With LA’s Bar Scene in Crisis, Everson Royce Bar Announces Last Call

In late October, Downtown’s Everson Royce Bar announced it would close permanently at the end of 2026. Hundreds of comments on its Instagram page lamented the loss of another fundamental Los Angeles bar. In the 11 years it was open, Everson Royce Bar appealed to casual and knowledgeable drinkers alike, serving as a watering hole for the hospitality industry. Cocktail culture writer Esther Tseng recalls the bar’s impact on the region. “It’s a bar that always had seriously good (but not serious) cocktails,” says Tseng. “It was probably one of the first places I knew Downtown that could accommodate small parties in an intimate bar setting, or larger, casual parties on the patio out back. It had great food, too.”

Partners Joe Capella, Randy Clement, April Langford, and chef Matt Molina debuted Everson Royce Bar in 2015 with an uncomplicated approach to cocktails, a selection of rare whiskeys, Molina’s notable cheeseburger and food menu, plus that welcoming outdoor area. The team brought plenty of experience from restaurants and bars across Southern California. Capella and Molina are longtime operators of Hippo and South Pasadena’s Cannonball, which opened in 2025. Wife-and-husband team Langford and Clement are the minds behind Good Neighbor Bar as well as West Altadena Wine, which the couple closed in October. Eater spoke to Clement about the reasoning behind his decision to shutter Everson Royce Bar and West Altadena Wine.

Clement cited the same challenges other operators have in Los Angeles’s current business and consumer climate: a significant drop in tourism, rising operational costs, changing drinking trends, plus the long-term effects of the pandemic and entertainment industry strikes. This year has been one of the hardest for Southern California bars and nightlife. Clement sees businesses losing their customer base as the many film and television workers who have long fueled Los Angeles restaurants and bars — hospitality workers pursuing entertainment dreams with side gigs as well as higher-paid industry professionals — can no longer afford to go out to eat and drink regularly.

“Closing Everson Royce was the perfect storm of everything going wrong at the same time,” says Clement. “But unless there is this other unnamed industry waiting in the wings to replace the industry that’s driven our town for the last decades upon decades, I’m concerned that there’s no looking back.”

The foursome saw the numbers and had acknowledged the inevitable for some time. They extended the closure announcement to keep their workers employed, with a persistent optimism that conditions would improve. As for West Altadena Wine, which is attached to Good Neighbor Bar’s patio, Clement says he was unwilling to continue the lengthy conflict with a residential neighbor who allegedly targeted the business by complaining to government agencies like Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Works, Building and Safety, LA County Planning, and the Department of Public Health. Clement also says that the complainant called law enforcement before Langford and Clement finally closed West Altadena Wine in late October. Eater reached out to the complainant but did not hear back.

Clement and Langford moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Los Angeles in 1996. The couple currently resides in Altadena and, along with other Los Angeles operators, worries about business sustainability and the city’s culture. “Here in LA, anything is possible, and now it doesn’t feel like that,” says Clement. 

The year 2026 is proving challenging for Los Angeles nightlife. West Hollywood’s the Belmont shuttered in August, and the neighborhood’s renowned Employees Only closed in late September. On November 2, Augustine Wine Bar announced it will close on December 19, the same day as Everson Royce Bar. SF Gate reports that cocktail (and wings) favorite Ye Rustic Inn might lose its outdoor seating and cites lease concerns with the landlord. Owner Susan Wood hosted an event to bolster support for the almost 30-year-old bar, where Los Angeles mayoral candidate and councilmember Nithya Raman showed up to offer support for independent businesses. (As of this writing, one day after Election Day, Raman holds a small lead over incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.)

Clement sees an emergency unfolding and hopes solutions can come from elected officials for all independent businesses. “If you’re the group formulating legislation for economic incentives or tax credits, the fact that this hasn’t happened yet, maybe it’s all too late,” says Clement. “I don’t know. What Everson Royce Bar is going through is what the florist, yoga studio, and bookstore are going through.”