The Gold Room ~ Echo Park

1558 W. Sunset Blvd. ~ Echo Park, CA 90026 ~ 213-482-5259 (TACO Map)

The Gold Room is an attitude-free oasis of friendly waitresses, cheap drinks, hard men escaping the ball n' chain (you see no women here except what the hipsters drag in), as well as banda blasting from the juke. Free food is often on the agenda as well, with free peanuts, popcorn, and sometimes even tacos being slung along with your Pacifico.

While all this sounds too good to be true, The Gold Room is actually a well-oiled machine with an interesting and innovative way to deal with gentrification. Everyone is welcome to dine, drink, and make good friends with the friendly regulars, but unwritten bar policy has it that only two small tables of punky invaders is allowed at a time. Sure enough, the second this policy is violated by some messy-haired too-cool-for-school guitar hero, every regular in the joint gets one free sock to the stomach of said interloper. It is a very nice, efficient system for keeping gentrification in check and The Gold Room in the hands of those who need it and love it.