San Diego, California
La Valencia Hotel reopened this storied bar in February 2024 after more than a decade away, installing Beverage Director Eric Johnson, a veteran of Sycamore Den, Juniper & Ivy, and multiple SDCM properties, to rebuild a program worthy of the room's 1940s heritage. The twenty-foot original mural, "The Whale's Last Stand," presides over dark, moody tones and cocktails that reference the bar's mid-century golden age, including The Whaler, a cognac-cream-ice-cream recreation from 1960s La Jolla. The Whaling Bar carries the weight of history without being crushed by it.
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