Broken Shaker at Freehand Los Angeles — Restaurant in Los Angeles

The problem with a Tiki theme is that when you have it outside you can’t control the experience. The name Broken Shaker is synonymous with high quality service and products, but take a look at the top 10 tiki bars in the country for the past like 10 years. All dark, all indoors where things can really be specific. It’s more than just tropical, which is really what you get here.

Being rooftop and with a pool means no tiki mugs, and that’s really the only way to hide some of the less than aesthetic nature of some tiki ingredients. Using a plastic cups is chintzy and despite being beautifully garnished and delicious, they are not tiki. They are at best a weird combination of Caribbean (décor), latin (menu base spirits) and 100% LA. I thought we had gotten away from the pretentiousness of these types of places LA. You were so making your way towards clarity and this just screams identity crisis. So many places in LA are doing things so well, that this seems out of place compared to Walker, Slipper, Normandie, Honeycut. They all have a clear vision of what they want to do from drinks, to menu to theme.

The spirits are a mix of well appointed (sipsmiths, wray & newphew, ocho, Fortaleza, $17 Carribean Cask) to LA’d up ($10 fugu, $13 Russels 6yr). Caiparinha was unbalanced with the st. germain and melon. Coco Nutcase was excellent. Recusal Cup did not use house ginger ale which made em sad. Charred onion infused noilly pratt, someone is full of themselves, but way to reused things. $14 for plastic, foh. These drinks have to stand up on their own and fit a narrative, most wouldn’t make it in a non tropical setting. B^&*( don’t’ kill my vibe is the best thing they have on the menu, lemongrass and thai basil is subtle and bold and stands up to the aperol and pineapple. Tecate, Peroni, Stiegl make up half the beer menu, so that really makes no sense to me. Mexico, Italy, Czech Republic, 1 local Santa Monica beer and something San Diego (good for you)

Service is good, but as the old saying goes, you gotta wear garters before you can wear tiki. Some of the service is lost as it has a club ish atmosphere, again that goes with lack of controlling the experience. The vibe can be reggae to brewery to day club feel and with it being so small it gets packed. Sometimes you gotta let the patrons choose what the vibe will be.

$10 fattoush salad, $10 vegetable egg rolls. What kinda of fusion is this?, guacamole, marinated olives, yakitori. Granted the egg rolls were crispy, I would have liked some acidity and bite from a true fish sauce. Fattoush salad was overloaded with feta and the pita tasted store bough, guacamole tasted like it was from islands, which isn’t bad, but for being in a hotel with a real deal kitchen it felt like they slept on the food and clarify of menu/vision.

As I stated before they need a much more clear vision on their décor, food and drinks. The Tropical vibe can work, but tiki they are not. Perhaps it’s the attachment to the hotel, but with LA stepping towards clarify, this is a step backwards into ambiguity...

Even though we love staying at Freehand and love the rooftop bar and Broken Shaker, each and every time the service for hotel guests gets worst. First of many problems seems to be from the NON hotel guest party goers that flock to the rooftop bar. Even though you are a hotel guest, the staff can not get you pool chairs or place to sit. Pretty much every pool chair or lounger has a reserved sign on it with no one sitting on them!! When I asked management, I was told it’s reserved!!! I informed them that we are hotel guest in the hotel and how could we have made reservations, and why weren’t we told. To my surprise I was told Hotel guest can’t make reservations at the Hotel Pool??!! Reservations are handled through outside service and it’s open to public for Free. !!! Hotel guest that pay hundreds of dollars a night (Room 709 we paid $350 a night just for room ) don’t get to make reservations for Hotel pool that is listed on the hotel website as one of its best amenities!!!! I guess they mean you can only use the pool by looking at it on the website. 2nd, by noon so many non paying party people show up smoking , loud, badly dressed in all types of inappropriate swimwear, acting in manners that would be considered unlawful in most civilized counties, from girls kissing and making out with guys and other girls to others taking videos and pictures of very rude poses to cigarette, cigar , marijuana , electronic drugs, etc smell and smoke so bad that if you hang around a few minutes you will defiantly be smoking it through the air. Top it all of, there is 2 bars (serving stations ), one by the pool at one end and one by the entrance main bar. BUT pool bar doesn’t open till late when it’s outside party time,etc and the main bar is packed with people. So forget getting a drink. Basically the hotel and the amenities are amazing, BUT if you are one of the few and lucky ones to maybe come off season and make sure there is...

We booked a one night stay at the hotel with the plan to hang out at the pool and rooftop on our last night in LA. When we checked in, the hotel said the roof bar, Broken Shaker, was open until midnight. All the signage said the roof bar was open until midnight. We got up to the roof and ordered some drinks (time was 10-10:30pm and we were told we couldn’t order cocktails because they weren’t making them anymore), settled in to hang out for a while. A short time after we arrived, we noticed the staff was starting to clear the tables of the candles and generally close up for the night. Staff started telling all the tables to finish their drinks and leave. Every table was told multiple times to “finish your drinks and leave” because they were closing. We were all kicked out before 11pm because it was “slow.” When asked why everything says midnight and they were insistent on kicking everyone out before 11pm, we were told that it was because it was slow so sometimes they close early. Each table was occupied when we arrived and additional people came up while we were seated but the staff told them to leave because they were “closed.” My wife heard all the bar staff talking about how they wanted to leave to go out partying. I get letting some staff leave early if it’s slower but it was a disappointing experience to be unceremoniously kicked out because people wanted to party. Hope they figure out different ways to handle this in the future. The ambiance and decor were nice and the roof top had a decent view which is why they’re receiving 3 stars. Otherwise, a poor...