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Inflation got you down? If you’re tired of $20-plus cocktails adding up on your tab, this Valley bar has a solution. Co-owner and barman Mike Capoferri wants Night on Earth to become your neighborhood bar, and to that end, he’s dropped a new menu of next-level cocktails with refreshingly reasonable prices.
Starting today, August 13, every single cocktail on the menu will be only $13 going forward. And these aren’t your basic cocktails. No, Night on Earth is the latest bar from the team behind Thunderbolt in Historic Filipinotown, whose obsessively technical approach to deceptively simple cocktails has earned it all the accolades. It’s an approach Capoferri brings to Night on Earth, too.
“We never compromise our ingredients, our procurement standards or our technique. These are fundamental to who we are,” says Capoferri. “Instead, we looked at every operational decision, from the spirits we buy and how we prep, to how we batch and serve drinks, and asked how we could create more value for our guests while staying true to our standards. We’d rather welcome more people through the door than chase bigger margins.”
Located in an unassuming little strip mall, Night on Earth is located in the Cahuenga Pass, just south of Universal Studios Hollywood. (Parking is free because, Valley.) Soon after it opened at the tail end of 2024, it earned a coveted five-star rating from our food and drink editor. Kids from the ’90s will feel right at home at the futuristic yet retro bar, whose centerpiece is a backlit blue, confetti-speckled bar top made from upcycled CD cases and appliances. There’s also comfy lounge-style seating, a DJ booth with a club-level sound system, a vending machine with snacks, and a projector screen with old movies playing—including the deep-cut 1991 Jim Jarmusch film the bar is named for. (When I dropped by the other night, the place was packed with people in Hawaiian shirts for a screening of Jaws.) And, most importantly, it boasts a drink menu with playful names but serious mixology methods.
A few standouts from the new menu: The Marfa Myth, inspired by Ranch Water, uses the bar team’s highly scientific carbonation process, using “sub-zero, force-carbonation technology” for bubbles that almost foam in your mouth. A surprise hit for me was the Factory, a blueberry-cheesecake inspired take on a milk punch (I don’t even care for cheesecake, but I still loved this). For espresso martini lovers, the Kopi Pandan offers a unique spin with pandan and coconut. And if your go-to drink is a margarita, Desnudo y Crudo mixes things up with the addition of horchata and acid-adjusted orange. As is the bar’s way, drinks are chilled to near-freezing and focus on flavor and technique over frills and garnishes.
Another offering from Night on Earth that I think is genius: All of the cocktails on the menu are available as mini cocktails—a half-serving for a very affordable $8. You know those times when you want to try five different cocktails on the menu, but you’re driving and need to pace yourself? Here’s the perfect solution. And if you’re not in the mood for a mixed drink, there’s also beer for $6 to $10 (including a local IPA and lager from Highland Park Brewery), wine by the glass for $14 and imaginative zero-proof drinks for only $10, including Low Key, which is inspired by a Key lime pie martini.
One more addition to the bar’s offerings: a hot dog. Otherwise, Night on Earth doesn’t do food, but this teriyaki dog topped with Kewpie mayo, furikake and togarashi is a more-than-satisfying bar bite for only $7 (you can also get the O.G. with simply mustard and ketchup for $6).
The bar already has a loyal local following—and don’t worry, some longtime favorites will be staying on the menu, including the Bad Influencer, Reanimator and, my favorite, the Cosmo-esque Let It Linger—but Capoferri is hoping that the affordability of the new menu will inspire clientele to make Night on Earth their regular neighborhood bar, not just a once-in-a-while stop.