Hyperion Tavern

Eh

Cool place… I think the hipsters may have moved on… my friends and I went on a Friday from around 11 – 2 and it wasn’t very crowded. Good prices for decent beers, polite fairly attentive staff, and nobody got mad when we all got smashed and started spitting and spilling beer everywhere. Definitely coming back.

Came here on a very slow Monday night and everyone who worked there seemed to be working on getting their speaker system fixed since they were having issues. Okay, that’s fine. But after sitting at the empty bar for a couple minutes someone finally came down and greeted us and let us know their bartender would come help us out, that she was trying to get the speakers going.
Okay that’s fine. And after about another almost 10 minutes of just sitting there at the empty bar we were deciding if we should just leave. They were still having issues with their speakers so okay… Waited a little bit longer…
And then we left. No service. So now we say, screw this place.
I mean come on, this is a really small bar. They only serve bottled beers that look like they’re stored in an ice box somewhere. The only thing they had to do was grab a beer and give it to us, I don’t understand the difficulty in that.
So if you like to go to bars that feel unwelcome and clique-​y, this is your spot. Obviously service is not their priority here, except for that one nice enough guy who let us know what was going on. Other than that, no thanks.
Horrible first impression. Unilocalers beware.

It’s the new thing for places in LA where there are no signs. Same goes for Hyperion tavern. Just a little light outside. Blink and you’ll miss it. It feels like you’re walking into someone’s garage but then your met with two amazingly huge chandeliers. Cash only. Local musicians play on the stage… wall of law books with fold down tables to place your beers on! Limited seating.

Small and charming, lots of stools/​counter space. Only bottled beer, appreciated the Perrier option. Toilet paper had to go into the waste basket, and the door isn’t full length. Cash only. Four stars as a live music venue.

Thursday night sketch party! Cash only, no mixed drinks. Parking is take what you can get. Really cool, not a club or typical bar scene, just relaxed.

Yay for hyperion tavern. I’ve been going here for the last few Thursdays and it has been super fun. Thursday night is sketch party night. Paper and pens are laid out and you can draw whatever. There are some amazing artists who come here. There is cheap beer and a really cool bartender Alex. The music here is fantastic. The dj is one of the best I’ve ever heard. This place is cheap and super fun. Go!!!

Please Unilocal Update this page! The Hyperion Tavern is OPEN!
Everyone who has written prior to this has said all the regular stuff, parking is terrible, the location is hard to find, its is small on the interior, etc. I am going to tell all fellow Unilocalers the other stuff.
Thursdays are sketchparty. This is my favorite night by far. The bartenders put out butcher paper that stretches from one end of the bar to the next. Atop the bar is also a mass quantity of sharpies, pencils, and other drawing supplies. This is my favorite night not just for the ability to drunkenly draw on a bar, but to do it while drinking a cheap 32oz, and rubbing elbows with random strangers and other artists.
Side note, I am an adamant subscriber to Juxtapoz and had not had the opportunity to read the October issue. Last weekend when I finally sat down to read it, I came across a sprawl that looked familiar. After asking my fella about it he said he thought it was the guy we met last week at sketchparty. It was indeed!
Local Talent hanging out and drinking beers is a good sign of a cool scene. In addition to sketchparty, Thursdays are packed with DJ’s spinning the most eclectic and awesome sets of music. There is a very small dance floor, that often times more people will crowd than necessary. You never know exactly the type of music the DJ will play next, which is so not like most bars in LA playing the same old tired radio tunes.
I love how the crowds vibes always amp up the feeling in this place. If you happen to walk in here and you feel like something is off,… It’s you! I have seen a few hipsters in here but they don’t seem to run rampant as much as say at the CCLounge. I have meet quite a few people here that I see every time I come back in, becoming friends over beers and art, What more could you ask for?
The bartenders are awesome; funny, engaging and witty with a hint of sarcasm.
Yes the tavern can be hard to find, has zero parking, and yes the bathroom doors do not go all the way to the floor. If these things discourage you, I’m kind of glad… There will be more room for me and my pals to bust a move, and drink cheap beer into the wee hours of the morning!

Hyperion is BACK!!! I was so excited when i found out they were open again. Its been awhile. Place is hard to find & they only have bottle beers, but its cheap & always a good time. Ive been going for the last few months on Thursday for #sketchparty, which is a great time. they roll out butcher paper on the bar & leave out pens, makers colored pencils & even paint. I seen & met a bunch of great artists who i later found out do comic books, have work in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone Juxtapoz & High Fructose. Great bunch of regulars who have all been super friendly & welcoming & the bartenders are great, no pretentiousness here. Its like a speak easy or a clubhouse that always have great djs, i have seen dudes & girls from a bunch of LA bands (Piebald, Wavves, The Oohlas, Eras & more) spinning records there. If you like to draw & or check out awesome art, you should check it out. I also heard the Monday night they are going to have a movie night, which i am super excited about. I shouldnt write such a glowing review, cuz the place is kind of small & i dont want it to get super packed but i love the spot & want them to do well so it keeps going.
oh yeah its only a CASH bar, no Cards, but they do have an ATM

i have visited the hyperion tavern several times in the past & really like the place. i’m kinda bummed though because it’s almost the end of summer 2011 & i haven’t seen the place open for awhile, going on a few months now. i think management has closed down the shop & only open for special/​private parties now, but i’m not totally sure. that’s what it’s website says.
i’ve lived in the neighborhood awhile & was delighted when the tavern first opened its doors for the general straight public, as i was aware that it had been a gay bar called ‘cuffs’ for years. the cool patrons that visited the bar, including a couple of friendly dogs, gave the place a very homely feel. on several occasions i ordered a quart of carta blanca cerveza as my poison of choice, and had a huge appreciation for the musical talent that would come out & perform every thursday. the vibe was folksy & entertaining, and found the total experience to be very refreshing because of its independent & original ambience.
if the place ever opens up on a regular basis or if you’re ever passing by & see the doors open, you should definitely check this place out. very cool dive that’s worth a try. –t.

Ok, so how does a bar that doesn’t serve food & only serves bottled beer get a ‘B’ rating? No lo so. What I do know, is that this bar is most definitely dive-​y. Literally a hole in the wall across the street from Casita del Campo with no visible indicator that it is a bar other than a barber shop pole (???) — was that code for something? Bar itself has walls lined with law books, a couple of out-​of-​place chandeliers, a pretty extensive bar (in size, not in alcohol variety), a DJ booth, bathroom (s)? — only saw one & I went in, not even knowing if it was the girls/​guys/​unisex, and a projection screen.
So, the bathrooms… are…ummm…not the cleanest. Oh & have a saloon-​inspired door, so people can literally see your feet as you handle your business (which I guess isn’t too far from what a ‘stall’ does, but at least a stall is inside a restroom). & the time I went, they had no paper towels.
So why the 3 stars? The DJ rocked! Music is good enough to make any not-​so-​cash-​strapped hipster stick around (not that I claim to be one). And by cash-​strapped, I mean, it’s a cash bar (c’mon guys, get with the times) & the ATM machine was out of service. Perfect. For someone who doesn’t tend to carry wads of cash on her person, this definitely sucked big ones. So needless to say, my friend and I didn’t stick around for too long.
The beers weren’t pricey (about $ 5, I think?) and they had a selection of about 6 – 7 beers. Street parking. Hipster vibe. & Jesus is the bartender,

THIS IS NOT A DIVE BAR! IT’S A PLUNGER’S HALFWAY HOUSE! LOLZ!
Coat check? Hahaha… Are you effing kidding me?!
Drink menu? BEER! What more do you need?! Bring CASH!
Ambiance? Check out the men’s restroom… A stall, no toilet, and a swinging door with a big round hole in the middle for creepy peeping toms! How’s that for ambiance?!
HAHAHA!
Actually, this is an OK place to have a beer and listen to great tunes. I went here to check out some reggae… Good dj! And their guest that night who sang a few songs… was really good! She sang reggae songs in French/​English/​Arabic! That’s so HOT! Did I mention that she’s so sexy and gorgeous too! Too bad… she only had 3 materials to sing! =(
The crowd here is pretty chill and friendly!
It’s a very tiny dive! A decade ago, I used to work a few blocks from this place… It was a S & M bar back then! From the outside, the building looks like an old front parking garage that’s converted and painted black… Easy to miss… Look for a barber’s pole! Inside, the vintage chandeliers, wall of law books, old cash register box, old beat up piano, and the dj booth behind a raggedy window pane makes up for the lack of everything else!
Lastly, I suggest you leave your «high expectations» at home… and your crap as well! LITERALLY!
STAY CLASSY HYPERION TAVERN!!!

For you Dive Bar fans, this would most likely be a choice for you lot. This place looks like a house from the outside, and that could be because it’s situated between 2 houses. But once you get inside (after i.d. check), you walk into a little bar that kind of has a bit of character to it.
Went here to watch some friends spin and the sound could have been better. The DJ set up has hope though! once they get all of the monitors working the place carries a good sound to it. If you want reading material and you’re into Law, they happen to have one of the best selection of Law books on the walls surrounding the west wall (which also deadens the sound.)
This place only has a beer selection at $ 5 a pop and the bartender is a nice cowboy hat wearing man.
WARNING: If you don’t like hipsters… avoid.
Altogether this place was a good time, towards the end of the night the house djs spin some hip/​hop eclectic beats and it gets the head nodding as the beers flow. definitely check this place out at least once.

My boyfriend played a show here on a weeknight. It was free. My friends brought in subway sandwiches, and the people were cool with it. I liked that laid-​back attitude.
They only sell beer, and only in bottles. And wine. But it’s cheap, and I don’t really do hard liquor anyway so that was fine with me. Also prevented ppl from getting too crazy in here.
In general just a chill, super intimate (as in, smaller than my house) place to listen to music, perhaps study for the LSAT with all the law books on the walls. Due to the tiny size, I would probably steer clear on weekends, cause I’m not into claustrophobia.
I knocked off a star cause of the bathrooms. The bathroom doors don’t go all the way to floor so you feel like youre sorta out in the middle of the bar – ppl can hear you flush the toilet and stuff. That’s weird. It’s also incredibly dark in the bathroom.

If you want a fancy, high-​class, upscale bar, or if you’re expecting them to sell you hard liquor, don’t even come within ten feet of this place. In addition to that, the beer selection is small, and the bathrooms aren’t exactly up to par, but at least they function, and have toilet paper.
Okay, now that we have that settled…
Yes I did give it 4 stars. Maybe I’m being too nice. Who knows? But I truly enjoy the atmosphere here. I’ve only come for the Rock Band night (not Guitar Hero) on Wednesdays, so I can’t really say anything about the place on other nights. The chandeliers, the out-​of-​tune piano, the law books, the old-​school cash register… it all gives Hyperion that certain charm. The RB song list is pretty decent (not as long as other places). The bartender is awesome. Sometimes a DJ shows up and plays a funky selection of songs, which I like. The people are super friendly, and if they need someone, you can join them onstage and play a song with them regardless of what difficulty you play. What matters is that you have fun and not take yourself too seriously.

Where to begin? Part of me wants to give this place 5 stars for fuckin’ rocking out to its own beat and not caring whether it has one customer or a million. Another pat of me wants to give it one star because of the sheer awkwardness and confusion that abounded. 3 stars seems like a reasonable compromise to me.
My friend and I were jonesing for some fun the other night after Vice’s 15^th anniversary party on Melrose and Heliotrope. I suggested this place since I remembered seeing it on one of the weekly Unilocal emails. I expected it to be a hipster dive because that’s how it was described and that’s the perfect category of bar for its location.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how hipster and how divey it would be.
We drove by it twice. The outside has very little to alert its present outside of a barbershop pole. We parked down the street and entered, immediately noticing the following: a whole wall dedicated to law books (dating from the early 1900s), a DJ spinning contemporary rap while an old TLC documentary played on the screen, wood paneling that made me feel like we were inside a sauna, and chandeliers that just did not belong. All of this combined with the overly hipster vibe of the place (just based on the type of clothing people wore, hair styles, and general disinterested attitudes) made for an interesting time indeed.
I have nothing against hipsters. I think they go to extremes in the way they act and dress but I’d like to think I’m accepting of everyone. I enjoy many of the activities and bars that hipsters like, but this was by far and away the most hipster place I have been (previous bar with that distinction was the Cha Cha Lounge).
So, they only sell beer here, and small variety at that. There is a small dance floor where several people attempted to groove. There were a couple tables where people sat. There was a lonely guy at the bar staring blankly ahead. And there was my friend and I, obvious sore thumbs in the place. We were newcomers, outsiders. No one treated us differently, of course, but it was fun to think that we were just observing this odd place. We imagined that it wouldn’t exist in the morning, that only appeared on special nights for special occasions. It just has that sort of wonderment vibe. Even though you’re standing there you’re not quite sure that it’s real.
Supposedly this used to be a gay S&M club and I can see how the décor would lend itself to that. You might say that that concept never really left the place. Not that it feels like an S&M club, it just feels like there’s something off that you can’t figure out.

Ha! People are giving the place bad reviews with 5-​star ratings, obviously trying to preserve this little dive bar’s «best kept secret» status. I don’t blame you all. The place is small and crowded enough as it is.
I have only been here twice on «Club Ding-​A-​Ling» nights (go look ‘em up on Myspace) hosted by Don Bowles. The first time I was here they had a Serge Gainsbourg night. The second time (last night), I saw an electrobilly-​punk act from France and had a blast. I have been told that the music acts here are often obscure, weird and hit or miss but I haven’t been disappointed yet.
Will be back!

It was a fateful birthday night and my friend from Portland called… what better a birthday than one shared with… an awesome boy that lives too far away sadly.
Nonetheless, off on the train I went to meet up with him.
We had to kill some time before it opened, so set up at Casita Del Campo prior… which was great considering they only had beer at Hyperion.
The bar had a line to get in before it opened but it was no problem whatsoever getting in, nor getting drinks in a timely fashion. On a chalkboard above the bar it says the names of 5 beers and under it «Only beer, don’t ask.»
There were chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a live band playing some great tunes and we sat down in some chairs and read some old law books that lined the back end of the bar.
«Are those real or just for decoration?» I asked my friend.
He grabbed a book and handed it to me «It’s real dear.»
Nonetheless what a nice little unmarked spot. It was secretive… it was divey. it was… quite a good time all around. However beer only and the fact they don’t take plastic loses it a star in my book… that, and the beer offerings were not enough to make up for the fact that it was only beer there. Sorry, I’m a pseudo beer snob and not a hipster… it takes a little more than PBR to make me happy.

You know that shady-​looking abandoned shack on Hyperion across from Casita Del Campo? Some hipsters broke in one nite, put in a couple new lightbulbs, got a 6-​pack of beer and called all their friends.
The party was such a hit that now they do it every nite! Sometimes a bunch of art school bands play and then we are treated to some spoken word, sometimes a hot chick plays the accordian and makes you dress up in costumes, sometimes there is dancing, and sometimes they have toilet paper.
Wait, are we revealing one of Silverlake’s best kept secrets? Oops.
p. s. Just bring your own booze. It’s so dark in there that no one will notice.

to clear up a few things–
A) any place with giant ornate chandeliers is NOT a dive bar. i cant stress this enough, people. (see photos)
2) there is an atm inside the bar so you can grab a quick bill. the no card thing is not a big deal.
III) there is dancing. fancy fancy dancing. where else in silverlake can you find that?! (and don’t say akbar, or i will shoot you)
4) relax about the only beer thing, they have stella, we will all be fine.