LA dive bar famous for blasting Covid restrictions chased out of its 1970s home by developers as locals erupt

At barely 5 p.m.on a Thursday in Sherman Oaks, the party has already started at Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill.

Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” blasts from the sound system, and a crowd of regulars settles in along a well-worn bar.Flat-screen TVs glow — cued up and ready for the Los Angeles Rams game. The dimly lit, wood-paneled space holds the lived-in scent of stale beer and one too many long nights — time feels suspended.

Multi-colored Christmas string lights drape from the rafters in September, casting a warm, festive glow. Strangers swap stories across barstools like old friends — and it seemed as if nobody stayed a stranger for long. “When does the dancing start?” one guy asks, smiling as he strolls through the door.Within the hour, while most of Los Angeles was still fighting its way through traffic, the crowd inside more than doubles — filling the room with the kinetic energy of a community that knows its time might be running out.Pineapple Hill isn’t just a neighborhood institution, tucked behind an In-N-Out Burger, off of Ventura Blvd.— the long-running dive bar went viral nationwide back in 2020 as a face of the devastating toll COVID-era restrictions took on restaurants, after owner Angela Marsden posted an emotional video appealing to be allowed to open the outdoor dining space she’d spent tens of thousands creating.At the time, Marsden was able to crowdfund her way to survival — reportedly netting roughly $185,000 via a GoFundMe.Once again, the strip mall standby is battling closure — this time in favor of sweeping redevelopment at the site, located near the key Valley intersection of Ventura and Beverly Glen Blvds.

And devastated regulars say yet another piece of Southern California neighborhood life is being wiped away.A local fixture since 1978 — earning it an official designation as a City of Los Angeles Legacy Business — Pineapple Hill was hit with a sudden 60-day notice to vacate on Aug.6.

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