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It's been over a year since MJ's, Silver Lake's neighborhood gay bar, shuttered, but the location has since had a major makeover. A new bar with a cool, airy design, and planned outdoor arthouse film screenings and secret music shows, now calls the space home.
Tenants of the Trees will open to the public come September 15. It houses three spaces with different themes all rolled into one venue: Tenant of the Trees, Concession and Out of Order. Enter the Tenant of the Trees bar—just steps away from the bustling Trader Joe's—through the side alley and travel through a bare wooden hallway that looks like it's still under construction. Suddenly you find yourself walking out of an A-frame building into a cozy outdoor space with trees and an old-timey, red-and-white French Citroën truck. That's where you'll be able to get some cocktails on draft, as well as quick beer and shoot combos, Mark Daoust, the new bar manager (formerly from Dirty Laundry) tells LAist.
The outdoor space leads into the inside bar, which features gorgeous wood paneling on the ceiling, green plants decorating the space and paintings on the walls. It feels like you're in a casual European watering hole. The sunroom, a nook in the corner surrounded by windows with cushy benches gets plenty of sunlight through its greenhouse-like walls, perfect for a bit of day drinking.
Reza Fahim, who co-owns the bar with Jason Lev, describes Tenants of the Trees to LAist as a "mid-century outdoor cabin bar."
As for the cocktail program, it's developed by Proprietors LLC, who have crafted drinks at other L.A. nightlife destinations like Honeycut and Beelman's Pub. At Tenants of the Trees they'll be featuring seasonal drinks with fresh fruit juices and tea-style cocktails.
Just beyond the outdoor patio is Concession, a grassy space at the bottom of a hill, surrounded by with newly-planted trees, including a mini lime farm. Come fall, this area will be used to host free outdoor movie screenings. Fat Girl and Battle in Heaven are just a couple of favorite films for Fahim and Lev, who went to film school together, if that gives you any indication of what their film slate will be like: the arthouse variety. Concession will also have an Airstream, and rotating food trucks with different chefs' takes on movie favorites like hot dogs and popcorn.
The third space within Tenants of the Trees is the Eastern European-inspired bar and venue called Out of Order, which occupies the front area of the bar, and will play host to intimate secret shows. The one catch is that this is an invite-only spot, so your best bet for getting an invite is getting to know the people who work at Tenants of the Trees. It's a beautiful space with black-and-white checkered floors, blue hues painted throughout the entire space, wood paneling on the ceilings, brass finishings and rustic furniture. Fahim was inspired to create this room from his travels to Poland years ago when he was invited to see actor Julian Sands perform the work of Harold Pinter in an attic in an old castle.
Fahim, who designed everything (Lev helped him develop the space), approached the design like a film. "It was something that lived in my head conceptually," Fahim said. "To me, building design is analogous to a film without a script and you write it as you go. I would be inspired by certain artists, architecture and certain stores."
He previously worked with the Houston Brothers as a "co-conspirator" for their Harvard & Stone, Pour Vous and No Vacancy bars, Fahim said. He also wanted to make sure his bar would vibe with Silver Lake. "I was inspired by the DNA of the neighborhood, and I strongly believe when you build a bar, the genetic code of it has to reflect the neighborhood," Fahim said.
Tenants of the Trees opens on September 15. Tenants of the Trees hours are from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Out of Order is open from Thursdays through Saturdays from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., but is invite only. Concession will open in the fall. It is located at 2810 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake
