Drinks report: The Griffin

An obscure restaurant across from the Tam O'Shanter that I never heard of anyone eating at has been transformed into a gothy nightspot called The Griffin. It's a big place with two gas fireplace-equipped seating pits, numerous nooks, an outdoor patio and a whole other pub room that opens on weekends for the overflow crowd. Sorry, not a great photo, but you can see the clever cage-like patio that allows patrons to drink alongside the sidewalk of Los Feliz Blvd. while keeping them safely fenced off from riffraff, teenagers, etc. There's the requisite thrift shop art, plenty of air conditioning, and an arched ceiling that makes you think you could be in the basement of an old cathedral, if you weren't in a formerly cheesy restaurant in Atwater. They make a mean Manhattan, and I don't know why some blogger said it was $12, because we paid $12 for a pint of Newcastle and a Manhattan. Beer on tap selection is so-so -- what's the point of having Italy's Peroni on tap, does anyone like that stuff? The jukebox is pretty solid, if a little heavy on the alt-hits du jour (do we really need to hear the Arcade Fire once again?) -- still, hard to complain about Wire, the Pixies, the Sweet, the Jam. P.J. Harvey and plenty of other choices. Nice to see the kids have yet another place to hang, but I hope the Roost also survives for a while.
The Griffin
3000 Los Feliz Blvd.