El Cid

Built in 1905, El Cid was originally a movie theater before eventually becoming a prison-themed restaurant called The Jail Café, wherein the servers wore black and white striped prison uniforms. El Cid took over just upwards of 50 years ago, but it’s less like stepping into the past than it is stepping right into Spain.  Once you find yourself lost in its brick courtyard with a glass of tasty sangria, decent tapas and live flamenco, it’ll be pretty difficult to reconcile the fact that you’re actually on a weird and otherwise uneventful stretch of Sunset.