The Federal Bar

Federal Case

Boilermakers and Pork-Belly Burgers in an Old Bank

None 2 Photos The Federal Bar
You go to the bank. You’d like to make a withdrawal.

And you’d like that in burgers, please.

Introducing The Federal Bar, a new gastropub and live-music spot in an old 1926 bank, opening Friday in North Hollywood.

With the tin ceilings, leather and dark wood, it feels like what Prohibition-era banking could’ve been―but without the banking, or Prohibition. (You might remember the building’s more recent incarnation, the Bank Heist, felled by a fire a few years back.)

Come by after work and you’ve got two options—one, a table under the huge windows up front, if you came for the famed North Hollywood sunsets. But if you need a little more discretion for delicate conversation about finances (or what’s for dinner), step into your curtained booth in the darker, loungier back room. Don’t worry, both rooms have bars.

Up first: Sangria Mussels and a Bootlegger Boilermaker, with white ale and whiskey. Then you’ll want the BBQ Burger, a half-pound Angus patty topped with shredded pork belly and provolone.

You probably won’t be seeing any vaults, but upstairs you might find a live band, a crashable private party or some stand-up comedy. The building’s new owners were behind Hollywood’s late, great music den the Knitting Factory, and the plan is to import that strumming-guitar legacy this side of the 101.

Where groupies chat seductively about mortgage rates.

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