Bible Club
When a green light in the attic window of this small Craftsman house winks on, it’s a signal that Westmoreland’s new cocktail-fueled time machine is open for business. Jewelry designer and rabid antiquer Ryk Maverick recently retooled the longtime home of Schoendecken Coffee Roasters as a 1920s-era speakeasy, complete with plinky jazz soundtrack and dizzy-making heritage cocktails. First and foremost, you’re here for the eye candy: Bible Club’s décor is attacked with meticulous, museum-worthy intensity, right down to period-specific doorknobs, 90-year-old beer taps, and velvet drapery festooning nearly every square inch of the teeny house. A short list of “proprietary libations” brims with balanced, extremely drinkable ideas—from a yeasty, rich, grapefruit-kissed shandy shaken to frothy goodness with an egg white to a sweet, smoky, lemon-laced Hombre Santo (Maestro Dobel Diamante tequila stirred with Dolin Blanc and Bénédictine)—all served in delicate glassware scavenged from a great-grandma’s sideboard. In the kitchen, former Ración chef-owner Anthony Cafiero sneaks modernist touches onto a short bill of lusty Americana fare. Roasted mushroom mac wafts truffle vapors; Castelvetrano olives taste of smoked hay. The whole thing teeters on a knife’s edge of Disneyland Main Street–level schmaltz but ends up charming thanks to chatty servers, rock-solid drinks, and some epic, star anise–perfumed French onion soup. Hello, date-night time warp.