The modest shack where Hollywood stars eat before they’re famous

Barney’s Beanery is a modest-looking shack, with a gaudy striped awning, that has sat on humming Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles for almost a century. And its unique placement on the famous Route 66 means it came up with an equally singular way for its luckless customers to pay for a bowl of its famous chilli back in the day.

“The road outside the Beanery is Santa Monica Boulevard, but it also used to be the end of Route 66, before the highway went all the way down to the Santa Monica Pier,” says Jon D’Amico, owner and tour guide of Sunset Strip Rock ‘N’ Walk Tours.

Once the end point of Route 66, Barney’s Beanery is on Santa Monica Boulevard.Credit: Julie Ansiau

“Remember, 100 years ago, the people who were coming to California were getting away from the Great Depression, or the Dust Bowl, and they wanted to start their life over. They were destitute, so Barney said: ‘I know you’re broke but here’s the deal. I will feed you a bowl of my chilli, and you can give me your front car licence plate as collateral’. And to this day, the bar is covered in the licence plates of the people who did not get their collateral back.”

Now, when you open the door to Barney’s Beanery, and your eyes adjust to the dim light, you will see hundreds of car plates, shiny, scratched, dinged up. They cover the roof, interlaced with fairy lights sitting above muted televisions that never stop showing sport. Multicoloured booths run from the door down to the pool tables at the back, and rock ‘n’ roll plays just loud enough to shout over. Steaming bowls of the venerable chilli still come out of the kitchen with numbing regularity.

The original Barney’s Beanery was opened in Berkeley, California by John “Barney” Anthony in 1920 but a few years later the diner burnt down. Barney moved his chilli house to the current building on State Route 2, also known as Route 66, in 1927 and the place had a reputation. Falling just out of the jurisdiction of the LAPD, what we now know as West Hollywood was home to speakeasies and other ne’er-do-well establishments during the Roaring Twenties. This lawlessness was the basis for how the Sunset Strip got its party reputation right up to its hair-metal heyday in the 1980s.

Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles.Credit: Getty Images

Each of those number plates hanging over your head has a story, but they just scratch the surface of the tales that the Beanery has been associated with.

“I start and end my tours at Barney’s Beanery for a reason,” says D’Amico. “There is a lot of music history here and some of it is literally written on the walls and on the ceiling.

“And it is still a hotbed of music activity; it has recently seen everyone from Taylor Swift to Slash here, and it remains an iconic spot in LA.”

At one end of Barney’s bar is a plaque dedicated to Doors frontman Jim Morrison that is signed by the remaining members of the band. Morrison was a Barney’s regular and the plaque marks the place where you would usually find him (when he wasn’t standing on the bar urinating to “christen” it).

The likes of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison were regulars at Barney’s Beanery.

Another Barney’s fan was Janis Joplin, who commissioned underground comic artist Robert Crumb to do the cover of her album Cheap Thrills, which includes a panel dedicated to Barney’s. Joplin is said to have spent her last night alive at her favourite table at the Beanery and you can see where she sat, just a few booths down from where a young Quentin Tarantino used to hunch over his laptop writing Pulp Fiction – a few surprises that D’Amico will show you on one of his energetic, myth-packed walks.

Route 66 is building up to its centennial celebrations in 2026, although it is technically a “ghost highway” now that it no longer appears on maps. But the Route 66 Roadhouse, Barney’s Beanery, is alive and kicking.

Recently, the Los Angeles Times ran a story: “The hot Gen Z bar in LA is Barney’s Beanery. Wait, what?” reporting how crowds of young people now queue around the block to play pool and down chilli.

To Jon D’Amico, the perennial appeal of the place is simple: “You go to Barney’s before you’re famous, and you still go to Barney’s when you are famous because you might have changed, but it hasn’t.”

THE DETAILS

VISIT
Jon D’Amico runs his rock walking tours that start at Barney’s Beanery and cover the whole Sunset Strip. D’Amico is a former stage manager for Guns N’ Roses, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots; rocknwalktours.com

STAY
Chamberlain West Hollywood was awarded a Michelin Key in 2024 and its spacious, split-level rooms and rooftop pool give celebrity vibes. It is just around the corner from Barney’s Beanery. Rooms from $US287 ($470). See chamberlainwesthollywood.com

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The writer was a guest of Visit West Hollywood and Visit California.