Relentless Brewing and Spirits sits on the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Caspar Avenue. Here, one can find movies like “The Great Gatsby” playing on the TVs, listen to The Smiths blasting over the speakers or even find a sense of community.
It is a “Beercentric, but cocktail forward” establishment according to its website, but its Asian American fusion food and all-ages events make this family-run business family friendly. For this reason, owner Doris Hess chose to set up shop in “family-oriented” Eagle Rock.
The LA born-and-raised Hess runs Relentless in Eagle Rock while her husband, James Hess, is in charge of the brew-focused location in Temecula. In Eagle Rock, Hess said she wanted to open a place for the young families in the neighborhood to have a night out.
“They definitely like going out and they like to have a place where they can go to locally where they can have a drink, relax, but also allow their kids to come as well,” Hess said.
The many women-owned businesses in Eagle Rock also made Hess feel welcome in the neighborhood, with Milkfarm, FourCafe, and Leanna Lin’s Wonderland all within a few blocks of Relentless. To Hess, this is a big deal.
“We definitely take care of each other. Whatever I need, whatever they need, we have each other’s back,” Hess said. “It’s a very unusual situation. We have it really good here in Eagle Rock.”
A self-proclaimed customer service stickler, Hess said she tries to take care of her customers too.
“It doesn’t matter if you’ve been here the first time and it doesn’t matter if you’ve been here 1000 times, we try to treat you exactly the same,” Hess said.
In addition to committed customer service, a common theme in Hess’ business strategy is variety. The specials menu keeps options for customers of all kinds and the drink menu includes both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.
Relentless also has a rotating seasonal menu to keep the experience fresh. Their latest winter cocktail menu, for example, features drinks inspired by Asian horror movies like “A Chinese Ghost Story” and “The Ghost of Yotsuya.”
“If I’m going to own a restaurant, I want to own a restaurant where I would come in every day and know I’m going to have something different every day,” Hess said.
This mindset extends beyond food to the constant rotation of events that Hess hosts at Relentless. Depending on the occasion, its various events range from film screenings to sushi making classes to a “parm crack” in collaboration with Milkfarm.
“I don’t like to keep the same events all the time,” Hess said.
According to bartender Drew Saylor, there is one consistent event that ties everything together: trivia night, hosted by King Trivia every Wednesday.
Saylor, a 15-year bartending veteran, said Relentless’ trivia night began with a modest turnout of only three teams occupying two tables. On their second ever trivia night, Saylor said he watched strangers become friends when a customer came to the bar, hesitant to play trivia.
“Now they play every week together. They’ve made t-shirts [and] they [were] fast friends,” Saylor said. “They hang out all the time and they met at trivia night.”
Local patron Alice Butcher attested to this and added that she has frequented Relentless since its opening.
“One of my really good friends I actually met the first night I played trivia,” Butcher said. “She was one of the many people outside and I just went up and sat with her.”
Trivia night now takes up the entire downstairs area of the restaurant, according to Saylor. He said he did not expect it to become as popular as it did, nor do customers expect to become so involved in it.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know about trivia. We’re gonna have to come back next week,’” Saylor said. “Then we start seeing them like 23 times a month.”
Assistant manager, server and bartender Bri McGovern said the Relentless trivia community is largely populated by regulars who keep consistent teams and team names. She enjoys working Wednesday nights so much that she refuses to give up that shift.
“Coming out here, there is a big sense of community,” she said. “I see all the time, someone sitting at a table, someone walking in then being like, ‘What are you doing here?’ […] It just feels like everyone knows each other already.”
Saylor said that in his mind, he just wants people to enjoy the food and drinks. But to his surprise, customers seem to appreciate Relentless’ hospitality beyond just what it serves.
“‘Oh, Drew knows my name when I come in,’ or ‘Bri always remembers exactly my order,’ or ‘Oh, Doris hosted this awesome party and we felt at home,’” he said. “That’s just part of hospitality […] that’s what our job is.”
Ultimately, Hess aims to provide a good experience and excellent customer service, and she said she is always striving to improve. In a line of business that can be driven by temporary trends, Hess is relentless in switching things up.
“I don’t like trends,” Hess said. “I do whatever makes me happy.”
Contact Oliver Otake at ootake@oxy.edu
Karen Palacios Echeverria contributed to this report.
