North Hollywood, California: Building Shaped Like a Whiskey Barrel
Built in 1941, closed in 1984. The big whiskey barrel was finally restored to its aged wood-like glory in Feb. 2015.
Idle Hour Cafe
- Address:
- 4824 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood, CA
- Directions:
- Idle Hour Cafe. On the northbound side of Vineland Ave. a half-mile north of the Ventura Fwy and about a mile east of the Hollywood Fwy.
- Admission:
- Free
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Visitor Tips and News About Building Shaped Like a Whiskey Barrel
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A great place for dinner or drinks, beautifully restored with a great patio featuring a 2-story dog smoking a pipe that houses a private dining room. Easy parking and no crowd on a Sunday night.
[Chris (CP) Powell, 04/21/2016]
More than just a curiosity, this is now a beautifully restored cocktail and craft beer spot. Very nicely done.
[Mark, 04/15/2015]
The restoration is complete. The fence came down recently, so I stopped and took some photos. Workmen are finishing the interior, but everything looks wonderful. In addition to the Idle Hour building, another iconic item of programmatic architecture is here: a replica of the Bulldog Cafe, which once graced Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The original building was demolished some time after 1966; the replica was built in 1994 for the Peterson Automotive Museum as part of one of its displays. The Peterson is currently undergoing modernization and the replica Bulldog was scheduled for demolition. The Idle Hour owners bought it and moved it to the Idle Hour property, where it is currently being reassembled and renovated.
The Bulldog stands on the patio at the rear of the Idle Hour (I didn't know about it when I snapped my photos this afternoon, so I didn't see it).
[Jane Roxanne Beamon, 02/15/2015]
Construction on the building shaped like a barrel has been finished.
[Matthew J. Wagner, 09/03/2014]
This is a building is constructed in the shape of a barrel; the only one of its kind still standing in Los Angeles. It was built in 1941, shuttered in 1984, and has been falling into severe disrepair ever since. In 2009 it was declared a Historic-Cultural Monument, and I am pleased to report that reconstruction has recently begun.
[Jane Roxanne Beamon, 09/28/2013]Nearby Offbeat Places
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Old photos of the Bulldog often appear in days-of-yore articles about the American road. It's great that the replica has been saved. A two-for-one stop!