The Abbey Food And Bar | From The Press

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out.com
David Cooley, Portfolio - Out Magazine

Sam Nazarian, a muscular Iranian billionare, strode through the spike, a gay bar in Los Angeles known for late-night cruising. Exiting through the back door into da dark alley, he settled into the back of his chauffeured SUV...Read Full Story >>

Conde Nast Traveler

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L.A. BIZ SEEN - Los Angeles business events

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EATER - Los Angeles

WEST HOLLYWOOD: When SBE partnered with The Abbey, we knew subtle changes would come about eventually. A new menu was just launched with a lot of comfort food-style additions like mini tacos, grilled cheese and soup, and braised short ribs for dinner (naturally.what restaurant dares to not serve short ribs these days).Read Full Story >>

forbes.com
Hollywood's Hottest Spots

Krista, a 27-year-old sales manager for an Italian wine company and a staple of the Los Angeles club scene, is gearing up for Oscar week, which promises to be party-heavy. She spends most evenings working the dance floor at local hot spots Hyde or Area or people watching at newly trendy Winston's . But this week Krista is adding a post-screening Oscar party to her schedule (in an effort to keep the event exclusive, she's kept the film and locale to herself).Read Full Story >>

Sponsor SBE Helps Growing APLA Oscar Benefit

Elton John's party down the block may be the more buzzed-about AIDS fund-raiser on Oscar night, but AIDS Project L.A.'s viewing dinner and after-party at the Abbey is the cozier alternative-and it's gaining steam every year. APLA's Adrienne Levey, who oversees the event, this year partnered with big-name sponsor SBE Entertainment Group, past partner Esquire, and a handful of others.Read Full Story >>

REGIONAL REPORT - Los Angeles business journal

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Sponsor SBE Helps Growing APLA Oscar Benefit

The Abbey's Tale of 2,3,4... Cities

Perched at the intersection of Santa Monica and Robertson in West Hollywood, the Abbey is a local institution that has drawn a loyal following since it first opened as a coffee house 15 years ago. David Cooley, founder of the Abbey, has overseen five different expansions and spoke to IN Los Angeles about the venue's newest makeover: a corporate partnership which has the Abbey poised to open its doors in cities across the country. Read Full Story >>

Pop star Christina Aguilera congratulates David Cooley, owner of The Abbey Food and Bar, on the fifteen year anniversary of his West Hollywood hotspot. Cooley pulled out all the stops for the landmark celebration, with guests sipping on Veuve Clicquot champagne and signature Finlandia martinis served by white-gloved waiters in tuxedo tails. VIPs and celebrities in attendance included Aguilera; "Blue Lagoon" director Randal Kleiser; actor/model Rusty Joyner; reality-TV star Tyler Robuck as well as director/ DJ Chi Chi LaRue and West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman.
http://goweho.com/content.asp?ContentId=654

Celeb-rating: Inside Esquire and Elton John Oscar parties

The Oscars are like prom night for Hollywood -- an excuse to dress up, rent a limo, and party. Late. In a triangle bound by West Hollywood streets and dubbed "Oscar Alley," Academy Awards fever rages long after the awards show ends, at parties hosted by Vanity Fair, Elton John and Esquire magazine. The Vanity Fair party each year is the biggest of the bunch, held at Morton's restaurant on Melrose Avenue. The legions of paparazzi stationed at its entrance resemble a flashing, screaming army. Read Full Story >>

And the Winner is? USA & WeHo

There was certainly a crackle of potential and empowerment at this year's Oscar celebrations. Hollywood, America's cultural voice seemed to have regained certain relevance and, as George Clooney so eloquently said, "I am proud to be apart of this Academy." Read Full Story >>

Esquire Hosts Cozier Oscar AIDS Benefit
The magazine's party with AIDS Project L.A. was a more intimate version of Elton John's nearby blowout.

Esquire magazine and AIDS Project Los Angeles threw a benefit bash in kissing distance of one of the big kahunas of Oscar night-the Elton John AIDS Foundation party at the Pacific Design Center. APLA's viewing party is certainly the smaller, calmer cousin of the evening's AIDS events, with only 400 seated guests and another 100 hovering over drinks at the Abbey. But what the APLA bash misses in terms of sheer star wattage, it makes up for in coziness and maneuverability-no small thing on a night when parking one's car and making it through the door at a bigger event can devour a whole hour.

Read Full Story: http://www.bizbash.com/losangeles/content/editorial/e5907.asp

Oscar party fund-raiser for APLA, March 5 in West Hollywood, Calif.

Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt will host “The Envelope Please,” an Oscar night party that serves as a fund-raiser for AIDS Project Los Angeles, on March 5 at the Abbey Food and Bar in West Hollywood, Calif. The event is cohosted by Esquire magazine and Clear Channel L.A. Also scheduled to attend the fund-raiser are actors Jesse Garcia, Emily Rios, and Chalo Gonzalez and filmmakers Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer. The host committee includes Lauralee Bell, Bill Brochtrup, Wilson Cruz, Taylor Dayne, Deborah Gibson, Laura Harring, Kate Linder, Roma Maffia, Ming-Na, Michael Moloney, Kathy Najimy, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Hal Sparks, and Nia Vardalos. Party attendees will enjoy a dinner and viewing of the Academy Award telecast. A dance will follow the awards ceremony. The black-tie event begins at 4 p.m. at the Abbey, 692 N. Robertson Blvd. in West Hollywood. Ticket prices begin at $250, with proceeds benefiting APLA. For more information or to purchase tickets call (213) 201-1387.

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid25786.asp

We Do, Too!
How to plan an absolutely fabulous same-sex wedding
February 9, 2006

These days, same-sex partners looking to get married have a wide variety of venues to choose from. Last summer, for example, 100 gay and lesbian couples tied the knot in a mass wedding at the Abbey, a bar in West Hollywood. 692 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 289-8410. Read full story>>

GOING FOR 'BROKEBACK': With his The Abbey nightclub having turned into something of a town hall social spot for West Hollywood's gay community, owner David Cooley can't resist the opportunity to cheer on the Oscar-nominated 'Brokeback Mountain' at the annual 'The Envelope Please' Academy Awards night splash held there to benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles. 'We are hoping to add some touches like the grizzly bear from the movie, live or stuffed, for stars to pose with, as well as have my arrival, perhaps with Jennifer Love Hewitt, on horseback in tuxedo and cowboy boots,' Cooley says. Hewitt hostesses the affair, with Esquire and Clear Channel L.A. as sponsors. 'Also, we're going to offer cowboy hats to any guests who want to wear them at the party that night as a hint of which picture they are hoping will win,' adds Cooley.

http://www.dailynews.com/celebrities/ci_3481490

It's a gay, gay world for Fred Savage
January 25, 2006

All-grown-up Wonder Years star Fred Savage is attracting curious stares and generating wagging tongues as he walks through The Abbey, a popular gay bar in the Boys Town section of Los Angeles. When a gay patron, Freddy Alvarez, 34, pulls Savage aside and asks: "Inquiring minds want to know. Are you here doing research?" Savage smiles politely and says, "Sort of." But in fact, Savage requires little research for his role as gay son Mitch Crumb on ABC's new sitcom Crumbs (Thursday, 9:30 ET/PT). As residents of West Hollywood, Savage and his wife of a year and a half, Jennifer Stone, have been to The Abbey several times with gay friends. Read More >>

West Hollywood, Calif., business provides holiday meals to HIVers
December 22, 2005

The Abbey Food and Bar, a popular West Hollywood, Calif., establishment, has donated $10,000 to provide holiday meals to HIV-positive clients of the Los Angeles charity Aid for AIDS. The money will be used to provide 229 households a full Christmas dinner that includes turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and rolls, say Abbey staff members. The meals are being packaged and delivered to Aid for AIDS clients by grocery chain Albertsons. "Giving back to the community is very important to us, especially during this time of year," said Abbey owner David Cooley. "We're pleased to be able to spread some cheer and make the holidays a little brighter." (Advocate.com)

IIt was queer eye for the vagrant guy at top West Hollywood gay bar The Abbey when flamboyant style expert Carson Kressley was dining with a friend and spotted a bum panhandling. Instead of shooing the man away, Kressley invited him to join them for dinner and then treated him to a large box of desserts from the eatery's display case to take with him. To make matters even sweeter, Kressley added a $100 bill.

Meal Ticket: L.A. Nightlife

Aug. 8, 2005 issue - Make like a movie star at Los Angeles's most glittering nightspots. Whether it's looks or personality you want, these picks from Zagat's new guide to "L.A. Nightlife" will help you find that perfect unmarked door.

GAY/LESBIAN
Abbey 310-289-8410; "Still the queen bee" for "mixing and mingling" with the "best of Boystown," WeHo's "mainstay" hive is "fab for food, cocktails and man-gayzing"; the buzz is best on "packed weekends" when "it's a true act of dexterity to get through the crowd."
APPEAL | 25 | DECOR 25 | SERVICE 19 | COST $10

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

SHOP TIL YOU DROP IN: Where does a stylish star refresh after a long day of shopping on trendy Robertson Boulevard? For Kirsten Dunst, it was girls' night out this past weekend at West Hollywood's hot spot The Abbey - without beau Jake Gyllenhaal, who was nowhere to be seen. The sprawling 15,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor complex has become quite a hangout for Hollywood hotties. Read More>>

ABC parties to ring in its new season
By William Keck, USA TODAY

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — The hottest gay club on Santa Monica Boulevard was closed to the public Wednesday night for a star-studded party ABC threw for its 2005-06 season. The network hired hunky bartenders to pour "According to Gins" and "Cosmo-in-Chiefs," and by 11 p.m. "Dancing With the Desperate Housewives" was well underway as Teri Hatcher set down her "Extreme Home Makeover Mojito" and hit the dance floor. "There's usually more techno music and fewer women here at The Abbey," noted all-grown-up Wonder Years actor Fred Savage, who plays the closeted gay son of William Devane and Jane Curtin in the new sitcom Crumbs. Read More>>

That event was sedate compared to ABC's party, which was held Wednesday at The Abbey, a popular "straight-friendly" gay spot in West Hollywood that on this night was (percentage unknowable) less gay. A number of reporter/critics shook their heads in amazement; only last year, or the year before, or the year before that, ABC's party was a dud. Read More>>

Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Nicollette Sheridan and Geena Davis helped Disney President Bob Iger toast Candace Bushnell and her novel "Lipstick Jungle" at L.A.'s Argyle Hotel. The ladies must liked the 16-ounce jars of Creme de La Mer scattered around the party. By the end of the night, the jars, which sell for $1,200 each, were all gone. Hatcher, Davis and other ABC stars also turned out for a network bash at the Abbey, the West Hollywood gay bar. Spies wondered why hunky "Desperate Housewife" gardener Jesse Metcalfe wasn't there ... Read More >>

The Abbey reviews

While monks have been known to brew beer, you won't find anyone holy or plainly cloaked at The Abbey, the West Hollywood venue. A little colorful versatility never hurt anyone - in dress or clientele - but cabana beds? People could really get themselves into trouble here. However, The Abbey, in all its churchy décor, seems to encourage a little gentle, ironic defrocking. Comfy bedded nooks are scattered among the crosses, candles, and TVs in this huge, multi-room, open-air venue, serving cocktails and a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. It's a straight-friendly, men-seeking-men kinda place, complete with waterfalls and fireplaces to put anyone in the mood - regardless of preference. When the weather is right, come here for afternoon spirits. With the open sky above, it'll feel like communion.

"Best of" 2004 Issue - Best Cruising With Your Best Friend
Your dog might be not only your best friend but also your matchmaker. Dog-walking heterosexuals flood Runyon Canyon Park at the top of Fuller Avenue to stalk the scenic hiking trails in the Hollywood Hills while hoping to tend to their cardiovascular and other affairs of the heart. Just a few blocks east, hip metrosexuals in torn Prada T-shirts tow their dogs to a more discreet location, the mysterious park behind the Waddles Mansion at the top of Curson. Lesbians play "fetch" with Fido while practicing shot-put at the Silver Lake dog park near the southwest edge of the lake. Homosexuals who don't want to beat around the bush park their dogs, pose and exchange phone numbers at the outdoor Abbey Café at 692 N. Robertson in West Hollywood. What's your dog into? - Ron Meyers

WeHo favorite The Abbey might be populated by its gay neighbors, but the ever hip bar, club and restaurant welcomes straight clientele with open arms. Sitting outdoors on the stone patio by an old-worldesque fountain, it feels more like Italy than Los Angeles. It's the environs that make this place so inviting, and even though it's known as the place to be for same-sex couples, everyone is welcome and feels comfortable. Owner David Cooley recently completed a $2 million 4,000- square-foot renovation and expansion, bringing the square feet to approximately 16,000-square-feet. Despite its massive size, the restaurant/coffee house/bar/dance club still feels intimate and elegant.

Maybe it's the always-popular white curtained cabanas for lounging, the wrought iron gates, the fireplace, and the hand-blown jewel colored lights or the romantic wall of votives.Whatever the decorative detail that makes The Abbey such an ideal place to meet friends and chat the night away - the combination works. Cooley's most recent expansion marks the restaurant's fifth since 1991, when Cooley first opened a coffee house across the street. Success came fast; soon after opening, Cooley moved his establishment to its present location and went from upscale coffee house to uber-lounge with a full bar and full kitchen offering breakfast, lunch and dinner.The kitchen serves food from 8 to 2 a.m. Sip one of Abbey's signature martinis, such as the pumpkin or the chocolate raspberry, under the stars and your cares are sure to slip away. Famous for its large glass pastry case, brimming with almost every delectable desert imaginable, The Abbey staff is always sure to recommend a slice of cheesecake regardless of the time of day. Dinner guests have plenty of choices, from The Abbey's version of a down-home Sloppy Joe made with turkey and black bean chili served on focaccia bread and topped with feta cheese to a healthconscious entrée of seared Ahi tuna served on a bed of asparagus and tomatoes lightly doused with an Italian vinaigrette.

The food is inexpensive, entrees range from about $9 to $13 and as a result it seems that just as many people come here for a bite to eat on a daily basis as come for a drink. The Abbey's distinctive atmosphere and prime location have not only made it popular among locales, but has allowed it to discretely cater to A-list celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Britney Spears, Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne and, of course, television's design darlings the five stars of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

101 Things We Love - Issue Review

The patio is the place to be at this WeHo fave, whose kitchen specializes in lending verve to standards like chicken and shrimp kabobs (both $10.50). You'll want to join this Abbey after sampling the chicken Dijon and its intense mustard sauce, mushrooms, grilled swash wheels and golden brown diced potatoes ($10.75). Even with a simple grilled salmon ($10.95), brushed with lemon butter and showered with lemon juice, tastes remarkably refined; crunchy steamed spinach and a mound of masheds share the plate. To start, split the industrial-sized salad of baby greens, chopped tomatoes and (superfluous) orange slices ($4); because it tends to be clad more sparsely than Jennifer Lopez at the Grammys, the less calorically conscious should request extra dressing. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Full bar. Validated parking at Pacific Design Center, $1.50. 692 N. Robertson Blvd., 310.289.8410

"Sin is in the air" at "everybody's favorite hangout" in WeHo where the "beautiful boys" who "look like they stepped off the cover of a magazine and act like it" sip their "delicious martinis" and hail their Marys; "it's impossible not to have a good time" at "gay guy central", but if you have "personal space issues", get yourself some therapy in one of the "private cabanas"; one caveat: queue queens quibble "you loves fresh meat status just waiting for a drink."

Of course, there are those straight friends who will savor the theatrical delights of the most flamboyant bar or the gutter chatter of the roughest dykes-on-bikes roadhouse. But what about the business acquaintances or out-of-town relatives who are game to accompany office manager Craig or perennial bachelor Uncle Charlie to a pleasant, hetero-congenial gay hangout? After work, Silver Lake's Akbar, a watering hole done up as a mini Casbah, attracts a cross section of the neighborhood. Looking at it as a cocktail, think two parts gay to one part straight. All year there is a celebratory vibe that's especially acute during the annual Sunset Junction street fair. After 10 p.m., Akbar segues into a pick up scene. During the day - for breakfast, luncheon or twilight - West Hollywood's The Abbey is the natural destination. With its weathered woods, lazy ceiling fans, and ashram-meets-medieval-churchyard design scheme, this café and bar exudes unisex warmth. Its array of martinis - from caramel apple to Creamsicle to banana-raspberry - seems like a subliminal introduction to the pulse of gay social life in Los Angeles. Its expansive open patio embraces every sexual orientation imaginable under the same heavenly canopy and is amenable to straights. Come nightfall, the Abbey, too, transforms into a place of serious pecs and abs viewing, and this being West Hollywood rather than Silver Lake, the pecs and abs tend to be painstakingly sculpted.

An unassuming but comprehensive coffee bar and outdoor lounge leads into a maze-like setting, which gets more complex and exotic the deeper it goes. Subsequent rooms are drenched in ineffably warm red and gold lights, highlighted by a sublime Arabian patio with recessed cabana mattresses draped with swaths of white fabric, and the contradiction of a burning fireplace and cooling mechanized fans. An expansive roster of fragrant martini choices--fruit and chocolate-based--helps distinguish the sophisticated vibe. The crowd is mixed and unpretentious, largely gay male, but with a strong gay and straight female presence, and frequent hetero couples, clearly drawn by the enveloping feel and an eclectic food menu of Mexican, Asian and Italian fare.

Hallowed ground for West Hollywood locals, The Abbey is a beacon of entertainment and social acceptance that transcends its bar and restaurant identity. Once just a coffeehouse with a Gothic theme, The Abbey has remodeled, renovated and morphed to become a focal point of West Hollywood life, by day and by night. Depending on the time, The Abbey can be a simple coffeehouse and bakery or a hot nightclub and bar scene attracting lines of patrons. Building on its coffeehouse base, owner David Cooley slowly expanded to include an outdoor bar, cabana lounge, dance floor and the decadent new Ice Bar, which features cathedral ceilings and a sultry lounge. Even with the changes, the Gothic theme that longtimers have come to love remains intact.

The transition from coffee and baked goods by day to nightly dinner and dancing can't be easy, but this place does it with aplomb. Rated "Best Restaurant of 2003" by the city of West Hollywood, the Abbey is known for catering to the late-night dining demands of the local gay community. The food is well-prepared, ranging from fun finger foods like nachos, quesadillas and burgers, to lighter chicken, pasta and vegetarian faire. Whether enjoying a late lunch with friends or gushing down a Martini at last call, the Abbey is a gay nightlife experience that epitomizes LA bar life for millions of residents and visitors. -- Michael Martin