10 Los Angeles Bars Featured in Famous Films and TV Shows

Eclectic jazz can be found nightly at this old-school supper club, where musicians take to the stage in front of a red velvet curtain. You can order dinner off their Italian-American menu, or abide by their two-drink minimum at the bar. In an episode of Amazon’s Los Angeles-set crime drama Bosch, the titular detective and a colleague go to see jazz musician Grace Kelly at the Catalina.

Downtown strip club Sam’s Hofbrau is a favorite location of director Quentin Tarantino. He used it in Jackie Brown, and then returned for one scene in Kill Bill 2 (2004). In the latter, Sam’s serves as the interior of the seedy My Oh My Club, where former assassin Bud (Michael Madsen) now works as a bouncer. Though it appears as an isolated desert bar in the film, you’ll find it today in downtown Los Angeles. It is a fully operational strip club, but you can also order lunch or dinner. They serve American food, from sandwiches and salads to steak. They open at 11 a.m., and there’s no cover before 7 p.m.

The Blue Room is an uncomplicated dive in Burbank, so named for the color of its cushy booths and chairs. It plays Ferdy’s Bar in the 2000 thriller Memento, starring Guy Pearce as an insurance investigator who is unable to store short-term memories, which makes it especially difficult for him to solve the murder of his wife, yet he persists by leaving himself notes, tattoos, and photos. One clue leads him to Ferdy’s Bar, where he meets bartender Natalie (Carrie-Ann Moss).

In the season one “Indian Summer” episode of Mad Men, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) goes on a date with truck driver Carl Winter (Aaron Hill) to seafood restaurant La Trombetta. The date doesn’t go particularly well. It’s awkward, to begin with, and it gets even worse when Carl says he doesn’t think highly of Peggy’s career in advertising. As noted by I Am Not A Stalker, the nautical-themed Koreatown dive HMS Bounty – found on the ground floor of the Gaylord apartment building – stands in for La Trombetta. They serve a hodgepodge of American food, and the drinks are cheap.

Legendary Sunset Strip venue Whisky A Go Go plays itself in the Oliver Stone biopic The Doors, in which Val Kilmer portrays Jim Morrison. The club opened in L.A. in 1964 and has a firm place in rock ‘n roll history, springing the careers of numerous bands, including hair metal acts Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe. The Doors really did perform there in the 60s, and you can still catch a show there today.

In the 2009 rom-com 500 Days of Summer, Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) performs The Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man” while out at karaoke with coworkers, impressing Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). The bar is The Redwood, a pirate-themed downtown L.A. dive known for live music.

Dexter follows the unconventional Dexter Morgan, a Miami PD blood spatter analyst who is secretly a serial killer who preys on other killers. Though the show is set in Miami, much of it was filmed in Los Angeles and Long Beach. In the season two episode “Resistance is Futile,” Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is pursued by his dangerous ex, Lila (Jaime Murray), who tails him to a bar and schmoozes with his colleagues. According to Seeing Stars, the bar’s interior is Tequila Jack’s, a Mexican restaurant and bar in Long Beach. They serve Mexican food and margaritas and offer a great view of the marina from their patio.