Los Angeles Purple Line Crawl

What to do on what starts off as a really overcast day in Los Angeles or when you have friends in town and it isn’t exactly beach weather? Follow our lead and round-up a group of friends to do a Metro Crawl. Thrillist recently released their bar metro map and @pisforprops had the bright idea to do a crawl.

To start, we had to establish a few rules because we were under a time constraint. The first stop opened at 12pm and the last stop closed at 8pm. So 8 stops in 8 hours, meant we all needed to focus. One drink/food item either per person or to share at each place and then on to the next stop.

1ST STOP: Beer Belly in KoreaTown, gastropub known for their duck fat fries. Eating is required at some point, so this is a good place to start.

2ND STOP: Pot Lobby Bar in The Line Hotel in KoreaTown. Carefully crafted cocktails or try the Hitachino on tap (very rare).

3RD STOP: HMS Bounty, the last stop in KoreaTown. This place is vintage/legendary and seems to be a spot that has a good amount of traffic at any time of day. Walk inside and you’ve been transported into a place that seems it has not changed in years and that goes for its prices on beer as well.
Tip: Walk here from Pot Lobby Bar, it is .2 miles and faster than taking the train and walking back.

4TH STOP: El Naco, Westlake. For whatever reason, Thrillist skipped this stop, a purple line crawl without a stop in Westlake/MacArthur Park just doesn’t seem right. El Naco may not be for everyone and I probably would not stop in again, so I recommend using this as a break for food and go to Langer’s instead.
Tip: Place your order over the phone before leaving HMS Bounty, grab it to go and enjoy it in MacArthur Park.

5TH STOP: Sixth Street Tavern, Downtown. Indoor/Outdoor seating-take advantage of the daylight at this bright and cheery bar located on the corner of Sixth & Hope. Food options: Chicken & Donuts, Steak Salad and the Grilled Cheese are some of our favorites.

6TH STOP: Perch, Downtown. One of the best rooftop views in Downtown LA. Make sure you go all the way to the top for the 360 views.
Tip: Walk here from Sixth Street Tavern.

7TH STOP: Cole’s/Varnish, Downtown. Cocktails are what you order here, you have almost made it to the end and can grab a french dip if you are hungry or cheesy tots from Black Sheep next door. Tip: Walk here from Perch.

8TH & FINAL STOP: Traax Bar, Union Station. Not to be confused, but there is Traax Restaurant and Traax Bar. Grab your final beer here to toast an awesome crawl.

Disclaimer, we did make a few substitutions from the Thrillist list:

Added El Naco/Langer’s to the list since this stop was skipped.

Swapped Sixth Street Tavern instead of Library Bar-it was the middle of the day and Library is very dark-I prefer making the most of the sunlight, so we opted for next door.

Perch instead of Redwood Bar & Grill. Since we had out-of-town guests. Scenic rooftop outweighed the Pirate Bar.

Also, since we were running out of time, we hit up Traax as stop 7 and went back to Cole’s for 8. An option if you are running behind schedule.

Photos by @pisforprops