Townhouse Cocktails to Reopen Basement

Through a fluke of paperwork, Townhouse owners Netty and Louie Ryan have been fighting for three years for the city to let them reopen the basement portion of the bar.

That fight is over. The Department of City Planning has approved a conditional use permit for the basement, which includes a stage. Louie Ryan said he hopes to open the space in the next two to three months.

"I've never been more excited about a project than I am about the basement of the Townhouse," Ryan said. 

Ryan, who also owns Zanziber, in Santa Monica, will be working with the same booking agents that he uses for that bar. The burlesque shows, which have been upstairs, will move to the basement, along with music and other live shows.

He is in the process of soundproofing the back wall of Townhouse, to appease concerns from neighbors. No one appealed the city's decision. The window for appeals ended Friday.

Ryan is still in the process of negotiating the conditions of the permit, which were more stringent than earlier uses.

Townhouse Cocktails, upstairs and downstairs, has been in business since 1915, staying open through Prohibition and two world wars.

The bar's history, though, has been at the root of the Ryans' problem keeping the basement bar open after a citation in 2007 for not having a Conditional Use Permit for the downstairs space. Permits are required in Los Angeles to serve alcohol.

"There was no ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) in 1915," Louie Ryan said after a Venice Neighborhood Council meeting in October, where Townhouse received a letter of support.

The Ryans bought the bar from Daniel Bennett, son of Frank Bennett, who had run the bar since the early 1970s. Frank Bennett died in 2003. His son, the new owner, lived in Palm Springs, Louie said, and was somewhat of an absentee landlord.

"The Ryans are exactly what we need at this location," said bartender George Czanecki, who has been working at Townhouse for decades.

In 2007, when the Ryans acquired Townhouse, there were no records on file, Ryan said. Townhouse will begin a new era when the basement opens. There are scant live music venues in Venice, a situation Ryan hopes to rectify with the basement opening.

"There's A-list talent, a lot of whom have been at our other places, that are excited about having an opportunity to play here," Ryan said.

Stay tuned to Venice Patch for an opening date and performance listings.