Oh the faces it’s seen! Barney’s Beanery turns 90

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It’s a story so revolting and so legendary that it has achieved near mythical status. One night in the 1960s, during a particularly heavy bout of drinking, Jim Morrison stood up and urinated on the long wooden bar at Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood. Rock-god status and titillating snug leather pants or not, Morrison was booted from the famous restaurant and bar.

‘Of course, this being Barney’s, they wiped it off and put a plaque there,’ jokes Jim Ladd, the KLOS-FM DJ known for spinning raw, classic rock sans formulaic playlists for nearly 40 years. He adds, ‘Probably every rocker that has ever come through L.A. has gone to Barney’s.’

This month, with Barney’s celebrating its 90th birthday, Ladd’s observation speaks to Barney’s reputation as a gritty clubhouse for the famous and those who love them but leave them be. Since its opening, the cluttered wooden roadside shack has drawn the likes of Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth, Jimmy Page, Jack Nicholson, Quentin Tarantino and many more with its greasy food and rough-and-tumble atmosphere. And, due to a longstanding (now exorcised) intolerance of gays, it has generated as much controversy as it has plates of chili.

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-- Jessica Gelt