West Hollywood: Checking out Dinner and Henry’s Room at Employees Only

 

Employees Only opened last month and I recently went back to experience the side room, Henry’s Room. It’s been called a speakeasy within a speakeasy but it’s not terribly hard to find. I would recommend making reservations.

Henry’s room is named after a long time employee and has a relaxed atmosphere. There’s a list of high quality classics as well as a choose your own adventure style drink. Just spin and watch it land on a spirit. If you like that spirit, see what the bartender comes up with. She or he will still ask you what you like. I being of the brown, bitter, stirred camp was quite happy to get Scotch as my base spirit.

 

 

The bartender presented me with his old fashioned variation with both Scotch (in this case, Laphroaig) and bourbon. Stirred with mole bitters, it was delightful. My friend had a traditional Sazarac with cognac.

Scotch – 10-year-old Laphroaig, Elijah Craig bourbon, mole bitters

Sazarac – Remy 1738 cognac, sugar, Peychaud’s bitters, Angostura bitters, EO absinthe bitters

 

We also had food at Employees Only. We shared the mushroom pizza which is my favorite type of pizza (along with sausage!). These beautiful mushrooms were quite “meaty.” And I liked the cheese. It also had a good buttery crust.

 

But what was really fun was the tartare which is prepared tableside. First they bring out the chopped steak with all the accouterments including shallots, Worcesershire sauce and will ask if you want a bit of heat in your tartare. A mini show later, you get a nice scoop of tartare to be eaten with garlic crostini. I also appreciated it came with a bit of salad.

If we had more room, I would have liked to have tried the roasted mushroom chicken.

Employees Only

7953 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046  —  (323) 536-9045

 

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