Exclusive | Inside Pawn Shop, the star-studded LA sports bar backed by Mark Cuban and Andrew Friedman

Apparently, Mark Cuban and Andrew Friedman weren’t content conquering professional sports. Now they’re coming for your neighborhood sports bar. Tucked inside a sprawling 8,500-square-foot former pawn shop that dates back to the 1930s, L.A.’s newest reinvention on sports, luxury, and fine dining is born.Located on the corner of Melrose and Cahuenga sits Pawn Shop, a new restaurant and sports bar that features more than 60 televisions, two enormous media walls, private suites, and high-end cocktails galore.  The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story It’s led by founder and CEO Diego Torres-Palma and James Beard Award-winning chef Tony Messina.Together they’ve made the standard sports bar menu of chicken wings, nachos and mozzarella sticks look insulting by comparison. A housemade wagyu hot dog, beef tallow fries, chicken liver mousse, caviar and charbroiled Maine oysters are just some of the menu’s highlights.But the most interesting thing about Pawn Shop isn’t what’s on the walls or plates. It’s who is behind it. Billionaire entrepreneur and former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is an investor.

So is Dodgers’ president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. The list of names interested in either investing or being a part of the business is longer than a CVS receipt. Aaron Donald, who recently stunned the football world by coming out of retirement and returning to the Los Angeles Rams, has discussed investing alongside his wife, Erica, according to Torres-Palma.“We literally traded emails when Aaron announced he was coming back,” Torres-Palma said. Donald isn’t the only Dodgers-or-Rams-adjacent star circling the new sports bar.Dodgers’ shortstop Mookie Betts met with the company and will now feature his Tequila Providencia behind...