Weilands Brewery Goes Underground
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — McDonalds' closing sign mentioned City National Plaza and that got me curious, so I walked over there at lunch and took the escalator down to find things looking pretty nice. The best surprise, though, was that the Weilands Brewery Underground is now open. And open until 2am to boot.
I can't help but wonder how in the world this place is going to succeed. I love Weilands in Little Tokyo, but if I hadn't been headed to City National Plaza anyway I would never have known it was now open. They're in a basement with no streetfront signage.
Is Downtown to the point where it can support a late-night venue solely on word of mouth? Their lunch crowd looked reasonable for a new spot, but I'm very curious to go wander down around 10pm one of these nights and see who's there.
Some more photos of City National Plaza's new decor:
Joel C on August 16, 2006, at 12:47PM – #1
Wow, that bar looks like a college pub. :)
Due to its location, that bar absolutely will not be successful only without some sort of marketing. At least a good street-level sign, preferably a big one with neon. Probably heavy local newspaper advertising will be needed as well. Word of mouth will only work for an underground bar if they're giving away free beer.
Fred Camino on August 18, 2006, at 11:28AM – #2
The food here is pretty good, it's almost always happy hour there, but how people are going to find it, I don't know. I've eaten there about 4 times since it opened and usually it's fairly empty and the people who are in there seem to be in some way related to the people who work there.
C.O. Jones on August 24, 2006, at 12:43PM – #3
Me Likey Beer. Girls fun two.
edog on September 06, 2006, at 02:29PM – #4
what is the addy any 1 know?
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on September 06, 2006, at 02:50PM – #5
City National Plaza has entrances at both 4th/Flower and 5th/Flower. Weilands is roughly in the middle.
chrisco-kid on September 11, 2006, at 11:24AM – #6
Weilands is my favorite new spot. the beer is cheap, $2.50 during happy for the Weiland home brew, but better yet, its only $3.50 normal price. What I like about the place is that its clean, spacious the food is pretty good. I was going to Daily Grill all the time, but got tired of going there, not finding a seat, everyone so busy they can't talk to you. Weiland's has already accepted me as one of their favs, so when I walk in, everyone's saying hi. Great employees keep me coming back, the beer keeps me drunk, and the food keeps me full. Rick and Dave have an underground hit on their hands, and best of all, they have a second happy hour 10-2am. Sweet!