B-WADE plays The Townhouse, Venice's oldest bar, this Saturday

A late Saturday DJ set on Nov. 14 in a 200-capacity Windward Avenue room that has poured drinks since 1915, Prohibition included.

There's a tile mosaic by the door at 52 Windward Avenue that still reads "Menotti's Buffet," the name the place opened under more than a century ago. Walk past it on Saturday, Nov. 14, and you'll find B-WADE behind the decks: the DJ plays The Townhouse in Venice at 10 p.m., a date announced Oct. 27. Tickets are on sale through DICE.

B-WADE isn't a stranger to the room. JamBase's Townhouse calendar lists an earlier B-WADE date there in June, so this Saturday is a return booking, the kind a bar only makes when the first night went well. At 200 capacity, The Townhouse is a room where a DJ can read every face on the floor, and a 10 p.m. Saturday start puts the set right in the stretch of the night when Venice stops being a beach town and starts being a bar town.

Venice stops being a beach town and starts being a bar town.

The building is the other reason to go. A bar has operated at 52 Windward Avenue continuously since 1915, when Italian immigrant Cesar Menotti opened Menotti's Buffet, per the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It kept pouring through Prohibition: a grocery store on the street level served as a front for the speakeasy in the basement, and Menotti would deliver liquor to the hotels across the street, per PBS SoCal. That basement became known as the Del Monte. For decades the way down was a trap door, until owners Frank and Annie Bennett put in a staircase in 1968, per Atlas Obscura.

The modern chapter started in June 2007, when local couple Louie and Netty Ryan took over and renovated the bar, per the Free Venice Beachhead. The Del Monte downstairs was closed for three years over legal wrangling and neighbor complaints before reopening in 2010. Today the place splits the difference between a neighborhood bar and a nightlife spot, and DJ nights like this one are a big part of how it fills the late hours.

A few things to know before you go. It's a small room on a Saturday night in Venice, so buying ahead on DICE is the safer move than hoping for space at the door. Windward Avenue is steps from the boardwalk, and weekend parking nearby is what you'd expect, so a rideshare is easier. And give yourself a minute at the door to find the "Menotti's Buffet" tile; it's the oldest thing in the room.

Plenty of LA bars claim a history. The Townhouse has one, and this Saturday it gets a soundtrack.

Sources: B-WADE at The Townhouse (DICE) (link.dice.fm); The Townhouse (JamBase venue page) (jambase.com); Historic Bars: Townhouse and the Del Monte Speakeasy in Venice, California (National Trust for Historic Preservation) (savingplaces.org); The illegal years of the Del Monte Speakeasy (PBS SoCal) (pbssocal.org); Townhouse Bar and Speakeasy (Atlas Obscura) (atlasobscura.com); The Townhouse: Drinking Up Venice History (Free Venice Beachhead) (venicebeachhead.org)