Los Angeles: Bar 107

Within shouting distance of Raymond Chandler’s Bunker Hill and just a few blocks from the original Skid Row, Bar 107 feels like part of the shadier side of Los Angeles history before you even walk through the door—which is shaped like a keyhole. Once the site of the city’s oldest Mexican tranny bar, the 107 has been in business for a mere three years. Yet you wouldn’t know it by the looks of the place (blood-red walls, rampant taxidermy, naugahyde booths) which resembles something out of the early 1960s—or an episode of Twin Peaks. Miller High Life is the only tap beer of choice, but there’s an almost curatorial selection of working-class regional faves such as Olympia and Schlitz. Once a neighborhood best-known as a dumping ground for staph-infected homeless people, downtown L.A. is fast becoming a trendy loft district. Bar 107 fights the good fight. On a lucky night, a patron may find himself in the feisty company of the L.A. Derby Dolls roller derby team or a gang of low-riding motorheads from a custom car club—all happily guzzling PBR tallboys.

Photos: Gia Jordan