Stalwart watering hole HMS Bounty, located in the 1920s Gaylord apartment building, is also a restaurant, but its throwback saloon status is second to none. It features dark interiors, faux-nautical decor and tuck-and-roll booths with plaques informing you that the spot has played host to Winston Churchill, William Randolph Hearst and Jack Webb. No specialty-cocktail menu here — no cocktail menu at all, in fact, just a not-bad bill of fare that can include sand dabs and filet mignon. But it's the bar scene you're here for, and it's no accident that writer Judith Freeman has come by to channel the spirit of Raymond Chandler. If it weren't for the flat-screen TVs above the bar, you'd swear you could be sipping your gin gimlet next to Chandler himself, or anyone else dating back to the Truman administration. 3357 Wilshire Blvd., Koreatown. (213) 385-7275. —Jeffrey Burbank

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