One of L.A.’s favorite late-night haunts just landed in Silver Lake, bringing milkshakes, burgers and omelets to the building that formerly housed All Day Baby at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Descanso Drive.
Swingers, the nostalgic diner that has served as a community hub and appeared in media such as “Knocked Up” and “Insecure,” made its way across town to its new location. Owner Stephanie Wilson quietly launched takeout from a window along one side of the building, slinging tuna melts, meatloaf and more until 3 a.m.
In December she plans to unveil Swingers’ new Silver Lake dining room (plus jukebox and photo booth), flipping what was once Lien Ta and the late Jonathan Whitener’s lauded diner All Day Baby — and more recently smash-burger spot Heavy Handed — back into her own kind of diner.
“I never get tired of this place, it feels like home,” Wilson said. “This is a new project, and it’ll have a new energy, but we’re still going to keep the same vibe of course. It’s exciting to be working on something new.”
In 1993 Swingers launched at the base of the Beverly Laurel Motor Hotel at the edge of the Fairfax District and Beverly Grove. With its 1960s exterior and vintage “coffee shop” signage, it quickly became a “hipster coffee shop” hangout serving sandwiches and all-day breakfast to the city’s glorious cast of characters. The plaid booths, counter-seat stools and general Americana comprise a funky-chic hideaway that has become an iconic late-night destination for generations of Angelenos.
“In the booth behind you, eating scrambled-egg burritos, is the band headlining the Roxy tonight; behind them, by the Day-Glo cows, a couple of aspiring screenwriters are working on a draft,” late L.A. Times Food critic Jonathan Gold wrote in a 1993 review. “Over there in the corner, the skank in the ripped T-shirt: That’s a zillionaire record tycoon, looking doleful as he eats a low-fat muffin. If you can conceive of all the types of dudes who might possibly be conducting business breakfast at 3:30 in the afternoon, you will have pegged the clientele to a tee.”
Swingers, which previously also operated a diner in Santa Monica, nearly closed permanently in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then Wilson, a longtime general manager, pooled the funds to purchase the business, reopened in late 2020 and kept it running.
Since then, it has maintained its eclectic clientele at all hours and has served as a communal gathering space through some of the city’s ups and downs. In 2023 it became a central hub for organizing during the WGA strikes, with picketers convening at the big booths and patio tables almost daily — and with Drew Carey often picking up the tab.
More recently, Wilson decided to expand to Silver Lake after she saw many of her customers moving east.
“Now and again we’ll see an old face and we’ll say, ‘Where have you been? We missed you!’” she said. “And they say, ‘We’ve moved to Silver Lake,’ ‘We’ve moved to Echo Park,’ and so I thought,’We should go check out the Eastside, and it really feels like a perfect fit for our little diner.’”
Wilson wants to honor the late Whitener — who died in 2024 and whose cooking became an L.A. culinary staple at All Day Baby and Here’s Looking at You — with a dish or other form of memorial, and said she is currently in discussions with his friends and former colleagues to determine how best to pay homage.
Currently the Swingers menus are more or less identical across both locations, though Wilson expects to introduce unique daily specials at each.
She envisions guests walking across retro-inspired terrazzo floors, tucking into omelets and Cobb salads at tables along a freshly placed mosaic tile wall or wood paneling, and picking out slices of pie from the bakery case she plans on installing soon.
For now the little takeout window is serving from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., with breakfast and lunch to come once doors fully open.
Swingers is now open for takeout at 3200 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.
The post Swingers diner launches in Silver Lake with a takeout window that’s open til 3 a.m. appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
