Los Angeles is a city where the correct answer to where to go is usually a question about distance. This October that becomes unusually literal: the same Halloween cocktail pop-up is running in three separate bars, in three parts of the county that have nothing to do with one another, with the same drinks list in each.
When the same event runs in three places, the right one is decided by the drive home and the room you like, not by the poster. Tell Karpo where you are and get the version of tonight that is closest to you.
Which means the choice is not about the event at all. It is about which of these three neighbourhoods you want to be in at midnight.
What is the same in all three
Black Lagoon is a travelling horror-themed pop-up that takes over bars around the country each autumn. The package is consistent: goth decor, metal on the sound system, a cocktail list written around the theme, and — reliably, in every location — the twelve-foot skeleton that Home Depot has somehow turned into a national seasonal icon.
The drinks are properly built rather than novelty-coloured, which is the reason this format has spread. What you are choosing between, therefore, is three rooms and three neighbourhoods, and those differ enormously.
Beverly Grove: the central one
Melrose Umbrella Co. on Melrose Avenue is the most central of the three and the most conventional choice. It is a post-Prohibition-style cocktail bar that also functions as a craft coffee house during the day, which gives it a double life most bars do not have and makes the seasonal transformation more dramatic than it would be somewhere that only opens at six.
This is the version to pick if the evening has other parts to it. Melrose, Beverly Grove and the Fairfax district are dense with restaurants and shops, the Grove is minutes away, and you can build a whole night on foot from a single parking spot — which in this city is the actual luxury.
Culver City: the westside one
The Corner Door in Culver City is the west-side location and the answer for anybody who lives between the 10 and the coast and has correctly concluded that driving east on a Friday night is a decision they will regret.
Culver City is also the most self-contained of the three neighbourhoods. The downtown core is small, walkable and full, with a serious concentration of restaurants around the Culver Steps and the old studio lot, plus the E Line running through it, which is the single best public-transport case of the three locations and the one that makes not driving genuinely realistic.
Long Beach: the one that is a proper trip
The Ordinarie sits on the Promenade in downtown Long Beach and is a modern American tavern the rest of the year — chef-driven comfort food, house cocktails, local beer and live music. It is the furthest from central Los Angeles by a wide margin and the only one of the three where the bar itself is a destination rather than a stop.
The case for making the drive is that Long Beach is a real downtown with a waterfront attached, and an evening here can start with dinner on the Promenade and end at the water. The case against is thirty miles of freeway. If you live south of the airport this is obviously your branch; if you do not, treat it as a Saturday rather than a Tuesday.
- Same pop-up, same drinks, three bars: Melrose Umbrella Co. (Beverly Grove), the Corner Door (Culver City), the Ordinarie (Long Beach)
- Expect goth decoration, metal on the sound system and the twelve-foot skeleton at each
- Beverly Grove for a night with several parts to it
- Culver City for the west side and the only strong transit option
- Long Beach for dinner, live music and a waterfront, if you are prepared to drive
There is a fourth consideration that only applies in a city this size: going to more than one. The three bars are far enough apart that nobody is doing them in a night, but October is five weeks long and the same drinks list in three completely different rooms is a genuinely interesting comparison. A cocktail bar in Beverly Grove, a west-side neighbourhood bar and a Long Beach tavern will each make the identical menu feel like a different evening, which tells you more about how much a room contributes to a drink than any amount of reading about it will.
How to actually choose
Work backwards from the end of the night. All three serve the same cocktails, so the drinks cannot decide it. What differs is what happens at eleven o'clock: in Beverly Grove you walk somewhere else, in Culver City you get on a train, and in Long Beach you are thirty miles from home with a decision to make.
The second consideration is what you want the bar to be. Two of the three are cocktail bars and one is a tavern with a kitchen and live music, so if the evening needs to include dinner rather than orbit around it, that narrows it immediately.
The third, and the one people forget: a travelling pop-up is at its best early. The decoration is complete from day one and the crowd is not, so a mid-October weeknight at any of the three gives you the room as designed. By the final weekend all three are full, and at that point the nearest one is the only rational choice.
A note on costume, since this comes up: none of the three requires one and all three will have people in them. A travelling pop-up draws a crowd that has opted in to the theme, so the proportion in costume is far higher than at an ordinary bar and far lower than at a Halloween party. Somewhere in between is the safe read, and a single well-chosen accessory does more work than a full outfit in a room this dark.
Practical notes
Black Lagoon runs this Halloween season at three Los Angeles-area bars: Melrose Umbrella Co. at 7465 Melrose Avenue in Beverly Grove, the Corner Door in Culver City, and the Ordinarie at 210 The Promenade North in downtown Long Beach. Each gets the same goth decoration, metal soundtrack, themed cocktail list and twelve-foot skeleton. Melrose Umbrella Co. doubles as a craft coffee house by day; the Ordinarie is a full tavern with a kitchen and live music. Culver City has the best transit access via the E Line. Go on a weeknight in the first half of the month for the quiet version.
Tags: #LosAngeles #Halloween #PopUpBar #BlackLagoon #BeverlyGrove #CulverCity #LongBeach #NeighborhoodGuides #LABars #Cocktails #SpookySeason #LANightlife #ThingsToDoLA #GothNight
Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Ask Karpo first
Want to know which branch of an event is nearest, which one has parking, and which neighbourhood gives you somewhere to go afterwards? Ask Karpo what is on around you and pick by the trip rather than the flyer.
