The Tar Pit, Mark Peel's retro cocktail bar and restaurant, served its last pickled deviled eggs and clams casino and Vieux Carre on Saturday night. Open on La Brea Avenue — conveniently located a few blocks north of Peel's restaurant Campanile — since late 2009, The Tar Pit closed because of a problem with the lease, Peel said yesterday behind Campanile's booth at The Gold Standard.

Outfitted with Art Deco stylized palm trees, a Kold-Draft double-stacked ice machine and a pizza oven, The Tar Pit also had lots of fancy restaurant equipment that was already on wheels. Thus, says Peel, they are simply going to roll out the contents of the place and move it down the street — or across town or wherever they find someplace that suits them. Literally, a moveable feast, as it were.

Peel says that he's already started looking for a new place: “I love downtown, I love Silver Lake, I've even thought about the Westside; we're looking for a nighttime crowd.” As far as when he'd be reopening, Peel said “as soon as possible. Realistically, though, it's going to take some time.” To move all the furniture if nothing else.

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