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Choose your own adventure at this Dungeons & Dragons-inspired pub hidden in downtown L.A.

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Choose your own adventure at this Dungeons & Dragons-inspired pub hidden in downtown L.A.

Carlos Leon found himself in a depressed state — a personal relationship was stalling and his career seemed directionless.

What he craved was an escape, one inspired by the fantasy worlds he devoured as a child and continued to consume into adulthood. Think those inspired by “The Lord of the Rings” and Dungeons & Dragons, fantastical spaces filled with wizardry, wild creatures and, most of all, tales of adventure.

Lacking any real-life dragons to slay, Leon began attacking metaphorical demons by disappearing into these imagined universes. He found comfort, at last, by transforming his apartment bedroom into a Medieval bar for his roommates and friends. With limited economic resources, he began scouring online marketplaces to surround his Murphy bed with a cheap wooden table, a budget chandelier, battery-powered candles and modest wall sconces.

And thus, the first iteration of what would become Squirrelor’s Tavern was born.

“I was craving an atmosphere of warmth, coziness, camaraderie and food and beverage,” Leon says. His childhood nickname? Squirrelor, which he also uses as his gaming name.

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Squirrelor’s Tavern is filled with hidden puzzles and a not-so-secret storyline, the latter of which guests can uncover in objects throughout the bar.

(Landon Donoho / Squirrelor’s Tavern)

“And I was hunting for it everywhere,” he adds. “The closest thing I got was an Irish pub. But I realized what I was really after was a tavern that you see in fantasy tales — a Prancing Pony, or any run-of-the-mill Dungeons & Dragons tavern.”

Today Squirrelor’s Tavern is a more polished affair, although it still maintains a do-it-yourself charm. To step into the pop-up fantasy pub — hidden in an upstairs room of a downtown Los Angeles sports bar — is to be welcomed by fake cobblestone flooring, flickering electronic candles, old-timey, slightly Gaelic music, and walls and shelving filled with odd ephemera, including skulls, plastic animal skeletons and a bevy of squirrel-related art.

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And puzzles. They’re everywhere. Wooden boxes and mini chests sit locked on bookshelves, where one will instantly spy scrolls hidden in bottles or books that appear to be concealing veiled messages. And don’t be surprised if that picture is cloaking something behind its frame.

The first time I set foot in Squirrelor’s Tavern, it was instantly familiar, so much so I felt as if I had already visited it. In a way, I had. Raised on fantasy games and Dungeons & Dragons novels, I too had longed to venture into a fantastical pub, the kind of place where strangers instantly become friends over a pint and exaggerated stories, and where swords and shields dot the walls. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll discover an adventure to embark upon, or perhaps your evening will simply be filled with drinking shanties.

A bearded man in a fantasy costume stands behind the wooden bar in a pub.

Carlos Leon, center, behind bar, as Squirrelor, the proprietor of a fantasy-themed pub in downtown.

(Landon Donoho / Squirrelor’s Tavern)

Such is the vibe of the tavern, which taps into our renewed interest in fantasy. Running since March and extended through at least the end of October, Squirrelor’s Tavern has arrived during the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, and when television series such as “House of the Dragon” and “The Legend of Vox Machina” continue to bring sword-and-sorcery stories to new audiences. Also, “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern” has become a theatrical hit in New York, and will begin a touring production in 2025.

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Squirrelor’s Tavern has more humble ambitions. This is a gathering spot for puzzles and a light, escape room-inspired narrative with some immersive theater trappings — but it understands that drink, food and games, as well as heroic, mysterious myths, are timeless.

“It strips away all the stimuli technology that you are drowning in when you go to a bar,” Leon says.

The space, instead, is largely an invitation to play. A night at the bar runs $150 per person and contains about a three-hour narrative. As you’re seated, you learn, via the menu, that Squirrelor’s Tavern sits in the midst of a kingdom that has been thrown into disarray, with the peaceful elves losing power amid multiple warring factions. You’re invited to lean in, if you like, and if you do you’ll discover that throughout the tavern are hidden clues for those seeking to join the rebellion.

After all, no Dungeons & Dragons-inspired bar would be complete without a quest. The pub is full of narratives. A coat hanging on a wall hook turns out to be one that was left there in haste, with notes between distant lovers still residing in the pockets. I went to Squirrelor’s Tavern solo and was invited, at times, to join others in light social games — a bartender may hand out syrupy shots if participants can uncover the likes and dislikes of a stranger — but mostly focused on the bar’s underlying story as a space sympathetic to those fighting for the good of the kingdom.

A guest unwraps a menu in a scroll at Squirrelor's Tavern.

Puzzles can be found in menus and scrolls at Squirrelor’s Tavern, a fantasy-themed pub in downtown Los Angeles.

(Tara Pixley / Squirrelor’s Tavern)

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Here, a guest book may be anything but, and cipher puzzles may reside in knickknacks while shields may turn out to be more than just decoration. To uncover the secret narrative of Squirrelor’s Tavern should take you about half the night, depending, of course, on how much drinking and socializing you partake in. You can also opt to simply interact with the cast, or solve an assortment of puzzles divorced from the main story. There’s also a three-course meal of simple pub fare — think pretzels, wings and sausage plates.

In addition to Leon, now general manager of downtown’s First Draft Taproom & Kitchen, where Squirrelor’s Tavern resides in an upstairs nook, the fantasy pub was the creation of Taylor Frost and Alicia Minette, who bring experience in event production and television and theatrical fabrication. The team, ranging in age from their mid-30s to early 40s, bonded over a love of immersive entertainment and began developing the idea of a full-blown Squirrelor’s Tavern during the 2023 Hollywood strikes when work began drying up.

A guest tries to open a mini chest with a lock and key.

Throughout Squirrelor’s Tavern are puzzles and chests, each awaiting to be solved or opened.

(Landon Donoho / Squirrelor’s Tavern)

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Frost led the design of most of the puzzles, having also contributed to the narrative development of numerous live-action role-playing games.

“The escape rooms I love the most are not the ones that have the hardest puzzles,” Frost says. “They’re the ones that are the most immersive and story-driven. With the tavern, we wanted to give it a choose-your-own-adventure vibe.”

There are now two core storylines running concurrently at Squirrelor’s Tavern, the second geared toward returning guests who want to further develop the narrative. If all goes according to plan, the team hopes to create a third, and to someday be successful enough to run the tavern as a hangout space when it’s not hosting its primary ticketed event. For now, Frost says the bar is breaking even, necessitating an one-day-at-a-time approach.

But Leon believes the concept appeals far beyond those familiar with a 20-sided die. “Every single person that I speak to that has seen the tavern or I show the tavern to has said, ‘I want to go there.’ It’s a human craving for an immersive escape that’s centered around interaction. Yes, there are puzzles and storylines, but personally my favorite part is just sitting and living in the space. You forget you’re in the second floor of this little sports bar in downtown L.A.”

The spell is only broken when the night ends, not with an out-of-control orc or goblin but with something far more mundane: a bill.

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After weeks of speculation, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wed in New York

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After weeks of speculation, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wed in New York

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, pictured at a basketball game in May, announced their engagement in August 2025.

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NEW YORK — Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are officially married.

After three years of dating, The pop icon and Super Bowl-winning football player, both 36, tied the knot in New York, according to a statement from Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine.

There were neither bridesmaids nor groomsmen. “Instead, her brother Austin Swift served as Taylor’s Man of Honor and Jason Kelce was Travis’ Best Man. The ceremony joined both families together,” Swift’s publicist said in the statement released Friday evening.

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The ceremony was officiated by comedian and a friend of the couple, Adam Sandler, the statement added.

The singer’s rep said that the couple was dressed in Christian Dior Haute Couture.

“The bride and groom’s wedding ceremony looks have been created by Christian Dior Haute Couture. They are designed by Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of Dior Women’s, Men’s and Haute Couture Collections, in close collaboration with the Bride and Groom,” the statement said. “This is the designer’s first couture wedding dress for a world-renowned celebrity. Their shoes were custom made by Christian Louboutin and the bride wore Cartier jewelry.”

Security around the event was intense, so it remains unclear if the wedding was charming, if a little gauche. But the night before the ceremony the 20,000-person stadium was bathed in a lavender haze.

Details gleaned from a city permit obtained by The Associated Press, showed details of a “special event at MSG” scheduled to begin Friday evening and running overnight Saturday.

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As speculation built, fans began gathering in front of the stadium ahead of the expected wedding, despite the couple’s efforts to keep details of the celebration under wraps.

Superfans and sleuths appeared to have their hunches confirmed on Friday, as dozens of black cars dropped off elegantly dressed guests outside of Madison Square Garden in New York City.

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Ken Marino

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Ken Marino

Ken Marino loves living in L.A.

Living here has certainly been good for his acting career. Though he broke into the business as a member of NYC-turned-MTV sketch comedy group the State in 1994, he moved to L.A. in the fall of 1997 when he landed a role in the second season of “Men Behaving Badly,” an NBC sitcom. Marino shot just 13 episodes before the show was canceled. Still, he stayed in L.A., landing roles in much-loved shows like “Veronica Mars,” “Party Down,” “The Residence” and “Running Point.” He’s also co-written a few things, including “Role Models” and “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” out July 10, which was filmed in and around Los Angeles.

Sunday Funday infobox logo with colorful spot illustrations

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

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“Working around L.A. and running around to jobs is how I got to understand L.A.,” Marino says. “It’s just a very comfortable city to live in. I just think it’s fun to be able to bounce around and do anything you feel like doing.”

Here’s how Marino would spend his perfect, carefree Sunday in Los Angeles.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

6 a.m.: Dog walking, coffee and flowers

We have two dogs. They need to go outside in the morning and eat, and they are very vocal about it. For a while, every morning at 5:58 my one dog, Dot, would start whining and moving around until I’d go “yeah, OK, let’s feed you.”

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In our family, I’m the one who feeds the dogs and takes them out, because I’m a morning person. I enjoy it when it’s not fully light out, maybe making myself a coffee or taking a walk to this place called Project Bloom Coffee. It’s a little mom and pop kind of place and they have terrific coffee and breakfast sandwiches. They’re also a florist. Sometimes they even use this cool paper holder with a handle where, on one side you put the coffee and then on the other side you put your beautiful flower display. So then you get to walk home with your coffee and your flowers together and it’s something I’ve never seen anywhere else.

7:30 a.m.: Online chess

After I go get my coffee and walk the dogs, I’ll still be the only person up so I’ll get on my computer and get a couple of games of chess in. I play people from around the world online on Chess.com, and I usually either get frustrated or feel like I’m the best chess player in the world. Anyway, I’m getting my rating up on the app and I’m very excited about it. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of chess tutorials on TikTok and YouTube that teach me how to play better.

9 a.m.: More coffee and “911”

If I go to Project Bloom, I’ll bring my wife a coffee and some flowers but if not, we have a little espresso and cappuccino maker so I’ll use that to make her a cappuccino, which I’ll bring to her in bed. She’s always very happy about that and then I’ll go try to wake my [16-year-old] daughter up, which usually takes about two or three tries until I take her phone, set the timer for five minutes, and then put it on the other side of her room so she has to get out of her bed to turn it off when it sounds.

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She and I have been religiously watching “911” recently. We started with Season 1 and now we’re about six or seven seasons in so I’ll make her breakfast — maybe a Nutella crepe with some little cherry tomatoes on the side, which is weird but she likes it or maybe some oatmeal — and then we’ll watch “911” and talk about our favorite characters, like Buck, Chimney and Bobby.

Noon: Lunch on the Westside

We have a little apartment in Marina Del Rey that’s right by the beach so sometimes I’ll go out there with the dogs, just to sit for a while and enjoy. I usually walk between the Venice pier and Washington Street, but sometimes I’ll go further north and walk along Venice Beach if I want to hang out with some freaky deakies.

When I’m over on that side of town, there’s a couple of places that I might go for food, like this Italian restaurant called Ospi that’s in Venice. They’re incredible. They make their own homemade pasta and it’s delicious. There’s also this chain called Guisados, and I love their tacos so sometimes I’ll do that too. Venice Ramen is good too, and they do these things called jumbo gyoza that are absolutely delicious. They’re like 2.5 times bigger than a normal gyoza, like palm-sized, and I really like them.

2 p.m.: Play practice and a pint

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My daughter is in two plays right now at this place called the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica, so it’s my responsibility to take her over there and drop her off for practice. When I do that, if it’s a Sunday, I might want to grab a Guinness somewhere and watch basketball. There’s a bar called Weary Livers down the street that has a lot of board games and it feels like you’re in somebody’s basement, which is good. It’s also right next to the Brixton, which is another nice bar that I’ll go to from time to time if I’m waiting for my daughter to finish rehearsal because it’s a lot of driving otherwise.

4 p.m.: Garage band practice

Typically on Sunday, we’ll also have a rehearsal for the Middle Aged Dad Jam Band. [Editor’s note: Marino co-founded the group with David Wain, whom he’s known since “The State” and who co-wrote “Wet Hot American Summer.”) We’ll play for a couple of hours in David’s garage, trying out new songs and working out what we’re going to do at our next live show.

6 p.m.: Guerilla promotion

Right now, David [Wain] and I are trying to figure out different promotional things we can do for our movie, “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” so maybe we’d do some more of that. It’s a really funny movie and we sold it at Sundance.

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Anyway, two Sundays ago we walked around with our friend Frank Barrera, who is also one of the camera operators on “Gail Daughtry.” We went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and we shot promos for the movie where we were talking to different people and pretending that the Gail Daughtry cinematic universe is vast and has been around for decades, like we were asking people what their favorite Gail Daughtry movie is. It confused a lot of them, but every once in a while somebody would say something so we’re using those for promo spots.

I also spent some time just running up and down the street being very overly enthusiastic and screaming “the new Gail Daughtry movie is coming out!” and then we shot people’s reactions, which were typically “confusion” and “not caring.” Like, “Stop yelling at me, weirdo.”

7:30 p.m.: Thai takeout

On weekends, my wife and I like to order from a specific Thai place that’s won many awards. It’s called Luv 2 Eat Thai Bistro and it’s absolutely fantastic. The crab curry is so delicious and they do these street food sausages that we crave. They come with ginger and peanuts and garlic, plus a big slab of raw cabbage and some hot peppers and we’ll eat them like popcorn, just throwing them in our mouths while we catch up on “Survivor.” The flavor is just insane, and we think about how good they are all the time.

9:30 p.m.: Checkmate

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After we watch “Survivor,” usually what happens next is that we’ll end up going, “Should we watch a movie?” Then we’ll look around for a movie for a while and then my daughter will be like, “Hey, Mom! Come in here and watch this YouTube show with me” so my wife will get pulled away, and I’ll immediately pick up my computer and start playing chess again. I like to bookend my day with a quiet chess game in the morning and another quiet game at night. It’s a nice way to wind down.

I’ll typically play a minimum of about three games before my eyes start to close because they’re trying to fall asleep. That’s when I’ll quit because I’ll be making stupid moves and it affects my rating, like “Oh, I just lost that game because I fell asleep while my computer was on,” so that’s how I know when I’m done.

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Nearly half of Americans surveyed don’t know what America 250 commemorates

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Nearly half of Americans surveyed don’t know what America 250 commemorates

People visit the Liberty Bell on the eve of Independence Day in Philadelphia on July 3, 2025. The crack in this symbol of U.S. freedom echoes the paradox between national pride and civic ignorance revealed in a new national poll.

Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images


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Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images

A new national poll reveals a striking paradox in public sentiment ahead of America’s 250th anniversary: a disconnect between Americans’ strong patriotic pride and their lack of civic knowledge.

According to a survey from the libertarian Cato Institute think tank of more than 2,000 U.S. adults conducted in late June, 86% of respondents said they are grateful to be American and 70% believe the nation’s founding principles remain relevant.

However, nearly half of Americans (46%) don’t know that America’s 250th anniversary commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

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This civic ignorance extends to basic governance: Nearly 60% do not know the main purpose of the U.S. Constitution is to limit government power, and do not know why the colonies declared independence from Great Britain.

Furthermore, the report highlights deep anxieties about the future of American liberty.

The majority of those surveyed believe the country has strayed from its founding principles, and more than half fear the U.S. could cease to be a free country within the next 50 years, citing corruption and the abuse of power as primary threats. The majority of both Republicans and Democrats share these fears.

The concerns are especially pronounced among Gen Z respondents, who exhibited both the lowest levels of civic knowledge and the least favorable views of the nation’s founders. The majority of Gen Z failed to cite the adoption of the Declaration of Independence as the source of the 250th anniversary.

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“The lack of civic knowledge is a great disaster,” said Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Stanford University Jack Rakove. “Any democratic system of government to succeed requires having an informed electorate.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning authority on the drafting of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence blamed the problem on the fragmented media landscape and schools prioritizing STEM subjects over civics and history.

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