Rainbow Bar & Grill

9015 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA

If you’re a rock n roll fan that grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, this place is hallowed ground. I mean this is the place where the Hollywood Vampires gathered in their private lair upstairs. The private drinking club with just a few exclusive members, namely, Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, Micky Dolenz, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and Harry Nilson, even John Belushi got in on the action before he checked out at the storied Chateau Marmont just a few blocks away, after having his last meal here.

This is where the Motley Crue guys regularly received under-the-table hummers at the curvy, red-vinyl upholstered banquettes, where Lemmy of Motorhead basically lived, always at the outside bar at the poker machine drinking his Jack. When he passed they replaced his living body with an incredible life-size bronze likeness. Go ahead, rub his crotch for good luck, but make sure to get yourself checked out after, for all the places that crotch has been… 

They serve a full menu till 2am and I hear the soup’s pretty good and that it even kept members of the Runaways alive in the late 70’s. The first time I visited this place, it was EXACTLY what I needed it to be. Interior walls are completely covered with rock memorabilia, signed guitars, gold records, endless, framed pictures of rock stars. Upstairs little rooms and secondary, smaller bars. Oh, to imagine what’s gone on up there. I’m jealous.

I was lucky enough to be there on a beautiful Fall day, a Sunday, that featured Steven Adler’s Backyard Bash: A series of bands, comprised of all sorts of 80’s metal band’s members playing on an outdoor stage all day, headlined by Adler’s Appetite, a Gun’s n Roses cover band led by the band’s original drummer with a singer that sounds way better than Axl Rose does today. And once again, it was everything I needed it to be.

The place was swarmed with tons of aged metal dudes and their equally aged, hot metal chicks. Were they all old 80’s LA rock stars? Who knows? Who cares, it was awesome. There were hot, rock n roll chicks pouring draft beer at a table, a bunch of bikers began to file in and yes! In the early evening as the hours of day drinking began to take effect, a biker fight broke out, a burly guy thrown into a table that I was perched on! My sharp peripheral vision and quick reflexes (and lots of experience being in environments such as this) allowed me to jump up and outta the way in just the nick of time. It was glorious.