Situated next to the grand Pantages Theater, once the home of the Academy Awards and still one of the leading venues for live theater in Los Angeles, the Frolic Room’s store front is humble… but you can’t miss the extravagant neon sign. Like all great bars it is an egalitarian place, a truly democratic space where, for the price of a drink, you are welcomed, whether you’re Charles Bukowski, Frank Sinatra or a just thirsty person off the street. It’s a classic, welcoming place, the way it has always been. “If you changed the Frolic Room, I think it would ruin the business,” owner Robert Nunley says. “It works this way.”
Dec 21, 2021
1 hr 9 min
Imagine a bar with an indoor lagoon. Now imagine that it rains, indoors every half hour. It’s not just a flight of fancy, it’s the Tonga Room, a classic restaurant and tiki bar in the Fairmont San Francisco hotel. Named after the South Pacific nation of Tonga, it is an eye-popping example of high-style Tiki that has been igniting the imaginations of customers for more than seventy five years.Designed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s leading set director, it is the tropical paradise Anthony Bourdain called, “the greatest place in the history of the world."Learn about the invention of Tiki, the California Gold Rush and the legendary Tonga Room!
Dec 15, 2021
1 hr 3 min
On this episode of “Last Call with Richard Crouse” we visit Sardi's, located at 234 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, in the Theatre District of Manhattan, New York City. It is Broadway’s most famous restaurant, and you may recognize it as the place where Kramer falsely accepts a Tony Award on "Seinfeld," or where Finn and Rachel met Patti LuPone in an episode of "Glee" or perhaps you know it as the place where Don Draper and Bobbie Barrett celebrated the sale of a television pilot on "Mad Men." The walls of celebrity caricatures are iconic and unmistakable.Listen to the whole story of the "Clubhouse to the Stars" where the Tony Awards were born!
Dec 7, 2021
41 min
On this episode of "Last Call with Richard Crouse" we visit McSorley’s Old Ale House on Seventh Street in New York’s East Village. McSorley’s may not be New York’s oldest bar, the Bridge Café (dates to 1794), Ear Inn (circa 1817) and Chumley's (established 1830s) all predate John McSorley’s business, but it is one of the most colourful. It’s sometimes hard to sort between the fact and fiction that swirls around the bar’s legend, but one thing is for sure, there is no arguing with their motto, “We were here before you were born.”At the afterparty Rafe Bartholomew stops by to talk about the bar where Abraham Lincoln once had a beer and its history. Rafe's father Bart worked there for 45 years, the family lived upstairs for a time and on the weekends he’d help his dad get the place up and running and later, in his twenties, he continued the family tradition and worked behind the bar. His book, "Two and Two: McSorley's, My Dad, and Me," is a great read about fathers, sons and one great bar.
Nov 30, 2021
52 min
On this episode of "Last Call with Richard Crouse" we visit Paris and James Bond's favourite bar. The home of the Bloody Mary and "An American in Paris," Harry's New York Bar at 5, Rue Daunou, is one of the world's most legendary cocktail bars. With the help of cocktail historians Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller of Mixellany, Richard traces the history of the bar where real life "International Bar Flies" like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, Humphrey Bogart, Edward VIII and George Gershwin all bent elbows. Join us for a story of a disgraced sport superstar, cocktails, and a New Year's Eve wild goose chase around Paris.
Nov 23, 2021
39 min
We can't go to bars right now, so here is a chance to safely soak up the ambiance of the world's greatest watering holes. Last Call with Richard Crouse is a podcast on the stories behind the places where everybody knows your name.
May 28, 2021
1 min