Western Avenue is not a street for strolling. Car washes, Korean barbecue, bank car parks. Then, at number 641, a former furniture shop with a dark front room, a marble bar and a martini that arrives with a curl of white kelp. Bar 109 opened in late July 2025, and it is the lobby for something a good deal more serious.
The chef who came home
Brian Baik grew up around Kobawoo House, his parents' Koreatown restaurant, and learned to cook in New York at Bouley, Eleven Madison Park, the Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare and Sushi Noz. Back in Los Angeles, he began hosting pop-up dinners at Kobawoo on Monday nights, called Corridor 109 after the restaurant's suite number and in homage to Passage 53 in Paris. Regulars who wandered in by accident meant the front door had to be locked and guests let in at the side. The permanent version is Corridor 109, a tasting counter behind a door at the back, with Bar 109 as its no-reservations front room.
A Tuesday burger after ten, a kelp-salted martini, and a door at the back.
Marble, steel, low light
Montalba Architects designed both rooms. Out front a bar top of forest gold marble sits on blackened stainless steel, and elliptical banquettes curve along the walls. It is dark and sultry and built for the night owl wanting a nightcap after dinner elsewhere, in a stretch of Melrose and Western with plenty of restaurants and few places to finish the evening. The room is small and intimate. Locals arrive early on Tuesdays to claim a stool. Seating is first come, first served, which has the pleasant side effect of making everyone look like they planned ahead.
What to drink
Kayla Garcia, a sake sommelier, runs the bar. She ran drinks at Kumiko in Chicago and helped open Night on Earth, the Valley sibling of Thunderbolt. Her list borrows Japanese ingredients and leaves the structures alone. The gin martini is salted with white kelp and garnished with pickled kombu. Marine Layer is a seaweed-infused dirty martini. A boulevardier gets grassy oolong tea. The Ichigo Punch combines vodka, mezcal, sake, strawberry and basil, softened with clarified milk, proof the bar is as good with lighter, fruitier drinks. For darker tastes there is a Mikan Old Fashioned and a rum drink, the Sanshito. The alcohol-free Chic Hey takes its cue from sikhye, the Korean rice drink. Michael Engelmann, a master sommelier, built a wine list that favours small family estates, mostly French, with sake alongside.
The food
The menu is short and looks to the sea. There is a shrimp cocktail, a smoked fish dip, a wagyu hot dog and a fried rockfish sandwich that recalls a Filet-O-Fish and wears tartare sauce so thick it passes for egg salad. Then there is the burger, juicy and bistro-style, served only on Tuesdays after 10pm. Regulars know. Do not turn up at 10.30 expecting a stool.
Start with the kelp martini. It explains the whole bar: a classic, a quiet Japanese twist and no show made of it. Then the rockfish sandwich, then whatever else the stool allows.
One hedge: the darker-spirit end of the list will suit some palates more than others, and the lighter drinks are where the bar shows its range.
Bar 109 does not take reservations, does not need to, and keeps the best burger for the people who bothered to turn up on a Tuesday.
- The vibe
- Dim, marble-topped, minimalist walk-in bar; a nightcap crowd after dinner.
- The food
- Rockfish sandwich, shrimp cocktail, smoked fish dip, and the Tuesday 10pm burger.
- The drink
- Kelp-salted gin martini first; Marine Layer or the clarified-milk Ichigo Punch next.
- A tip
- No reservations. Come early on Tuesdays for a bar seat before the 10pm burger.
