Remember when you were a teenager and you would excitedly sneak into the garage to chug a beer among piles of mismatched boxes while your folks were out? Drinking at Covell—Los Feliz’s new wine bar—is kind of heady like that, thanks to eccentric bric-a-brac décor courtesy of owner Dustin Lancaster (former bar manager at Cafe Stella). Look for vintage cameras mounted on shelves made of antique books, a wall papered with the pages of a Spanish-language encyclopedia picked up on Lancaster’s travels in Argentina, a bar made of reclaimed wood from a Kentucky barn —and a crowd of sociable Eastsiders competing for the title of Best Skinny Jeans. The gregarious bartenders have been trained by general manager and wine director Matthew Kaner (you might recognize him from Silverlake Wine) and do an astonishingly good job at deciphering ambiguous descriptors like “puckery” and “energetic” to fi nd the right wine for each patron from an evolving list of 50 or so. And if they don’t get it right the fi rst time, they’ll pour as many tastes as it takes—or until you choose one of the frequently changing artisanal beers on tap. 4628 Hollywood Blvd., LA; barcovell.com
