The California Clipper in Humboldt Park was built in 1937 in a former silent film theater that had been closed since the flu epidemic after World War I. The bones of that original space are still visible: the red leather booths, the curved bar, the red lighting that makes everyone look like they're in a 1940s photograph.

The sound system runs through Tannoy speakers, the same brand used by the Beatles and Pink Floyd at Abbey Road Studios. Live music most nights covers jazz, DJs, country, and whatever else fits the room. The bar closed during COVID and reopened in 2022 under new ownership that kept everything that mattered about the place intact.