Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Blair.
Hi Monica, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I hate that saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” but it pretty much encapsulates my life. At 15, I left home and lived on my own, moving from place to place. After finishing high school, I put myself through college, working during the day and going to school at night. When I was 18, I upped and moved to Germany where I fell in love with Europe and a French musician named Thomas Lorioux. Life was good. And then, in my junior year, I had a massive stroke and had to be hospitalized. In the hospital, it was discovered that I had a rare brain disease called Moyamoya. Realizing the upward battle I was facing, I gave Thomas an out, but he didn’t take it and has been by my side ever since. He is my absolute rock.
After four more massive strokes and daily Transient Ischemic Attacks, the doctors gave me three months to live. However, I just refused to accept that fate. This was 2005, the time of dial-up modems and no social media; but through my desperate searching, I found a blog for people with Moyamoya. I learned that there were approximately five doctors in the world that could perform the life-saving surgery I needed and a doctor at Stanford happened to be one of them. Thank you Dr. Steinberg I wouldn’t be here without you!!
Because of my medical history, I always stuck to corporate jobs that offered insurance with no questions asked. After moving to LA in 2009, I worked as a Project/Program Manager in IT and Aerospace, with good insurance. But with Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act, it became possible for me to get my own insurance without disclosing my pre-existing conditions. Thomas and I always wanted to open a bar and music venue, and now with Obamacare, I finally could!
One of my old neighbors and friends, Sean Kelly, was looking to open a bar as well. One night, we were at a bar across from the Airliner called The Office. The owner Gloria told us that the Airliner, which had been in decline, was for sale. I always loved that bar. My now-husband Thomas and I lived in Lincoln Heights at the time and we used to go to shows there. He had even played there a couple of times.
Sean was confident that we could raise enough money to save The Airliner. It had gotten pretty rough. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good dive bar, but it was a few steps below dive bar status. Everything was broken. They were rarely ever open and only then if there was a show. The bathrooms were debatably the worst I’d seen…and I’ve been to a lot of punk clubs.
My dream was to open a neighborhood bar where friends could get together over food and drinks. We got the keys in the summer of 2019 and did a massive renovation, putting a lot of money into the space. Built-in 1923 and opened as The Airliner in 1926, the building had a history that I wanted to honor so we set out to restore it to its former glory. Under layers of old paint, we found and refurbished the original brick walls and refinished the original wood bar which at some point in time had been topped with Formica. Obviously, we gutted the bathrooms and worked with a local fabricator, Jerome Brown, to build custom stalls.
We opened in January 2020 and I was so happy! The owners from The Office came with flowers on opening day. It was impressive that a neighboring bar was supporting another bar opening near them. I got to see people in the community stop by and meet new friends. Eater LA and Infatuation wrote us up. I finally built what I dreamed of…a neighborhood bar. We built a community!
Everything was great. And then seven weeks later the Covid shutdown happened. We reopened in October 2020 and exactly seven weeks later, again, the second shutdown happened. It was devastating. We donated our food to the community and local food banks. Every day we were closed cost us so much money. We tried to reopen in April 2021, but a pipe in the ceiling burst. Since we weren’t at the bar every day, we didn’t know water pooled in the ceiling and the whole ceiling collapsed. More devastation. It meant renovating the bar that we had just finished and staying closed even longer. Luckily, we had insurance, but it was a struggle, and it took three months to finish repairs. I spent day after day looking for grants and financial help, but we didn’t qualify for most of them, and I ended up selling my house so we could live off of the proceeds.
We finally reopened in July 2021. It’s been a rocky road but we’re still here. I’m really proud that we are still standing. We have incredible regulars that support us weekly. It was important to me to create a friendly, neighborhood bar, without any pretension, with surprisingly good food and drinks, and superior service. Our staff is fantastic. Not only are they incredible craft cocktail creators but, more importantly, they are incredibly welcoming and friendly. They are the kind of people, you wanted to sit at the bar and have a conversation with. Our General Manager, Raul Pool, enthusiastically embraces the concept of elevated hospitality and he instills this idea in all of our staff.
I’m excited about our future! My business partner Sean, and his wife, had a baby last summer and have decided to move out of state. I’m very happy for them. There’s a new group that’s taking over his half of the business. I can’t give too many details yet because not everything is finalized but I’m looking forward to having them on board. There will definitely be some improvements, brunch, and a new menu but we are not changing who we are!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. My life has been pretty bumpy, but it’s also been amazing, and I wouldn’t be the person I am today (for better or worse) if I didn’t experience all of those obstacles. Even if you try and fail, at least you tried and learned. If I never took this chance, I would always have wondered what could have been.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a friendly, neighborhood, craft cocktail bar that serves food. Additionally, we have a second-floor music venue and a wonderful outdoor patio. I want to be a friendly neighborhood bar that doesn’t skimp on quality. We juice in-house, we use quality, fresh ingredients. I never understood why craft cocktail bars don’t offer a nice wine selection; so, it was important to me to have great wine. Our food is upscale bar food. The burger is everyone’s favorite, but the fried chicken sandwich and the Peruvian wings are a close second. We have tiny deviled quail eggs in a house-made spicy tomato jam, topped with microgreens. They are so labor-intensive that I always want to take them off the menu, but they are a cult favorite and I think some of the regulars might actually murder me if I do.
We have an event space on the second floor where we host everything from Swing dancing by Swingtronic on the first Saturday of every month, to Cretin Hop and Green Slime 60’s nights the third Saturday of the month, to Sid the Kat booking indie and punk shows, and everything in between. We have Comedy nights and Film Screenings, and Karaoke every other Tuesday. There’s almost always something interesting and fun going on.
Los Angeles is the perfect place for outdoor dining and drinking and we have two patios. On the second-floor patio, we allow smoking. It’s a rare treat to find a place to smoke and drink at the same time. Even the non-smokers congregate to the smoking patio. I guess that’s where the cool kids hang out.
I’m very proud of what we have achieved, and by that, I mean all of it! Restoring a run-down bar, creating a beautiful space that feels warm and welcoming, surviving the shutdowns, our incredible staff that works so hard and are so friendly, and with that, we have created this environment that attracts the best guests. I love our guests and a lot of them have become true friends.
All I can say is, come in and experience it for yourself!
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I have facial recognition problems. I have a hard time recognizing people I’ve met before. I get it eventually, but it takes a while. Not a good problem to have when you own a bar and meet so many great people…which I do every day and that’s what keeps me going.
Pricing:
- $12 Cocktails
- $6 -$8 Beer
- $10 Wine
- $6 – $14 Food
- Happy Hour $6 burgers and drinks
Contact Info:
- Website: www.airlinerla.com
- Instagram: @airlinerla
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheAirlinerLA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-airliner-los-angeles-3
Image Credits
heidizumbrun.com @heidizumbrun @drezko [email protected]
