Gold Line in Highland Park, built by Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf, is the LA listening bar with 7,500 records and a Thorens turntable.
Tip: No outside records or laptops. Rotating local DJs play house-party volume. Walk-in, cocktails $16 to $20.
Address: 5607 North Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Tabula Rasa Bar on Hollywood Boulevard in LA's Thai Town pours 20 natural wines by the glass and 200 bottles with live jazz and DJ industry nights.
Tip: Live jazz Sunday and Tuesday from 20:00 typically. Walk-in seating, food trucks rotate in the courtyard.
Sunset & Vinyl hides behind a back staircase inside 800 Degrees Pizza in Hollywood, a 70s-themed LA listening lounge devoted to vintage records.
Tip: Open 19:00 to 02:00. Walk-up the staircase past the pizza counter. Smart casual; weekends fill by 22:00.
Only the Wild Ones on Abbot Kinney in Venice is the Japanese-style hi-fi listening bar that opened 2025 with LA natural wines and small-batch drinks.
Tip: Resy reservations open weekly. Bar seats are walk-in; the Tannoy speaker set runs all-vinyl mid-week, mixed-format weekends.
Tiki-Ti on Sunset in Los Feliz, opened 1961 by Ray Buhen, is the 12-seat LA tiki room pouring 90 family-recipe cocktails over three generations.
Tip: Cash only, no reservations. Closed Sunday through Tuesday. Order the Ray's Mistake, the bartenders ring a bell.
Rainbow Bar & Grill on the West Hollywood Sunset Strip is the 1972 rock dive that fed Led Zeppelin, Motorhead and Guns N Roses into the small hours.
Tip: Kitchen runs to 01:30, bar to 02:00. Lemmy's corner booth is preserved by the front door.
Frolic Room next to the Pantages Theatre has poured on Hollywood Boulevard since 1934, a neon-lit dive with an Al Hirschfeld mural and a regulars-only bar attitude.
Tip: Cash and card. Open 11:00 to 02:00 daily. The mural over the bar was installed 1963 and depicts mid-century Hollywood.