The best thing to happen to Studio City since it was called something much cooler

Putting together a supergroup's a major challenge, mostly because even after you've somehow managed to combine several big egos and difficult personalities, you've still got to find someone that can deliver three golden wheelbarrows filled with cocaine and not-green M&Ms. For a spot that still somehow managed to pull it off, check out Black Market Liquor Bar. Opening today, Black Market's a mid-sized Studio City gastrobistro that's merged the talents of a Top Chef All-Star, the dude from Harvard & Stone, and the former GM at Bardot, with a moody interior that looks like a bar Van Helsing might pre-game at before taking on the Count, featuring intricately paneled windows, a multi-tiered mirrored bar, and a half-dome exposed-brick ceiling, also what Ron Artest calls the maximum number of shots he can take before being forced to sub out. Antonia Lofaso's all-over-the-map menu includes everything from an Asian-esque soft shell crab po boy, to an alligator-chorizo sausage mashup, to a dish that's loaded w/ Anson Mills grits, Benton's ham, fried collared greens, and a soft egg -- a polite way of saying something in its brain is really yolked up. Mixological genius includes Laphroaig/ Angostura & Regan's orange bitters/ Clement cane syrup "Amber & Embers"; the Aviation/ absinthe/ lime/ sugar/ cucumber/ mint "City Fizz", and the Old Overholt rye/ Carpano Antica sweet vermouth/ Tia Maria "Sweet Valley Rye", also the name of a Francine Pascal book in which Elizabeth Wakefield really likes whiskey, but must hide that fact from her twin sister Jessica, since she only drinks melon ball wine coolers. In addition, they've got a small, rotating, Euro-and-Cali beer list curated by one of LA's only certified cicerones, a position that also requires overcoming major challenges, difficult tests, and shady dealings with distributors.