“Cocktails in Historic Places” at the Prince in Koreatown

The Tudor Revival-style Windsor apartment building at 7th and Catalina, known as the Prince, was built in 1926 as an upscale apartment hotel in what was then suburban Los Angeles. “It’s a distinctive example of the great apartment buildings that characterized the neighborhood at the time,” said Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

The apartment building has been updated and has changed owners since the 1920s, but what hasn’t changed much are the crimson leather booths, the gilded wallpaper of the downstairs restaurant and the horseshoe mahogany bar, opened as the Windsor in the 1940s by famed restaurateur Ben Dimsdale. Re-christened the Prince by new ownership in 1991, the street-level restaurant changed its fare to Korean food, but maintained its 1940s vintage authenticity, complete with the miniature Beefeater statues.

Learn more about the bar’s storied history at Cocktails in Historic Places® at the Prince in Koreatown, hosted by the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.