The Holy Water Room

Fail. The place is closed… wish I would have read the reviews before braving traffic. Unilocal, update their page to say closed.

The Holy Water Room is lame. It’s a wannabe speak easy bar. Totally trying too hard unlike other cool speak easy bars in DTLA and Hollywood. I don’t recommend this place unless you don’t know any better.

This place is closed for remodeling wtf. It should at least have am announcement for it.

Great laid back spot with good beer but don’t look for signage — or you will be lost. This great little bar is actually inside Carmine’s.
Very nice and helpful bartenders!!!

cool place. Have come here many times over the years, even before renovations.
Great bartenders, servers, The one thing I don’t get is the tables. Whoever chose the little tiny tables near the couch… really??? I’m not the only one who was making comments about the seating arrangements… please buy some bigger tables. lol

This place has become my go to for happy hour. It’s close to home. The décor is nice. You can actually sit and be comfortable and the Valentino gets it done for me. The wait staff has always been friendly and attentive… I have no complaints.

It’s Carmine’s

I like coming here. Affordable drinks and great music. Plus, it’s a bonus that we can just walk here! No worrying about drinking and driving. I like how they remodeled the place. It gives that mafioso vibe. I live the huge white chairs in the corner! Last time I went, they even had burlesque dancers, which of course the boys loved! I gave brought a few friends over and they enjoyed it. The crowd is a good mix, no pretentious you know what in this place…

20s modern feel décor, industrial. Delicious mixed drinks tried the Valentino & Strawberry Collins. So good. Music was a mix of old school hippo/​electro swing/​house. Overall excellent service, waitress was professional & fast! Fun times, a bit slow for a Friday night, but definitely a great vibe.

I can’t believe it took me so long to come here. It’s hidden behind Carmines and located in a lot with other random stores (Osh/​Jersey Mikes/​donut joint). The place is extremely spacious with a square bar and numerous tables. We just missed happy hour on a Friday night but the beers were still reasonably priced. I had the monty python’s holy grail beer ($ 5). This is one of my favorites because it’s nice and light. The bartender was friendly and attentive. The bathrooms were clean and the décor was great (inside the bathroom) and out. I will definitely be back for happy hour. There’s free parking right outside the bar but it might be difficult, so you may need to go a little further in the lot (closer to Osh) to find something.

Good happy hour and good food. Nice little hang out.
Must try the cheesy bread. To die for!

I miss Carmines! Well, they renamed this place I guess, and went there on a week night.
Bartenders are friendly, drinks are cheap, the night we went, they had some mini martini specials.

2 stars because I like what they were going for with the décor.
1 star for: value, service, drink menu, vibe/​clientele, music
value (overpriced & lackluster cocktails), limited and underwhelming wine list.
Service sucked — waitress seemed put upon and always busy (chatting up her co-​workers at the bar). At one point she brought us the wrong drink and insisted it was correct (it was a different color and taste).
It was a Friday night and the whole place had a weird vibe — a cross between dive bar patrons, clubbers, and older couples on date nights (practically undressing each other on the sofas). Music got unbearable loud at one point and was a bad mix to begin with.
I’d been here a few times after they first opened and then not again until this recent visit — it’s definitely gone downhill & I don’t plan to return.

I’m laughing as I write this. I know Carmines as a «sports bar” – loosely embodying this moniker. Basically just a bar with a big TV. We use to come here after our softball games.
I’m not sure I like this transformation. I think it’s way too over the top. I get the whole «gangster» vibe (1920s, not Crips and Bloods). But it just really doesn’t fit. But for the record I really don’t like the new décor in the restaurant either.
It just feels like they are trying too hard. And the beers are too expensive. It doesn’t fit with South Pas. They could have toned it down a bit, made it a nice loungy feel and called it a day.

All of the following is, of course, opinion:
Whoever came up with the concept behind remodeling the «bar side» of Carmines must have been on a coke fueled bender.
I venture up this way for a change of scenery and to get out of my comfort zone, lets just say I achieved my goal.
This place used to be a divey sports bar with a vibrant set of regulars and affordable beers. The place was stank, but tolerable.
The new interior is an example of someone thinking the pinnacle of design is Las Vegas inspired shabby chic.
The execution comes off as sleazy and uncomfortable and is so over the top you should just go to understand how out of place this re– incarnation of a neighborhood bar feels.
Forget about ordering food, the two guys working the bar couldn’t get a simple bar placed order of a regular basic item to me in less than 1 hour. The duo was more interested in acting «G» for their buddies drinking at the bar (the only other people in there).
The whole place just feels tragically uncomfortable. It is an attempt of polishing a turd and ending up up with horrible baby shit.

Wow. Just wow. If you ever wanted to have a New Jersey experience without actually having to travel, go to the newly remodeled Carmine’s bar, now for some inexplicable reason named the Holy Water Room.
Bad taste + money = tacky, trashy, loud and obnoxious.
This place is the weirdest mix between the Godfather/​baroque (the piano, which was unfortunately not being utilized), the naked light bulbs, numerous ornate chandeliers, the bookshelves with various psuedo-​antiques– mixed with odd modern furniture, the ugliest gigantic faux alligator couches and the WORST blaring video music ever. If you want to hear mind numbing loud, repetitive, generic Britney Spears and Taylor Swift type music, this is the place for you. If that is the case, I probably don’t want to know you. Music sets the scene and the atmosphere of any environment, and whoever is in charge of it here needs to be replaced immediately. Someone start playing the piano and don’t stop!!!
The food here is always good– hearty Italian style, but you can have that in the main dining room without subjecting yourself to the icky crowd here– the kind that pulls up in colorful lowrider cars and trucks.
Quite a disappointment in an area that desperately needs more nightlife options.

I used to come here when it was this dingy dive connected to a pretty good Italian restaurant, but when they remodeled the restaurant they rebranded the bar. What does that mean? The change is like turning a sandwich into a steak. In other words, it’s a completely new concept-​higher end, very kitchy. I neither love it nor hate it. I come here often because it’s two blocks from my apartment.
Great drink menu, nice beers on tap, cool bartenders, interesting crowd. Only downside is the prices are a bit high. Solution: PREBAR IT!!!
prebar /​/​v.
1. the act of consuming large amounts of alcohol before going to a bar to avoid needlessly wasting money on overpriced drinks.
[from or suggested by Latin prae-​, from prae (adv. & prep.)] Middle English from Old French barre (n.), barrer (v.), from Romanic]

Whoa, what is up with all the 5 stars?! i guess people are easily impressed by Shinola…
I remember this place when it was just a regular sports bar that had a pool table and served cheap beer in really big glass steins. It’s been years since I’ve been here, so I was a little taken aback when I walked in and saw the black chandeliers on the counter top, machine gun damasking, a piano, a taxidermy beaver rockin’ a priest collar… it’s cluttered neo-​baroque with an «edgy» Goth twist. What’s the word: ostentatious? Maybe that’s too harsh… it’s not ugly so much as over the top. Look, listen, I really like Rococo but this is not a forum to discuss ambitious interior design. I’m reviewing a bar after all and the menu was not impressive, the beer on tap was just whatever and the «vibe» was meh.
I can totally see this place being a swell place to bring a first date or maybe a cool spot for a 20 something year old to have a «girls nite». It’s just not my cup-​o-​teabags.

To My Fellow Unilocalers,
The Holy Water Room is pretty damn awesome! It’s been awhile since I went into Carmines, this bar and restaurant, at one point was a weekly stop for me.
The other night I was headed out to DTLA in search of a lounge to hang out at and catch up with an old friend when I Unilocaled nearby bars in my area. That is how I found the Holy Water Room. I had no idea the renovations where over and the bar totally redone!
I walked in, sat, ordered my specialty drink «The Granada» and watched the DJ set up. The place had a nice layout, really great décor, it was fun, the crowd was layed back. and then…
The DJ got started *head bopping* I fell a little more in love with it at that moment. 30 minutes and 1 drink later, a drummer walked in and played to the tune of the songs the dj played and at this point i was in love.
The crowd loved it, people danced, it was just a FUNNN place to be.
The only, ONLY, flaw was the grouchy bartender. Meh, Maybe it was a bad night… but he recreated my drink to the tee so, this place gets 5 stars from me!
If you live in the area, you gotta stop by (I went on a Thursday night) and if you don’t live in the area, its worth the drive.
The owners really out did themselves. I envision, many, many fun nights at this place… Hope to see you there!

Remember back when Carmine’s used to be fun? Cheap beer and drinks and a pretty good crowd — especially a happy hour crowd? You’d go in there for a beer and a tasty bambino? Sure there were fights here and there and in the parking lot — but hey, that’s normal.
Then it became… unsafe…I’ll just leave it at that.
All that has changed now — they’ve cleaned it up quite a bit. Totally redecorated interior/​bar. It looks nice, although I find the machine gun wall paper and clips of Godfather playing endlessly a bit cheesy. This is now a swanky lounge and everything you expect at a swanky lounge exists. Couches, nice tables, lighting, and a ridiculous amount of time to order anything, even when there isn’t anyone at the bar.
One the one hand, I love that it’s now «safe» — on the other hand — it’s…swanky.
Since it’s still new — I’m hoping that at some point they can figure out something in between a happening bar and an uptight lounge.
On a side note — they have these light bulbs hanging from a cable at each of the bar tables — it looks pretty cool — until you sit down. They’re at eye level so if you’re talking to someone across from you — you’re going to stare at a light bulb or a cable. Even more interesting — I wonder how long it will take before someone gets drunk and either accidentally smashes someone in the face by swinging it — or intentionally smashes someone in the face during an argument.
Either way, that light bulb needs to go up about 3 feet.
In terms of food — it’s the same… yeah. Except they took away the bambinos which is a bummer.