Dinner Plan

There are nights when all the stops are pulled.

Nights that require sitters to stay late. Nights that require multiple Ubers.

Nights when the bartenders flick on the lights and say, “You ain’t gotta go home, but you can’t stay here.”

This is one of those nights. Let’s go.

Everything — from spicy hamachi to decadent chicken liver mousse — is exceptional and sharable at Birch, the new restaurant from Waterloo and City chef Brendan Collins..

On your checklist: the pork shank, glazed in palm sugar and separable from its hunky bone with a mere lift of the fork, is outrageously delicious and comes with slaw, a yogurt dill sauce and piping hot za’atar flatbread.

Sip on a Bad Moon Rising, a light, balanced and refreshing Scotch cocktail.

1634 Cahuenga Blvd.
(323) 960-3369

Break Room 86 is Houston Hospitality’s (Good Times at Davey Wayne’s) homage to the ’80s.

It has all of their creative attention to detail: a wall of old cassette tapes, a telephone booth with weather vane a la Bill and Ted’s and, obviously, a secret entrance.

Girls will love the sugary ’80s themed drinks, poured with the same Tom Cruisian antics you saw in Cocktail.

Karaoke rooms are hidden behind the drink machines opposite the bar, and there’s a killer breakdancing group that performs on the hour.

The layout is kind of tricky once the crowds fill it out, so either get there early or book a room.

630 S. Ardmore Ave, LA, CA 90010

Break Room 86 gets very crowded, so bounce early and wander around the corner of 6th Street into The Normandie Club.

This 70-person bar by the Seven Grand crew mixes revised standards, like an Old Fashioned with coconut bourbon and apple brandy.

The leather banquettes to the right are inviting, but we like the high-tops to the left of the expansive bar.

3612 West 6th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90020
(213) 263-2709