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DTLA HAPPIEST HOURS BY KERI FREEMAN VOL 16 NO 02 - DECEMBER 23RD - DECEMBER 29TH, 2021 DTLAWEEKLY.COMCOM
VIP NEW YEARS 2022 at CLIFTON'S REPUBLIC
All Aboard! The most anticipated NYE party of the year is, by far, the reopening of Clifton’s Republic. With VIP treatment, ringing in new beginnings at Clifton’s with an open bar, legendary DJs, live entertainment, buffet, and passed bites signifies the resilient spirit of Downtown Los Angeles. Founded in the 1930s by humanitarian Clifford Clinton; Clifton’s Republic, formally known as Clifton’s Brookdale, was the oldest surviving cafeteria-style eatery in Los Angeles. During the depression, Clifford Clifton would use donations collected from the main room’s fountain, along with leftovers, to feed the poor. At Clifton’s, no one went hungry. Clifford Clifton also took on corruption in City Hall and fought world hunger before his death in 1969. As time took its toll on Clifton’s old building, time traveler and father of Downtown restoration, AndrewMeieran took on the famed cafeteria in 2011 with a promise to restore it to its original glory. Rightfully so, there was no one better suited for the job than Meieran, whose passions in previous years had led to the successful restoration of the Edison Lounge, located in the basement of the historic Higgins Building. When the remodeling was complete in 2018, Meieran reopened the doors to a fantastic new wonderland.
Inside Meieran’s Clifton Republic, guests were encircled with curiosities on four different levels, each as fantastic as the next, all with the ability to transport them to another time and place. Peacocks, preying mammals and prehistoric beasts, as frozen in time as were some of Clifton’s 200-year-old time clocks. Here was a place where antique murals, Champagne, and billion-year-old meteorites were associated. A place reminiscent of a time made lively by tunes played on the phonograph, yet in modern-day Clifton’s Republic, stages of live bands could easily tempt one into dancing the Charleston.
Lions and Champagne and bears oh my!
Clifton’s Republic is three parts campground, five parts museum, two parts Speakeasy– and as a whole, extraordinary. At Clifton’s Republic, there were so many gathering coves delightfully decorated with Meirien’s priceless collections, chandeliers, Edison lamps, antique furnishes, taxidermy, and paintings; each visit becomes a new experience, a new land of discovery. One could spend time exploring every turn within the massive multi-level, multi-room fantasy or nest themselves quietly high above, hidden within the branches of Clifton’s soaring four-story Monarch Redwood Tree.
Meieran's Clifton’s Republic was a hit!
Tragicall of Covid, y, because a successfu fter years of l captivatin festivities, g and live m burlesque, the days usic from o Clifton’s h f yesteryear, closed to ad remained th public … e general until now .
