With trepidation, I walked towards the swinging double doors. As I got to it, a short, middle-aged woman pushed them right into me. She stopped dead in her tracks, tilted her head up with a look of indifference with a tinge of disgust, furrowed her brow and slurred “F*ck off.”
I was in love.
I pressed on, redoubled in my curiosity to finally see what those walls contained. I had been going past the place since I was a kid, and had always wondered what mysteries lay within.
Was there really a dance floor in such a small place, stuck between a deli and a blockbuster? Santa Monica is not known for it’s strip malls, and this place was a particular oddity for the sleepy residential area.
I entered to a smoke-filled room (this was after the smoking ban had gone into effect, mind you). Pleather booths lined the wall. An old dude in a leather vest, a doppelgänger for the Tall Man in Phantasm, sat behind the bar, smoking. In the back sat a crappy pool table and an even crappier electronic dartboard.
A half dozen people at most sat, nursing their drinks and their sorrows while Pete Seeger played off the juke box. I had somehow found a wormhole back to 1977, which was doubly confirmed after ordering my first drink (a gin and tonic): $3 for hard liquor in Santa Monica? Unpossible!
I had found Heaven. Or rather Shangri-La.
Over the years the crowd has changed slightly. You see less hard timers and more of the low-end party crowd, but without them being too obnoxious. Drinks are still ridiculously cheap.
If you’re like me and hate the hipster scene, then you will love Lost and Found. Friendly, mellow, dirty, you can really let yourself go and not give a damned about anyone or anything. Plus they have a complimentary popcorn machine.
11700 National Blvd., at the corner of National and Barrington in Santa Monica (across from the Whole Foods). No idea what their hours are, but I know they tend to open on the early side (possibly before noon).
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