Weiland Brewery Underground

505 S Flower Street
Suite B-410
Los Angeles 90071
213-622-1125
www.weilandbreweryla.com *NEW Site!twitter.com/weilandbrewery

Parking: Downtown street parking + just blocks from the 7th St. Metro Station (Blue & Red Line stop)
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 3-7pm AND 10pm-close
Drink Deals: $2.50 Draft Beers (4 Weiland Brewery Beers), Swell regular prices on other drinks
Food Deals: Bar food bites running from only $1 - $4.95

What can you say when a bar’s greatest attribute is its weirdness, its idiosyncratic and unbelievable location? How David Lynch should consider it for one of his character’s regular hangouts? Well, I guess that’s what you can say! And I for one totally dig it. In fact, I will volunteer to be the David Lynch character.

View looking up next to the WBR Underground Building

See, Weiland Brewery Underground sits in a food court 2 floors below the 52-story City National Bank Tower on Flower St. in downtown LA and it features 2 nightly Happy Hours – from 3-7pm and 10pm-close. The bar is closed on Saturday and Sunday – I guess because it caters to a business clientele that just isn’t there on the weekends. That sounds about right since when JG visited their Little Tokyo location for happy hour, it was pretty popular lawyers and court house officials. But when Kitty Packard and I visited on a Thursday night late Happy Hour (post-Library party, true story), there didn’t seem to be much clientele either – all of the other food court restaurants were closed and the empty space felt a little post-apocalyptic/Overlook Manor from THE SHINING. Maybe both! Add to that a weird Teddy Roosevelt statue and a Kronenberg beer sign when they didn’t even sell Kronenberg and you’ve got yourself one weird Happy Hour!

Spooky Quiet Food Court!

Entrance to WBR Underground

Despite this strange experience of going to a zombie-ready Happy Hour 2 floors beneath one of the city’s tallest buildings, the Happy Hour was actually pretty cool. The food and drink prices were AMAZING! KP and I had 2 beers each and shared 3 appetizers and in the end, only paid $13.50/person with tip!!

Drink Rounds 1 and 2

For drinks, we had the 2 rounds of beers – the first round was not on Happy Hour, but still, we only paid $4 each for my Strongbow Cider and KP’s Pilsner Urquell. For the second round, we went with the $2.50 Happy Hour drafts – the WBR Honey Blonde Ale and WBR Hefeweizen, both totally (more than) fine for $2.50! For food, we shared an order of Fresh Cut Garlic Fries ($2.95) – very garlic-y, but great if you like garlic(!); Sam Adam’s Onion Rings ($2.95) – in which you could definitely taste that delish beer batter; and Cheddar & Jack Cheese Quesadilla ($2.95) – very tasty as well. The food was definitely bar food, but it was pretty good and again, remarkably well-priced.

Fries & Onion Rings (both $2.95)

Quesadilla ($2.95)

I also loved, loved, loved the awesome jukebox which played David Bowie, Frank Sinatra, Morrissey, Elvis, the Clash, and more during our visit. And I also love that WBR Underground hosts a Thursday night trivia. Although the start time is early (6pm), that at least gives you one good Happy Hour hour of booze and bites.

Trivia must have finished up a bit before we arrived at 10pm, but there was still a handful of people at the bar and by the time we left, it was up to maybe 15 or so people. Not a lot, but not bad for the strangest location ever! I guess maybe WBR Underground has a small following in the know about the awesome Happy Hour prices!

Check out the Little Tokyo location if you’re in the mood for good prices on a Saturday or Sunday night!

Teddy Roosevelt(?) & yours truly

--JB

Rating: 4 Martinis