Code red: Hipster infestation at Gold Room!
Inevitably, hipsters have invaded the Gold Room in Echo Park. I've just received a report that "there are like 50 million kids out the door" over there right now, a sight I can't bear somber witness to because I am away from L.A. again. So long $5 beer-and-shot specials, with free tacos thrown in? Please, nooo...
It was only a matter of time, with local businesses' recent successes pressing in from all sides. Wednesday is the busiest night on our local stretch of Sunset Boulevard. The Short Stop hosts Anne Lee's Awesometown. The Echo is still doing Dub Club. And next-door to Gold Room is old-school Mexican American joint Barragan's, now permanently overrun by scenesters who only recently discovered the $2 margarita Wednesday special. Naturally, the spill-over crowd after Barragan's closes is an easy target for fresh business. For a couple weeks now, the Gold Room on Wednesdays has been hosting DJs. Where the MySpace communcation cells go, the cool kids follow. The death wish.
Why fault Gold Room for wanting to make an extra buck? Why get all haughty and neighborhood essentialist when, as someone with a blog, I'm as much a part of the problem as the kids that flipped La Cita? Because Gold Room is special. In a gentrifying city, it's stayed real -- real paisas, real skimpily dressed bargirls, and, on most nights, real danger. My four years of regular patronage have got nothing on the real cabrones who guard their watering hole with steely stares and the occasional "rough play," whether threatened or carried out.
I'm not alone in lamenting Gold Room's gradual shift. Read the current top review of the cantina on Yelp: "Dont come here. I love this place. And if more hipsters show up i will vomit." Listen to this guy. All the cool kids are doing it. And even if you don't, it's already over and done, because the place is now going to host a pointless nightly debate of "who's down enough to be here and who isn't."
Damn it all to hell.
* Photo above from Hadley's Sept. '06 post on Gold Room at LA TACO, which describes another interesting system to keep the invasion in check.
Which just goes to show, seeking out "cool" is a losing proposition on all accounts. If you sit at any bar stool long enough you're bound to be ordained as cool or "in the know", and that's right about the time you should be getting the fuck out!
Posted by: EL CHAVO! | 21 June 2007 at 04:03 AM
Ha, you can always come and hang out in Lincoln Heights--Bob's Avila Negra on Daly St has continued to keep it real with the meseritas in the shiny tights and Coors in cans. And if you're brave, you can try the California Night Club, home to the Narco crowd of Northeast LA.
Posted by: chimatli | 21 June 2007 at 12:21 PM
I was at the California on New Year's Eve, 2005!! Drinking till well after 2, and getting so inspired by the Tijuana vibe (where I am now) we almost, almost, decided to get up and drive straight to la linea by sunrise. Monstrous hangover thankfully avoided.
Posted by: Daniel Hernandez | 21 June 2007 at 12:27 PM
Thanks for the tip, man. I'll be sure to schedule my new album release party over at the gold room.
Posted by: Mikey | 21 June 2007 at 01:17 PM
dude...aren't YOU a hipster?
muahahahahahaha.
Posted by: susie ra | 21 June 2007 at 06:15 PM
dude...aren't YOU a hipster? muahahahahahaha.
i'm not even sure what a freaking hipster is. i think they wear skinny jeans, don't wash their hair and listen to bandy music. no? i think they're cute. i don't understand what the hell is going on but they're interesting to observe.
anyway. i can't tell you how happy i was to see you. we must do it again. and give robyb a call. she's dying for some companionship outside of the whole doctor thing.
Posted by: susie ra | 21 June 2007 at 06:19 PM
I'm so happy that the Westside is the new Eastside is the new Westside again!!!
Posted by: Josh BH | 21 June 2007 at 09:24 PM
Gold Room, alive and well last night.
Posted by: Daniel H. | 22 June 2007 at 02:42 PM
Regarding the hipster horde invasion, look on the bright side Daniel. At least the "scenesters" haven't discovered the Gold Room...
Oh wait, are they the same thing?
Posted by: hector | 22 June 2007 at 02:59 PM
Ok, so you're brave enough to have tried the California Night Club. No one else I know has dared...
Next on the list, The Office on North Broadway where the bathrooms have hand written signs asking you kindly to please not "sell or do drugs in the bathroom." It's also the most pricey bar in Lincoln Heights.
Cheers!
Posted by: chimatli | 23 June 2007 at 12:30 AM
My worst fears confirmed. Haven't been there in almost a year, but noticed a new PABST ON TAP! sign outside the other weekend and thought to myself, uh oh. Mexicans don't drink Pabst, that means one thing -- hipster takeover. :(
Posted by: tiki | 29 June 2007 at 12:48 PM
yeah i somehow dont like hipsters i clown on them lol
Posted by: Lea aka Dona Junta | 19 September 2007 at 01:00 AM
yeah i somehow dont like hipsters i clown on them lol
Posted by: Lea aka Dona Junta | 19 September 2007 at 01:01 AM
yeah i somehow dont like hipsters i clown on them lol
Posted by: Lea aka Dona Junta | 19 September 2007 at 01:01 AM
yeah i somehow dont like hipsters i clown on them lol
Posted by: Lea aka Dona Junta | 19 September 2007 at 01:01 AM
damn i haven't been there in maybe two years now and i was super happy to find a place close that makes a decent michelada. super sad.
Posted by: ritzy periwinkle | 19 March 2009 at 02:38 AM