Bar Bandini on Sunset in Echo Park is generally introduced as the first natural wine bar in Los Angeles, which is true and slightly beside the point. The reason people go several times a week is the back patio. It is large by Los Angeles bar standards, it is where the nightly food pop-up lands, and it is open until two in the morning every single day — which in a city where most wine bars close at eleven makes it a fundamentally different kind of room. The wine is the reason it exists; the patio is the reason it works.
A wine bar with a proper patio and a kitchen out the back is a whole evening rather than a drink. Ask Karpo what pop-up is cooking at Bar Bandini tonight.
The patio is the venue
The back patio is spacious and it is where the bar actually happens. In a city with a climate built for outdoor drinking and remarkably few good outdoor bars, that is a bigger deal than it sounds.
It is where craft beer, spirits and non-alcoholic pours get taken alongside the wine, and it is the part of the bar that functions as a community space rather than a drinking room.
The practical consequence: go through. First-time visitors sometimes stop at the front bar, see a small room, and misjudge the place entirely.
A nightly food pop-up
There is a food pop-up every night, and the roster rotates — pizza is a recurring one among a run of guest kitchens.
That rotation makes the bar worth re-checking rather than visiting once. The wine list changes slowly; the kitchen changes daily, and what is cooking is a real factor in whether tonight is the night.
It also means you can eat properly here. This is not a wine bar with a bowl of nuts; it is a wine bar with a different restaurant in the yard every evening.
Open until two, every day
Hours run Monday to Thursday 4pm to 2am and Friday to Sunday 3pm to 2am. Seven days, always until two.
For Los Angeles that is unusual. Most of the city's natural wine bars are early-evening businesses, and this is one of very few places where a bottle of something interesting is available at one in the morning.
The early afternoon opening at weekends is the other end of the same generosity. A three o'clock Saturday on that patio is one of the better cheap afternoons in Echo Park.
The programming is broader than wine
There is a comedy night — Better Half — every Wednesday at 8pm, and the calendar also runs recurring gay nights and daytime parties with guest DJs.
That mix is why the room reads as a neighbourhood hub rather than a wine destination. On any given night the reason people are there might have nothing to do with the list.
Check what is on if you want a quiet glass. A comedy night or a DJ afternoon is a different room, and neither is the setting for a considered tasting.
Where it sits
2150 West Sunset Boulevard, in Echo Park, on the stretch that runs towards Silver Lake. It is one of the more walkable parts of Los Angeles, and there is plenty within a few minutes either side.
Street parking is the usual Echo Park situation — possible on the side streets, tight on a weekend evening. With a 2am close, a ride is the sensible plan.
It works particularly well as the last stop of an evening, which is precisely what the hours are designed for.
Practical notes
Address: 2150 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, in Echo Park. Known as the city's first natural wine bar.
Hours: Monday to Thursday 4pm–2am; Friday to Sunday 3pm–2am.
Natural wine plus craft beer on tap and in bottle, spirits and non-alcoholic options. A food pop-up runs nightly; Better Half comedy every Wednesday at 8pm.
Tags: #LosAngeles #EchoPark #BarBandini #WineTastingNearMe #NaturalWine #Patio #SunsetBlvd #FoodPopUp #LateNight #LAWine #BarsAndNightsOut #CraftBeer
Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.
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Ask Karpo first
Ask Karpo which pop-up is cooking at Bar Bandini tonight, whether anything is programmed in the room, and what else on Sunset to fold into the evening.
