Sometime, just before 2am on Sunday, May 1st, 2011, Sir Ian Dangerous poured the last official drink at one of LA's most iconic and relevant neighborhood bars, Saints & Sinners, just as he had poured the first official drink there, five years earlier. The place was jammed with regulars paying their last respects as well as bewildered first-timers trying to understand why this amazing place was closing. Jen and Charlie provided the killer soundtrack while Ken guarded the gates and kept us all safe right up until the time he lost consciousness. Ian, always the professional, ran the place as if he would be opening the next day. He also breathed so much fire, he was clearly channelling Glaurung. It was a night to remember and a fitting farewell to a great and unique lounge.
I was a relative newcomer to Saints & Sinners, but from that first visit a year and a half ago, when Ken checked my ID at the door and Ian introduced me to my first Hellfire, I was proud to count myself among its regulars. Saints & Sinners was made great by both its staff and its customers. Both groups were comprised of far more cool cats and far fewer douche-hoses than exist in the general population of Los Angeles. It felt like home. That is, if your dad breathes fire, your mom drinks copious amounts of Jameson and your sister flashes her tits occasionally - all to a soundtrack of metal, hip-hop, classic rock and karaoke. It's a place where everybody knows your name, but they call you lots of other things, instead. Not exactly like "Cheers", more like Cheers' younger, edgier brother who told his parents to fuck off, sold his father's Lexus and used the money to buy an electric guitar and a year's worth of drugs before moving to Norway to join a death-metal band he met on Craigslist.
Truly great bars are few and far-between. The last one I remember was a dive called "My Place" in Okinawa, Japan in the 1980's. I have dropped by other places during this last year and a half, but they were all afterthoughts. There was never a close second and up until this past Sunday there were only two kinds of bars in Los Angeles: "Saints & Sinners" and "not Saints & Sinners".
Farewell and thank you to all who made it so.
rk
