The California Clipper

The building at 1002 North California Avenue went up in 1912 as the L.L. Freeman Theater and closed during the influenza epidemic at the end of the First World War; it reopened as the California Clipper in 1937, four years after the repeal of Prohibition, and has been a bar ever since. Orbit Group revived it after a short pandemic closure, and the room still reads post-Prohibition: red leather booths, vintage red light fixtures and Tannoy speakers of the type used at Abbey Road. Live music runs nearly every night across jazz, blues, funk, country, house and DJ sets, and a back room called the Lil Clip - the former home of the C.C. Ferns coffee shop - handles late-night dancing on Friday and Saturday with programming aimed at newer and independent acts.

For a bar of this vintage the non-alcoholic list is unusually complete, and it sits as its own menu section rather than an afterthought under sodas. Two zero-proof drinks are built to order: the Last Call N/A, made with Seedlip Notas de Agave, white peach and lemon at $14, and the Choomjito N/A, which combines Choom, mint and lime at the same price and does contain THC. Alongside them the bar keeps a bottled and canned range - Lyre's Prosecco, Lyre's Amalfi Spritz and Lyre's Gin and Tonic at $7 each, a St Agrestis Phony Negroni, Athletic Brewing hazy IPA, an Old Mil N/A lager at $4, yerba mate and Liquid Death - plus a 30mg CBD soda from Chelsea B and a 3mg THC Choom soda. Anyone avoiding psychoactives as well as alcohol should order around the Choom and Chelsea B items specifically; everything else on the non-alcoholic list is free of both. The kitchen does not serve food, so plan to eat before or after.