Rolling With Clover

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Tom Bergin’s Tavern, a landmark but aging watering hole known for its shamrock-clad walls and horseshoe-shaped bar, needed a little Irish luck – and it got some.

T.K. Vodrey had operated the neighborhood bar and restaurant at 840 S. Fairfax Ave. just south of the Miracle Mile for 38 years since acquiring it in 1973 from Tom Bergin himself, who founded it 75 years ago.

That’s a long time for any bar to be in business and it was starting to show, with the tavern losing a “couple hundred thousand” dollars annually over the past few years, according to Vodrey.

“I think the recession got to me,” he said. “Customers weren’t coming in as regular because they didn’t have the money.”

Enter Warner Ebbink – literally. And he’s one guy you want walking into your bar. Ebbink, 40, who visited Bergin’s for the first time in years several months ago, has bought and revitalized other older L.A. eateries.

Ebbink was smitten by the place years ago. After finding out that Vodrey wanted to sell now, a deal, for an undisclosed amount of money, was struck.

The plan is to update Bergin’s without losing its ambience. Ebbink has previously updated West Hollywood’s Dominick’s, Hollywood’s 101 Coffee Shop, and Los Feliz’s Little Dom’s restaurants, all of which were several decades old.

“Bergin’s is in my mind as iconic as L.A.’s Musso and Frank. I would never in a million years touch that or destroy what’s taken 75 years to build,” Ebbink said. “I’m going to clean it up a bit and change the image of it outside so it’s not as run-down. The menu is what’s going to have the biggest overhaul.”

Ebbink’s chef, Brandon Boudet, plans to keep the traditional Irish dishes, such as corned beef and cabbage, but make it a steak and chop house with fresh food from local farmers markets that will attract the Miracle Mile business crowd.

The tavern, which has been closed since July, is scheduled to reopen in September, with old employees offered their jobs back. Vodrey, 78, said he’s content the way it all worked out.

“I think at times that things are to be passed on,” he said. “All my friends are playing golf and have been retired for a long time.”

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