CAN THIS BAR REVIVE DTLA'S NIGHTLIFE?

Cozy DJ lounge Bar Franca is a welcome sliver of regrowth in an area that's still struggling from pandemic shutdowns

- AUGUST BROWN

DJS TOTTIE and Maddy Maia spin dance music at Bar Franca in the historic core. "Downtown needs an injection," Maia says. "It's been a struggle bouncing back."

CARLIN STIEHL For The Times

On a Saturday night, just an hour after the Dodgers won the World Series, Bar Franca started heating up. The freshly revamped, DJ-driven lounge in downtown's historic core filled out with loft-dwelling locals still getting mileage from their Halloween costumes, while incoming Dodger fans hooted and revved their engines out on Main Street.

The bar's owner, concert promoter Rolando Alvarez, was off tending to another event, but Bar Franca's two DJs for the night, Maddy Maia and Tottie of Sisters of Sound, wound up the ebullient crowd under a soft pink, hand-painted barrel roof.

If you squinted, you could have sworn it was 2019 again, back when downtown L.A. was the heart of the city's nightlife before the pandemic knocked it sideways.

"Downtown needs an injection. It still feels like it's been a struggle bouncing back in that area since COVID," Maia said between sets. "I think it's so important to invest in areas that have suffered and have been somewhat forgotten about. I'm so grateful that Bar Franca is bringing life back to that part of the city."

This year has seen unrelenting bad news for L.A. nightlife — the impacts of the wildfires, the continued Hollywood strike fallout, the cost-of-living crisis and ICE raids and protests that temporarily squelched downtown's after-dark industry. That all came on top of a miserable post-pandemic environment for a vulnerable downtown neighborhood hit harder and longer than most.

Bar Franca, a passion project from one of the city's elite dance music promoters, is a little sliver of regrowth in a neighborhood that desperately needs one.