Local pour · checked 2026-09-03

DTLA — downtown Los Angeles — drinks up high and eats Japanese. The local pour is a rooftop cocktail at golden hour, then a highball and bar snacks in Little Tokyo. The Historic Core bridges them with $12 classics in a cathedral rectory. Short version: rooftops for the view, Little Tokyo for the flavor.

Little Tokyo pours the highball

Little Tokyo is a Downtown LA area of about five city blocks where Japanese immigrants settled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — before World War II it was the largest Japanese community in the United States, per the National Park Service. Far Bar at 347 E 1st Street keeps that bar-snack tradition: happy hour Monday all day 3–11 and Tuesday–Friday 3–7, with Toki Highball $10, Old Fashioned $11, Sapporo Draft and sake shot $9, and house wine $9. Food runs bar-snack cheap: wagyu hot dog $5, wasabi fries $6, cheeseburger sliders (2) $6, and pork tacos (2) $6.

The rooftop is the dining room

Broken Shaker DTLA on the Freehand rooftop pool deck at 416 W 8th Street posts La Piscina Happy Hour Monday–Thursday 4–7: La Piscina $12, Electric Warrior $12, Daily Punch $12, well cocktail $12, Tecate $6, and house wine $10. Bites include guac & chips $10, mushroom crispy cheese taco $6 per taco, ahi tuna poke bowl $12, and burger and a beer $17. Over the Financial District, Perch LA at 448 S Hill Street posts Monday–Thursday 4–6 and Friday 3–6: $5 beer (Kronenbourg 1664), $7 wine, and $9 cocktails (Citrus Hi-Ball and Coup de Coeur), with small bites from a $4 Linguica Parker House Roll to a $9 Maryland Blue Crab Cake.

The Historic Core goes classic

Redbird at 114 E 2nd Street, inside the former Cathedral of St Vibiana rectory, posts Happy Hour Tuesday–Friday 5–7, bar only: $12 cocktails and $12 wines by the glass. The snack menu is named without itemized prices, so eat on the roof or in Little Tokyo and drink here.

How to drink it like a local

  • Afternoon: highball and wagyu hot dog in Little Tokyo (Far Bar) inside the 3–7 window.
  • Golden hour: $12 poolside cocktails on the Freehand roof (Broken Shaker) or $9 Hi-Balls fifteen floors up (Perch).
  • Night: $12 classics at the bar in the Historic Core (Redbird).

Windows and prices move — confirm on the venue's own page via Deals or On now before you go. Home-bar versions of the highball and margarita are measured out in six cocktail recipes.

Sources

Poured here: Far Bar · Broken Shaker DTLA · Perch LA · Redbird