Tag Archive for: Ramona Theater

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Support Echo Park Historical Society with a pizza at Mohawk Bend

Getting hungry? We are! All through the month of August, Mohawk Bend is supporting the Echo Park Historical Society by selling you delicious pizza.

Through the restaurant’s monthly fundraising campaign, Piece of the Pie, Mohawk Bend has created a custom pizza called the Historical Ramona. A portion of the proceeds from each pizza sold will directly benefit the Historical Society. On top of the pie: rapini, red onion, cerignola olives, cherry tomatoes, parmesan, and an olive oil drizzle.

The Echo Park Historical Society is a group focused on the preservation of the community, including fantastic things like the Jensen’s Recreation Center sign, and even the Ramona Theater that now houses Mohawk Bend. Support history in Echo Park by stopping into Mohawk Bend through August 31!

This is also a chance to celebrate a bit of history in the amazing theater-turned-Mohawk Bend. The Ramona Theater (also once galled the Garden Theater and Studio 1) remained vacant for about 30 years until owner Tony Yanow came in with the restaurant just a couple of years ago. But the theater was opened in 1914, so Mohawk Bend is celebrating the building’s 100th birthday and its own 2nd birthday with some special events.

From August 8 through 13, Mohawk Bend will be tapping special, limited-release beers, and guests are invited to play beer bingo to win prizes. On August 14, there is a special reservation-only anniversary party featuring the unveiling of a collaboration beer with Golden Road Brewing.

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Mohawk Bend to open in Echo Park soon, “very soon”

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You may have noticed yesterday (hopefully you didn’t drive all the way from the West side) that despite reports from various news sources, Mohawk Bend did not open its doors yesterday. But last week we did get a sneak peak at the space, the food, and the ever so delicious booze at a pre-opening party for press and friends.

Owner Tony Yanow has had great success with Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank – with an extensive and really great beer list paired with an equally delicious vegan and non-vegan bar fare. He’s clearly doing something right, because Mohawk Bend is impressive. Plus it really helps that he’s a really nice guy, has an equally awesome family, and has done a great job with the former Ramona Theater after over 20 years of collecting dust.

Spacecraft Group designed the interior of the building (the exterior is protected by historical guidelines), telling the crowd at the pre-opening party that they were inspired by a ’70s bar vibe, hence the vintage neon bar signs decorating the second story of the large main room. Polished concrete floors, exposed brick (the formal dining room is all original), a two-story glass wall, and lacquered panels of wood are features of the recreated space.

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Mohawk Bend prepping for a July opening

Beer connoisseur and restaurant owner Tony Yanow’s Echo Park venture, Mohawk Bend, started construction last year in the old Ramona Theater, and the restaurant is just about to open. Having remained vacant for about two decades, the 6,000 square foot, 1914 building has undergone quite a transformation – and we got a peak inside!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

A couple of weeks ago, a very friendly Paige Reilly (whose email signature casually claims her role in the scheme of things as the “Beer Champion” for Tony’s Darts Away) took me on a tour Mohawk Bend and gave me a full run-down of what’s going on behind those theater doors:

A non-smoking outdoor patio is the first space you’ll notice (where you would, for instance, buy your movie tickets when it was a theater). It will be treated almost like a lounge area with cocktailers.

The Quad is just past the hostess station, where two- and four-tops plus booths (totaling 48 seats) will occupy the space. It’s a seat yourself deal, and while you can order at the bar there will be cocktailers as well.

There’s this really cool concrete community table with high-top seating as you move into further down into the pub/bar area (they had to build it right there, it’s so bulky). Along the right side is the row of bar stools facing a total of 72 taps for beer and six taps for wines. With a focus on California/local brews, wines, and even spirits, they’ll also be making their own juices and even sodas.

Along the left side are also high-top seats, this section facing an open kitchen where you can watch the chefs in action. There’s the “Cadillac of pizza ovens” along with multiple stations – since they will be offering a variety of vegan dishes, they’ve actually duplicated stations so that vegan meals are prepared separately from meat dishes. That means they have two of each: cold tops, fryers, griddles and pizza stations.

The menu isn’t entirely vegan because they are really driving home that they have an “inclusive” menu – so that there’s something for everyone.

At the end of the building, broken up by an enormous wall of glass panels, is the sort-of “formal” dining area. It’s here you can really get a sense the old theater space – the expansive walls of exposed brick give off the original flavor, and they plan to have ivy or some sort of greenery to help make it feel more like an outdoor space. They also installed quite a few beautiful skylights and scaffolding to help that outdoor feel.There’s also a massive fireplace centering the far wall.

Back to what’s really important, more about the booze:

  • Of the 72 taps, 67 are California-only brews
  • 35 are permanent handles and 32 will rotate
  • Every month they will feature one out-of-state brewer, and will host a kick-off event with the brewer on hand
  • Six taps are wine kegs, and will rotate like the beers
  • The bar is fully stocked with 80 bottles spirits, and like the beer and wine will be local or California companies. Since tequila is from Mexico only, there will be California agave spirits (apparently bar manager Keith Taylor makes a mean margarita, and will be serving up other traditional and specialty cocktails)

Back when this whole project started, I was a little worried about big names like Spacecraft leading the design of the new restaurant, fearing it would turn into some over-exaggerated, Hollywood design that wouldn’t fit well with some of the more homey establishments in the community. But I’ve warmed up to Tony, the restaurant, and the concept as a whole (despite a few neighborhood objections when they moved in).

We are all anxiously awaiting the final touches to be made for the grand opening. Actually, the restaurant was supposed to open today, but as with any restaurant opening there are permit delays, final deliveries, and just some last minute details to be sorted. They now expect Mohawk Bend to open in early July, we’re crossing our fingers!

UPDATES:

Eater LA reports the opening will be delayed even more to late July due to some problems with gas pipes or gas lines.

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EPIA Neighborhood Issues Meeting Tonight

Tonight is the Echo Park Improvement Association Neighborhood Issues meeting. There’s a lot of buzz revolving around this meeting as there will be a discussion about the new restaurant being installed in the old Ramona Theater, which we just learned today will likely be called Mohawk Brasserie.

The meeting takes place at 7:00 pm in Williams Hall at Barlow Hospital.

Come a little early to get your seat!

Click here for tonight’s agenda, posted on the EPIA website.

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Owner of new Echo Park restaurant speaks up

I got a chance to speak with Tony Yanow, owner of Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank as well as the new restaurant being installed in the old Ramona Theater in Echo Park. The reason for our conversation revolved around concerns brought up by residents involved in the www.echoparklife.org website, which we wrote about last week. Mr. Yanow wanted to address a few of those concerns, including parking, bar hours, and the wood-fired pizza oven.

Parking

Mr. Yanow says he has secured well over the 54 spots required for a restaurant that size. While details are still being worked out, he has approximately 80 spots so far. As far as how many people he expects to be in the restaurant at any given time, he would “absolutely love” for all 200 seats in the house to be full at all times, but isn’t convinced the presence of the new restaurant will increase the parking problem (or rather, not much) for the neighborhood than there already is. He has suggested to neighbors they research getting a placard system for their neighborhood (residents surrounding Dodger Stadium are well-versed in that effort).

In addition, he will be installing bike racks outside of the restaurant like he has at his other restaurant, Tony’s Darts Away located in Burbank.

Restaurant hours

“I have long hours,” Mr. Yanow told me, “but the reason for the long hours isn’t because I want to flood the neighborhood with noise and debree.”

Tony’s Darts, he says, has been open for four months without a single complaint from a single neighbor. Tony and his family live in Los Feliz, and says he loves Echo Park and understands the community. He says the new restaurant in Echo Park is not going to be an upscale place, but a nice, friendly family place that he can bring his own family to. He will be posting a sign (you’ll see one similar to what he’s posting in front of the Short Stop in Echo Park) that will say something along the lines of “be nice to our neighbors” and keep the noise down. It’s important to him that he has a restaurant that is “in keeping with what the neighborhood vibe is.”

Pizza oven

Mr. Yanow says his pizza oven is the same oven they use at the California Pizza Kitchen establishments. Everything is up to code, ducted properly, and no different than any other gas appliance, so he doesn’t feel it will be a problem with the neighbors.

Live music and noise

Apparently the old theater was, on occasion, used as a space for some louder bands to play in the past, and neighbors complained because of the noise. There’s just a big, giant hole in the roof, which Mr. Yanow is sealing and actually replacing the entire roof so that noise won’t be directed at the neighbors behind the building, but instead being directed toward the street in the front. The back of the building is 16 feet underground, and a new air conditioning system is being put in, so the building will be better insulated. He says that he does have permits for live music, but no permits to sell tickets pre-sale or charge a cover, and no permit for dancing. In his words, “it’s not a nightclub, it’s a restaurant.”

It seems like the bottom line for Mr. Yanow is that he really does want the new restaurant to help the property values along that block (there are quite a few empty store fronts). “That block is under-served, and could be such a magical block, but it seems so desolate. I think the community will really respond to the food and the alcohol. I can’t stress enough about how excited I am about the menu.”

The menu is going to be very “fresh” and will depend on local farmer’s market finds, so it will be changing based on what’s available. He and and his family are vegan (his seven-year-old daughter is, for the most part), so they plan on having a vegan menu in addition to the non-vegan menu. A lot of the hype revolving Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank is a large drink menu with vegan beers, and he plans on extending a similar bar menu into the Echo Park establishment (he comes from a craft beer background and focuses the menu on local and/or California beer).

I asked him about the restaurant next door, Elf Cafe, and whether or not he thinks they’ll be competing. As a vegan himself, he LOVES Elf Cafe. “Our food is very very different from what they do at Elf, so I hope we’ll be a nice compliment to each other.”

Tony's Darts Away wine keg, Flickr photo via greenlagirl

Besides the beer, I have to admit I’m a little excited to have more restaurants in Echo Park focused on the basics of being environmentally friendly (hat tip to Masa, which offers compostable to-go packaging). Apart from the napkins and straws that you have to have in a restaurant, he plans on having zero waste from bar. They’ll reuse everything when they can (menus are printed because they will change often, but they will reuse those), and everything is post-consumer waste. They are operating as a bottle-free bar, where beer is kegged and even wine is custom kegged for them.

Other than that, count on the new restaurant to be a place where you can watch a Dodgers or Lakers game, but sports won’t be on all the time.

Initially, the restaurant was to be called El Camino, but they are still playing around with the name. If you’d like to give in your two cents for what it should be called (perhaps think about something represents Echo Park) visit the Facebook page for Tony’s Darts Away and share your ideas for the restaurant name.

Finally…

The website Echo Park Life has gotten a lot of criticism lately regarding their efforts, but they did respond yesterday and will hopefully clarify some things with readers (including why your comments may not be showing up on the site), so take a look and maybe you’ll get a chance to see them at the upcoming meeting on Wednesday to discuss issues revolving the new restaurant at the old Ramona Theater. They are nice people, we just all need to be on the same page and understand where everyone is coming from.

The Echo Park Improvement Association Neighborhood Issues committee will be meeting on Wednesday, August 18 at 7:00 pm at Williams Hall, Barlow Hospital, to talk to Mr. Yanow and other residents about what to expect. I’ll be posting the agenda as soon as it’s published. See you there!

UPDATE:
Looks like Mr. Yanow and his crew have decided on a name for the new spot, and are calling it Mohawk Brasserie. Click here for the Facebook page.

Related Articles:

  • “Old Ramona Theater Begins Transformation.” July 28, 2010. Echo Park Now
  • “Echo Park restaurant owner responds to his critics.” August 16, 2010. The Eastsider LA
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Old Ramona Theater Begins Transformation

We posted a mention last April that the old Echo Park Ramona Theater would become a wood-fired pizza and beer restaurant called El Camino. Originally slated to open around Thanksgiving this year, construction just recently started up on the new space and it’s looking like a grand opening will be pushed back.

Here’s a little back story about the Ramona Theater: It opened in Echo Park in the year 1914 as the Garden Theatre. Its name changed a few times (those names somewhat of a mystery, of which Echo Park has many), until 1966 when it became Studio 1 showing German-Language films. It was completely closed down in the 1990s, the front awning giving shelter to many homeless for many years.

Now, who knows what’s going on behind those Spacecraft walls, I can only speculate and summon up some pretty over-imaginative ideas: Perhaps they maintained some kind of stage area where the movie screen was to make it our own Echo Park dinner theater!

Alas, a big wall was put up during construction in the late 1990s led by a member of the Lolito family, which owned the building for about 75 years according to the Echo Park Historical Society. They also leveled the theater floor and removed the theater seats.

So probably no dinner theater, movie theater, or any other type of theater for now, but we do know one thing for sure: Alcohol! Owner Tony Yanow, who also own Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank, just recently applied for a liquor license that includes beer, wine and “distilled spirits” and is currently pending. All I can say is, if the the beer list is as decent as the Darts Away list, you might find me there with a Belgian-style beer in hand (I’ve read that there could be as many as 75 beers on tap at the new location).

However, I am a little wary of big names like Spacecraft and big ideas moving into Echo Park. While I really do welcome the activity at the old theater because it really, really needs it, if the restaurant ends up being an over-priced, chichi Hollywood-type establishment, I’d rather cuddle up with the friendly faces at Masa, The Park and El Compadre.

More worrisome is the lack of parking in the area. We are waiting to hear back from the owner to find out how they are going to deal with that issue, as the neighbors are less than thrilled. Already having to compete with clubs down the street, a lot of housing with not a lot of parking spots, and a big development being planned just down the road, nearby residents might just have to start digging their own driveways just to park near their homes.

Stay tuned – we will provide more info as soon as we know!

The old Ramona Theater is located at 2139 W. Sunset Blvd.

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