Golden Gopher Bar--LA

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Doc1001

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I know its been talked about that there is a golden gopher bar in LA. Some gopher fans in here have talked about it. Its in downtown LA and they call themselves a dive bar. I wonder if the Rose Bowl crowd will be stopping by there in October. But did you know Taylor Swift used the bar in one of her videos?I know the gopher hole here is full of Taylor Swift fans ha.
 

Doc1001 said:
I know its been talked about that there is a golden gopher bar in LA. Some gopher fans in here have talked about it. Its in downtown LA and they call themselves a dive bar. I wonder if the Rose Bowl crowd will be stopping by there in October. But did you know Taylor Swift used the bar in one of her videos?I know the gopher hole here is full of Taylor Swift fans ha.
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Lifelong Gopher fan here, and lifelong Los Angeles resident (pops is from Minnesoters).
I was very excited when i found this place as well, but disappointed to find it's extremely hipster and not really my type of place. Cool Place to take a picture in front of tho. Before the UCLA Game i'd recommend Barney's Beanery in Pasadena. It's right by the Rose Bowl.
 
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IrishGoph55 said:
Lifelong Gopher fan here, and lifelong Los Angeles resident (pops is from Minnesoters).
I was very excited when i found this place as well, but disappointed to find it's extremely hipster and not really my type of place. Cool Place to take a picture in front of tho. Before the UCLA Game i'd recommend Barney's Beanery in Pasadena. It's right by the Rose Bowl.
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Yeah, a place right by the stadium is ideal on gameday...assume the drive time to/from DT LA could vary greatly. Is there a brewery/distillery close to the stadium or in the vicinity?
 



Doc1001 said:
I know its been talked about that there is a golden gopher bar in LA. Some gopher fans in here have talked about it. Its in downtown LA and they call themselves a dive bar. I wonder if the Rose Bowl crowd will be stopping by there in October. But did you know Taylor Swift used the bar in one of her videos?I know the gopher hole here is full of Taylor Swift fans ha.
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I hate to burst the bubble, but I lived in LA for more than a decade, have been to this bar, and it has nothing to do with the Minnesota Gophers. It's just a name and a cool neon sign. This is a dive/hipster bar. If you're visiting LA for a Gopher game, not only would I avoid staying in Downtown LA, I wouldn't even bother visiting this bar. LA has way more to offer. Stay in Pasadena or Santa Monica, and if you need a sports bar go to Barney's Beanery.
 

NorCalGopher said:
I hate to burst the bubble, but I lived in LA for more than a decade, have been to this bar, and it has nothing to do with the Minnesota Gophers. It's just a name and a cool neon sign. This is a dive/hipster bar. If you're visiting LA for a Gopher game, not only would I avoid staying in Downtown LA, I wouldn't even bother visiting this bar. LA has way more to offer. Stay in Pasadena or Santa Monica, and if you need a sports bar go to Barney's Beanery.
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LA & SF are so forward thinking they have speed bumps on their sidewalks. :poop:
 

NorCalGopher said:
I hate to burst the bubble, but I lived in LA for more than a decade, have been to this bar, and it has nothing to do with the Minnesota Gophers. It's just a name and a cool neon sign. This is a dive/hipster bar. If you're visiting LA for a Gopher game, not only would I avoid staying in Downtown LA, I wouldn't even bother visiting this bar. LA has way more to offer. Stay in Pasadena or Santa Monica, and if you need a sports bar go to Barney's Beanery.
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I wonder if its origins was a U of M sports bar and over the years morphed into something else entirely. Thanks for the good information if traveling out west.
 

NorCalGopher said:
I hate to burst the bubble, but I lived in LA for more than a decade, have been to this bar, and it has nothing to do with the Minnesota Gophers. It's just a name and a cool neon sign. This is a dive/hipster bar. If you're visiting LA for a Gopher game, not only would I avoid staying in Downtown LA, I wouldn't even bother visiting this bar. LA has way more to offer. Stay in Pasadena or Santa Monica, and if you need a sports bar go to Barney's Beanery.
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IrishGoph55 said:
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It looks like a place to get car-jacked or mugged.

It reminded me of San Francisco in the 1970s. You go past Market Street at that time, and you ask to get mugged. My friend and I wanted to eat something. We both brought a little money with us. So, we went to a Chinese dive bar where you could buy chow mien served from a water pitcher for ninety-nine cents. We placed our orders and went to use the bathroom. We passed by a swing door to the kitchen. We heard whacking sounds. It was the cook trying to swat cockroaches. We kept going through the side door. Three dudes started following us. We got shanghaied at a laundromat that had a security guard. It was over an hour before the coast was clear. We were dumb at age 20 going on a tour from Minnesota.
 
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PMWinSTP said:
Yeah, a place right by the stadium is ideal on gameday...assume the drive time to/from DT LA could vary greatly. Is there a brewery/distillery close to the stadium or in the vicinity?
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Stone Bewery has a location in Pasadena. Pretty famous out here, started in the San Diego area.
Congregation Ale House is really cool and really close to Rose Bowl
 

IrishGoph55 said:
Stone Bewery has a location in Pasadena. Pretty famous out here, started in the San Diego area.
Congregation Ale House is really cool and really close to Rose Bowl
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We should plan to take one of those over. Assuming the ale house is in a former church?
 

NorCalGopher said:
I hate to burst the bubble, but I lived in LA for more than a decade, have been to this bar, and it has nothing to do with the Minnesota Gophers. It's just a name and a cool neon sign. This is a dive/hipster bar. If you're visiting LA for a Gopher game, not only would I avoid staying in Downtown LA, I wouldn't even bother visiting this bar. LA has way more to offer. Stay in Pasadena or Santa Monica, and if you need a sports bar go to Barney's Beanery.
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Santa Monica is also gross and far from the Rose Bowl. If you’re going for the Gopher game then stay in Pasadena and book Universal / maybe hike to the Hollywood sign.
 

NorCalGopher said:
I hate to burst the bubble, but I lived in LA for more than a decade, have been to this bar, and it has nothing to do with the Minnesota Gophers. It's just a name and a cool neon sign. This is a dive/hipster bar. If you're visiting LA for a Gopher game, not only would I avoid staying in Downtown LA, I wouldn't even bother visiting this bar. LA has way more to offer. Stay in Pasadena or Santa Monica, and if you need a sports bar go to Barney's Beanery.
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I think we already knew that...we'll be taking over some place in Pasadena.
 

The Golden Gopher in Los Angeles was founded by a Minnesotan called P.J. He's also the guy who started Jax Cafe in Minneapolis.

I found the info in a sprawling discussion of old LA places on the Skyscraperpage forum (post 38989). The poster Norman34 is Norman Larson, a former professor at UST:

I am a nephew of the late Jack Dusenka and his wife, Anna, an older sister of my mother, Catherine Semanko Larson.

Jack Dusenka opened a Minneapolis tavern called Jax Café as soon as Prohibition ended. The name Jax came about because the sign maker, Brede Corp., suggested spelling it “Jax” for the notoriety. Furthermore, a sign for Jax would cost less than one for Jack’s. The Kozlak family kept the name Jax and has run it for generations. It is now of the finest restaurants in Minneapolis,

Jack and Anna moved to Los Angeles – I think in the late 1930s – and opened the Golden Gopher and later a place called the Flame Room.

Anna was born on Sept. 4, 1900, and died on June 2, 1950, at age 49.
Jack’s birth name was John, and he also was known as P. J. He was born on June 23, 1899, and died on Jan. 5, 1962, at age 62. They had no children.
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I have to wonder if P.J. Dusenka was in good enough health to attend the last time the Gophers played a game in the Rose Bowl, since he passed away only four days after. No doubt he was a fan and named the bar after the team...

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Note the M on the player's jersey. I think of this place as one of the few tangible relics of the glory days of Gopher football.
 

Might be worth dropping into to check out, but I don't think it would work for game day.
 

Here are some old pics of the Golden Gopher. The black tile in IG55's photo is from the most recent remodel, and I've long wondered if there used to be gold tile inside the still-present maroon border. I can't find a good color photograph of the original, but there is a bit of evidence that it was, in fact, golden.

GGstone.gif
The GG as it looked before the hipster remodel. Not original or golden. Or pretty.


gg1967.jpg
Mid 1960s. This is the cleanest shot that I can find showing the GG probably still as it appeared when Jack Dusenka first opened the place.


GGvideoframe_337718.png
1946, in a frame from color b-roll footage shot for a Rita Hayworth picture. Looks kinda golden. Here at 5:37.

GGcottingham.jpg
Plenty golden here, but it's a painting from 1985, probably using an older photograph as a reference (this work sold in 2011 for over $200K). Could be some artistic license in play, but I'd wager this is pretty close to the way it looked back in the day.
 

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