Three For the Vault

L.A. bar owners go where the money is

July 20, 2007—To most people, the photo above represents somewhere to store some extra cash (or possibly a good opportunity for a stick-up). To a growing number of players in the L.A. nightlife scene, however, it’s the perfect spot for a new club—no fewer than three venues are scheduled to open in former banks over the next six months. First up is Bank Heist, which launches in early August in a North Hollywood building by John Parkinson, the architect known for landmarks like Los Angeles Memorial Stadium and City Hall. Owner Jason Feld has retained the original mahogany walls and terrazzo floors. “It’ll have a 1920s gangster theme, but nothing over the top,” he claims. (On the menu: mojito snow cones.)

In downtown L.A., meanwhile, another Parkinson bank (above; one assumes they’ll do something about the lighting) is currently being converted into the Crocker Club, where come fall guests will have to provide a password to enter the whisky bar and check out the marble teller counters and the VIP lounge in the main vault.

Those turned away—or turned off by all the gimmickry—will be able to find consolation several doors down at Mercury Liquors. Due to open in early 2008 in the 6,000-square-foot vault of the former Los Angeles Trust & Savings Bank building (designed, yet again, by Parkinson), it's the brainchild of the team behind The Edison, a current hotspot housed in a former power plant.

As for what’s inspiring the trend, it beats us, though the more weathered roués in our audience will remember Serge Becker and Eric Goode's New York-based Club MK, where a vault served as a coat check. (Time will tell if any of the above joints even begin to approach that late eighties watering hole's level of hipness). A more recent (and less likely) source for the bank conversion mania: Minneapolis. The city's former Farmers & Mechanics Bank was recently converted into a restaurant called—in straightforward Midwestern style—B.A.N.K.

Bank Heist, 5303 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, (818) 760-1648; Crocker Club, 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles; Mercury Liquors, 215 W. 6th St., Los Angeles; B.A.N.K, 88 S. 6th St., Minneapolis, (612) 333-4006