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Threatened With a Shutdown, El Cid Sounds Really, Really Fun These Days

“Get drunk, disturb your neighbors, and do it on their lawns, yeah yeah yeah!” Photo: ’|’||’| '|’[]||{ via Flickr

While we’ve been wasting our lives at L.A.’s ever diminishing dive bars and drinking the drafts at Whole Foods, other people have apparently been having a great frigging time at El Cid over a hearty serving of public sex, severe intoxication, and crappy techno. The classic Silver Lake Spanish restaurant, a space originally erected by D.W. Griffith in the early 1900’s, has long hosted a motley stew of evening acts, including dancers, artists, comedians, drag parties, and general freakouts like A Club Called Rhonda and Goodie-Tu-Shoes. Today, NBC reports that the restaurant is being taunted by a potential shut-down if it doesn’t clean up its act for the neighbors.

Basically, the story convinces us rather quickly that El Cid is going off right now! Exhibit A? The neighbors have their pantaloons in a twist over a steady mob of drunks, constant noise and chatter, and the accompanying trash strewn behind on their lawns. One neighbor even claims he’s found couples having sex on his lawn (if that isn’t the mark of a good club doing its job, we don’t know what is).

But rather than go all Clint Eastwood and shoot the invading hipster hordes, neighbors are simply narcing, shooting video of the shitfaced antics and notifying the police every single time something pisses them off (we imagine the senior center across the street has LAPD on speed-dial).

The club is being blamed for all the sins of the world by its neighbors. while it lamely tries to pin all of the complaints on a former employee. We’d really like to blame all of this on A Club Called Rhonda promoter Alexis Rivera ourselves, but he’s most likely on somebody’s lawn right now trying to find the Dodger Hat, red shorts, and white socks he shed there last night.

One prominent El Cid opponent is The Moors L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti, who tells NBC he’s on the case, having met several times with police, residents, and restaurant management in an attempt to resolve the conflict. “What’s happening at El Cid is unacceptable,” Garcetti claims, totally making us want to head there even more. The politician says the club, which was shut down for going over capacity last month, could face a more stinging and permanent shutdown if it doesn’t do something.

However, what that something is is anyone’s guess at this point, with no specifics laid out for the club to follow. Installing muzzles on customers is an idea much too ahead of its time and restricting booze sales is a non-starter. We do have one idea for the neighbors, at least until a solution is worked out: Install sprinklers on that lawn stat!

Fire Hazards, Outdoor Sex Among Complaints Against Nightclub [NBC]

Threatened With a Shutdown, El Cid Sounds Really, Really Fun These Days