Sassafras Saloon — Restaurant in Los Angeles

It reminds me of Hemingways but on a smaller scale. arrived on a saturday night just in time to catch their happy hour, $8 for their signature cocktails and build your own drinks. unfortunately, the barrel aged cocktails are not part of Happy Hour.

we sat at the bar to be greeted by two very nice bartenders. both ladies were fantastic, recommending drinks, entertaining us with their bartending skills and serving us with delicious libations.

my first order was the cucumber smash which was light and refreshing (a little bit too light for me) while the bf ordered a build your own with bourbon and ginger beer. my second order was the blackstrap old fashion (recommended by the bartender). bf's second drink was...again the build your own, but this time with tequila. this time both of our drinks were stronger than our first.

they have a small offering of food items which i assume changes regularly based on the other reviews here. we did not order anything as we nibbled on their complimentary hard boiled eggs. yes, you read that right....they give you hard boiled eggs and hot sauce to nom on while you drink! naturally i was elated because i never say no to protein! and having two was just enough to satisfy my tummy!

drinks prices are definitely a little bit on the pricey side, but its definitely worth it. even the decor of the place is enough for you to want to come back because it feels like you traveled through time. my bf was really mesmerized by the rotating bottles over the the bar which contains the barrel aged cocktails.

cool place!...

A friend told us about this bar and we went to go check it out on a Friday night. There was a five dollar cover charge to enter the bar, but I get the feeling that if we were younger or “hotter” we might have gotten in for free. There was no line and the place was not even full. The decor looked interesting and our friend said the drinks were good so we paid the five dollars each and went in.

The decor was great. It made you want to wander around and explore every corner. I’m gonna guess that the stripper pole that was at one end of the room is not normally there. There were performances at certain points that we got to watch.

There was also a room that had a tattoo artist doing tattoos. Again, it felt like that was specifically for this event, but I don’t know if it is. They were packing up and leaving when we entered, so we got to explore that room once they were gone. Since the place was really too loud for us to hear each other, going into that room helped to reduce noise to a point where we can talk to each other.

The bartender took a long time to get to us, and we actually thought that maybe we were standing in the wrong area. Maybe they were not serving at this end of the bar. Once he got to us, though, he seemed friendly enough...

My first time at Sassafras will never be forgotten...if I don't remember certain things that occurred in there then I have a lot of embarrassing pictures to remind me what happened. This night was memorable thanks to all my close friends who came out to celebrate my early birthday. ALL the cocktails I've tried were delicious (except the one with peppercorn...don't get that).

The interior was exactly what I expected. Very intimate (tiny) bar with a quirky New Orleans theme. My favorite part was the conveyer belt above the bar with beers hanging from them. Theres a cocktail pricing wheel in the back that you can spin that'll determine how much you'll pay for a drink. Live band above the bathroom, which I didn't pay attention to because I was busy enjoying all the drinks I can handle in the tiny room across the bar. It gets pretty warm inside so keep a look out for coat hangers if you need a place to hang your jackets.

Parking: find residential street parking before paying $7 for valet. Line: is ridiculous...heard its better to show up after 11pm if you want to get in faster. My friends showed up at 10pm and was in line for almost an hour. Drinks: Prim was my favorite, my whiskey loving sister wasn't that impressed with...