. With a daily 12pm-8pm happy hour, how could we not?

The Fifth very much reminds me of The Woods with its dark interior, jukebox, regular customers, & one bathroom stall for the ladies (seriously bars, stop that). There wasn’t much happy hour crowd to speak of, but the handful of people that were there seemed to really like the bar because it was clear it wasn’t their first time at the rodeo. The customers appeared to know the bartenders and vice versa. The only thing that was unfortunate about the ambiance was that the jukebox & hum of conversations were so low at times that it often made us the loudest people in the bar without trying. If you don’t have anything nice to say about single life in LA, come sit by us!

The drinks were fair in price $4 for my cranberry vodka and quickly served. I think the bartender was suspicious of me because of all my note taking in my shiny new happy hour notebook (Thank you, Carrie!) but he never asked what I was doing so I just kept on writing. Please note, when my note taking & amateur photography raise suspicions, I always give an honest answer if asked. If not asked, I just keep on note & photo taking and drinking.

There’s no food served at the bar, however, one of the bartenders made a last call on a stack of sandwiches giveaway that looked like they had been brought in from Ralphs or something. My guess it that was a probably a rare occurrence, and brought in for a special occasion because they disappeared along with her.

The bar eventually picked up by the time I left around 9pm, so I would definitely return. I just would make sure to not have any top-secret conversations while there.

-JG
Rating: 3 Martinis