Dinner House M is closing in June. The hipster apocalypse is nigh

Whether the world ends this Saturday or not, for Echo Parkers with an ear for great music and a bad idea in their heads around 1:45 a.m., a far greater loss is impending  next month. According to a headline on its website, Dinner House M, the Japanese jazz lounge seemingly ripped from Michael Mann's most vivid fantasies of a location for a shootout scene, is closing on June 8.

Founded in 1987 by the jazz singer Miki Saito and her sister Maya, the Historic Filipinotown club had became a favorite prowling ground for nightlife vampires and the neighborhood's musician-industrial complex for its surreal '80s-noir mirror decor, off-the-grid location, insanely incongruous teriyaki and noodle dishes and --shall we say-- unorthodox entry policies (the place had a reputation for bustling late into the night). Miki worked the door with a mix of neighborhood bonhomie and occasional cutting disapproval (which side you got generally depended on how late you were trying to get in). And while it routinely hosted jazz performances in the earlier hours, late nights the club hosted some surprisingly ambitious DJs (we fondly remember a stint when Ashland Mines -- one of the DJs behind the late, lamented Wildness -- spun deconstructed dance music on Wednesdays and booker Jennifer Tefft of the Satellite spun girl-group pop and old R&B jams).

We've left messages with Dinner House M to learn more about why it's shuttering or what's coming next. Although my credit card won't miss those $8 whiskey-sodas served in plastic cups the size of dentists' mouthwash samples, as an Angelino Heights resident, Dinner House M is quite literally the closest point of retail to my apartment. After dozens of very long nights and fuzzy mornings there, it kind of feels like a small, insane world is ending. There's a sendoff party on June 8, and we'll be there, quietly crying into a warm beer or seven.

-- August Brown

Photo credit: Dinner House M's Facebook page

Comments

[Dan]

NOOOOOOO!!!!

[Ricky]

Is there a way of running an after-hours bar that is legal? Like if it's a private club? Or if it's just owners that are employed there (like the smoking laws)?