On a recent trip to LA, I was meeting up with a friend to go to some dive bar/performance area to see his friend perform. It was down an alley to a non-descript little place called “The Smell.” The show was OK, not really my scene, but it was fun hanging out with my friend there.

As it turns out, I was just a few hundred feet from a Los Angeles institution – the Edison. Fortunately for me, that was our next stop. Opened in 2007, it’s a steampunk theme nightclub inside the Higgins Building. The Higgins Building was LA’s first power plant, so there’s a bit of history there as well.

What’s amazing about the Edison is that the front of it is a little unassuming. It’s down an alley and it doesn’t betray what lies beneath, as the Edison takes up the entire basement area. When you walk in, the steampunk themed decor is magnificent. Walking down the stairs is a treat in and of itself, especially if you were like me and had no idea what to expect.

The first thing you notice is the bar… the next thing is how enormous the whole area is, much bigger than you’d expect, and then you see the projection screen playing movies from a bygone era. If you want to see what that’s like, here’s a cool virtual tour that gives you a feel for the place.

And of course, we had some scotch there. 🙂