UNCLE OLLIE'S PENTHOUSE RECHARGES L.A. NIGHTLIFE

HOLD ONTO YOUR RED SOLO CUPS. THIS DOWNTOWN DIVE BAR OPENED IN THE SPRING WITH ARCADE GAMES, BURLESQUE, DJS, CLOWN ART AND HELLO KITTY-THEMED BATHROOMS.

- LINA LECARO

BURLESQUE performer Candace Cane, top, dances at Uncle Ollie's, which Brian Traynam, opened in Little Tokyo in the spring. "Now we are a destination," he says.

UNCLE OLLIE'S PENTHOUSE, the new maxi-malist downtown L.A. bar that opened in April between Little Tokyo and Skid Row, captures the visceral, dopamine-driven alchemy of the best kind of house party every Wednesday to Sunday night. It has wild, color-saturated decor, potent cocktails served in red Solo cups and a killer soundtrack that inspires stomping the floor with pals or singing along with strangers. But can this multisensory home away from home help revive L.A.'s fading nightlife landscape? Beckoning from the second floor of owner Brian Traynam's downstairs restaurant and club, the Escondite — known for its crispy wings, punk-rock bands and DJs—the immersive "penthouse" was a decade in the making.

"I have an uncle named Ollie and this is his penthouse," says Traynam of the narrative he conceived for his eye-popping space. “He had to leave town so he gave me the keys and said three things: ‘I know you're going to have a party here so if anything gets stolen or broken, I break you; if you tell your mother about any of this, we're both finished. Have a good time, kid!’”

Traynam, whose first dive, Bar 107, closed in 2015, says he always wanted to open what he calls "Bar 107 2.0" in the vacant space above the Escondite. But nightlife has changed a lot since then and people don’t hang out in one downtown bar all night the way they used to.

The concept of a neighborhood dive, where the same people come in nightly, build a tab and stay for hours, is practically a pre-pandemic thing of the past. But Traynam hopes to change that and entice a new generation by filling a void with more experiential elements than any other bar in L.A.