F&Bar

F&Bar - Review - Atwater Village - Los Angeles - The Infatuation

"There are several mysterious aspects to a night at F&Bar—a cocktail-meets-tasting-menu speakeasy with locations in Atwater Village and Hollywood—and the first involves finding the place. At the Atwater location, that means locating the correct alleyway in a parking lot, waiting for someone to let you in, and then scaling a steep staircase that could qualify as that day’s cardio. You’re then led into a room that looks like an abandoned arcade with old games and a giant disco ball. Finally, the host—your sole bartender, chef, and MC for the night—ushers you to a saloon-like bar counter with eight stools, dozens of dangling mismatched light bulbs, and booze bottles crammed onto every shelf. The $140-per-person experience is built around twelve mini cocktails that swing between savory and sweet, and feature spirits such as bison grass vodka or aged rum. Each drink is paired with a micro-bite that’s roughly the size of a Ritz cracker, including a shrimp tamale, an oyster topped with basil foam, or (somewhat hilariously) a single escargot. This is not a full meal, to be clear. The room is filled with couples nodding along to the explanations and trying not to get too hammered between bites, and given the hodge-podge of ingredients in each drink, everyone’s stomach goes on as much of a roller coaster ride as their livers. If you’re a cocktail geek or into theatrical drinks, F&Bar makes for a fun night, but for the same price, you could probably get a full dinner and a few drinks elsewhere, without the risk of having to convince your Uber driver to hit a Taco Bell drive-thru on the ride home. photo credit: Cathy Park photo credit: Cathy Park RESERVE A TABLE WITH RESERVE A TABLE" - Cathy Park