Stir Crazy

Funky natural wine, snacky finger food, and a crowd of assistant art directors who just got back from their first Frieze exhibit. Any guesses as to what we’re describing? No, it’s not the latest Echo Park bistro or a recent community event at an Elysian Valley co-op. We’re talking about Stir Crazy, a chilled-out, excellent wine bar in a part of town with very few of them—Hollywood.

Stir Crazy’s tiny Melrose space only has ten or so tables inside, so by 7pm every night, the crowd spills out onto the sidewalk like it’s a courtyard afterparty at The Largo. Friends sit on wooden blocks and pass bottles of chilled cab franc. Dates squish inside the small, wood-paneled dining room splitting small plates like cow’s milk cheese with honeycomb, rockfish carpaccio, and a particularly excellent plate of anchovies. You’ll almost certainly see somebody with a Netflix comedy special. In some LA neighborhoods, this type of scene isn’t noteworthy. But on a stretch of Melrose best known for standstill traffic and tourists lining up for Pink’s, it feels like a genie finally got around to granting locals a long-standing wish.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Most people at Stir Crazy are there to graze and sip wine for an hour, but if you’ve come for a full dinner, you won’t feel out of place. The constantly shifting menu has expanded since opening and now includes a few larger plates, like grilled oyster mushrooms marinated in red wine, a giant juicy German sausage with potato salad, and silky black cod poached in a butter broth. And there’s an icy dessert that tastes just like a creamsicle. The food is universally good, often great, but in general, Stir Crazy is best suited for an impromptu weeknight drop-in rather than a destination to plan your night around (the place isn’t even open on Saturdays and Sundays, keeping the crosstown weekend warriors at bay). Maybe you’ll get a pinot grigio buzz and decide to head off to a movie, maybe you’ll stay for three hours because you keep ordering plates of cured ham and talking to the guy who location-scouted one of the Marvel movies. This is Hollywood, after all.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Food Rundown

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Anchovies

If you’re at Stir Crazy for wine and a little snack, make sure this is the snack. A plate of five long anchovies is draped over a pungent, dark green herb sauce that mellows the saltiness of the fish, then gets sprinkled with roasted hazelnuts. It’s a dish that, without fail, will convert someone at your table who a few minutes ago said they “don’t eat anchovies.”

Rockfish Carpaccio

Some bites of this carpaccio are a little too lemony, but when you get a slice of raw fish with the right balance of brown butter, citrus, and crushed pistachios, it’s a home run.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Sausage With Potato Salad

This Fyre Fest-coded plate of sausage and potato salad has been on the menu since day one, and we pray it never goes away. The sausage is sweet, salty, and so plump that a six-inch splash zone warning should be issued before the first bite. The chunky potato salad is equal parts buttery and mustard-y.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Black Cod

The most entree-y entree at Stir Crazy’s menu is also the best thing on the menu. Bathed in a decadent butter broth, the flaky white fish is so tender and silky, it might not even register that you’re chewing it.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Creamsicle Tangerine Ice

This is a creamsicle in a glass, and if those words don’t make you immediately order it, then we had different ice cream truck priorities growing up.