Los Angeles

Stinkers

As Halloween always reminds us, people who go the full nine get mad respect, and guys in afro wigs are idiots. For a bar with a kick-ass costume, check out Stinkers.

Stinkers is a full-tilt theme bar aiming to be Silverlake's only "glammed-up 70s truck stop", brought to us by the guy behind Bigfoot Lodge (Los Feliz's only ski cabin) and Little Cave (Highland Park's only little cave). The details are stupefying: mirrored walls lined with 5000+ eBay-collected vintage beer cans (from Bud and Coors to the defunct Clintontime and I'm Off); signed pics of asphalt-friendly celebs (Willie Nelson, Chuck Norris); a reel-to-reel equipped DJ booth; steam-spewing animatronic skunks; and bartenders with handles (Jabberjaw, etc) who'll yell "last call" from a working CB attached to a loudspeaker -- the CB's range extends a mile, so the guy hauling that container of sulfuric acid knows to put the pedal to the metal. Drinkwise, in addition to drafts (Shock Top Hefe/Bare Knuckle Stout/Stinkers Ale...) and cans (Colt 45, Schmidt's, The Beast, Iron City...Champale?), there're 18-wheeled cocktails like the root beer-floatish Large Marge and a Diesel Martini made with Kahlua -- when you've been on the road 14 hours, you need stimulation that can only come from coffee...liqueur.

As you're excreting your Champale, you'll notice a few final bathroom touches: a cutout of Burt Reynolds on the door, and a vintage Little Blastascent perfume machine, with scents "inspired by" Aramis, Polo, and Drakkar -- though when it comes to knock-off cologne, guys who go the full nine yards get nothing but mad rashes.

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