The Arts District has plenty of warehouses, loading bays and murals. Until 25 July 2026 it did not have a disco banana. At 428 South Hewitt Street, in the space that spent most of the last decade as Resident, a queer bar from Williamsburg soft-opened under the name ANIMAL, and the queue was reaching around the corner almost at once.
Twenty years in the making
The first ANIMAL opened in Brooklyn in March 2024. Its founders, Ashton Correa and Jim Morrison Hevert, former partners turned friends, spent nearly twenty years planning it, annoyed by gay bars that were not queer-owned and had no point of view. Nick Eskelinen and Tony Kelley complete the Los Angeles team. They looked at Silver Lake before settling on the Arts District, which had a patio, and the chance, as they put it, not to step on anybody's toes. Correa says queer tastemakers deserve something nice, and the website posts its rules plainly: queer bar, everyone welcome, discrimination not.
Little Tokyo frays into warehouses, and a bar from Brooklyn finds room to breathe.
Forest, Airstream, banana
The Resident bones show. The patio sits under trees and is laid out like a small forest, smoking is allowed, and it has a bar and DJ booth of its own, and an Airstream among the leaves pours drinks. Inside, a warehouse holds a second bar and a dance floor under a banana-shaped disco light by the local artist Eric Schum. Custom metalwork by William Patchen runs through the room. The crowd is gender-expansive and queer, pulled in by the beats and the dependable drinks, a gay metropolis in one stop. There is no kitchen. Food trucks and clothing pop-ups set up on weekend afternoons.
What to drink
The drinks are built for speed. A draft system, with ingredients prepped and batched in house, keeps a queue moving, and spritzes run on tap. The menu leans agave. The frozen watermelon margarita is the one everyone mentions, a slushie sold as a margarita and none the worse for it. There is a frozen espresso drink made with rum, three kinds of Negroni and a house-brewed maté. The alcohol-free list has real names too, including the botanical Temperate Lady, which sits close to a martini.
Brooklyn is the template. There, ANIMAL has hosted queer markets, art shows, zine parties, kink events and fundraisers for local LGBTQ+ groups, and the Los Angeles bar keeps the same zero-tolerance line on harassment. The idea is a place that works at two in the afternoon with a cold drink in the sun, and again at midnight with the floor full. Not many bars manage both without a personality crisis.
The music
DJs play Thursday to Sunday with no cover, mostly house and disco, plus dance music from around the world. Correa describes it as music to flirt to, to sway your hips to. Local and underground names fill the booth, among them Sindri, Cocteautwinks and Pretty Gay Friendly. The team has promised drag, flea markets, kink nights and live music, and publishes a queer cultural zine called ANIMAL PRINT, designed with the studio Vacation.
Order the watermelon margarita on the patio, then take whatever the Airstream is pouring. One hedge: the indoor bar keeps to its DJ nights, so check the lineup before heading in for the banana. Doors open at four from Tuesday to Friday and at two at weekends, and Mondays are for rest.
Come late afternoon on a weekend, when the trucks are parked and the light slants through the trees. After dark the banana takes over, and it has the confidence of a mirror ball that has never once apologised.
- The vibe
- Queer bar in a tree-shaded patio and warehouse; Airstream, dance floor, disco banana.
- The food
- No kitchen; food trucks and pop-ups on weekend afternoons.
- The drink
- Frozen watermelon margarita first; three Negronis, house maté, spritzes on tap.
- A tip
- No cover and DJs Thursday to Sunday; the indoor bar is likely shut on other nights.
