Force of Nature: Venice’s Most Interesting New Bar Is Hiding Above Abbot Kinney

There is a bar on the second floor of a century-old Victorian home on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Every bottle behind the bar — wine, spirits, everything — comes exclusively from women-owned producers. There is a string-lit balcony overlooking the street below. And when you get hungry, you pull a rope, and pizza arrives from the restaurant next door via a rooftop pulley system. This is Force of Nature, and it is currently the most interesting bar in Venice.

The bar is the project of Leena Culhane, who most West LA regulars will know from Crudo e Nudo — the beloved raw bar on Montana Ave that became one of Santa Monica's essential spots. Force of Nature is her follow-up, and it's a different kind of place entirely: less about food, more about the feeling of being in a room where someone has thought carefully about every detail.

“Force of Nature is what a neighborhood bar looks like when it’s built by someone who actually cares about what goes in the glass. The sourcing isn’t a gimmick — it shapes everything about what you drink here.”

The Concept

The women-only sourcing isn't a marketing angle — it's a genuine curatorial commitment that shapes the entire drinks menu. The wine list leans natural, low-intervention, and deeply interesting: growers you won't find at most Venice wine bars, poured by the glass at prices that don't require a moment of hesitation. The spirits follow the same logic. Culhane has done the research, and the menu reflects it.

The space occupies the full second floor of the building at 1031 Abbot Kinney, above Only the Wild Ones. The Victorian bones are still visible — uneven floors, slanted ceilings, the particular quality of light that only comes from old wood and old windows. It feels nothing like the bars that have opened on Abbot Kinney in the past five years. It feels like someone's very good living room.

The Pizza Pulley

The practical problem with a wine bar that doesn't serve food is that people get hungry. Culhane's solution is one of the better ideas in recent LA bar history: a partnership with Fiorelli, the Neapolitan pizza spot next door, accessible via a pulley system on the rooftop. You order, the pizza goes up, it comes to you. The Fiorelli pies — blistered, light, made with imported Caputo flour — are exactly what you want alongside a glass of skin-contact Vermentino. It's a detail that would feel gimmicky anywhere else. Here it just feels correct.

The Crowd

Force of Nature closes at 9 or 10pm depending on the night, which tells you everything about who it's for. This isn't a late-night destination. It's a place for the first part of the evening — the glass of wine before dinner, or the quiet nightcap after. The crowd skews local, knowledgeable, and relaxed. No one is performing. The balcony overlooks Abbot Kinney, and on a clear evening, you can watch the street below while the city cools down around you. It's one of the better ways to spend a Thursday in Venice.

Why It Stands Out

Abbot Kinney has accumulated a lot of bars in recent years. Most of them serve the same rotating cocktail menu and the same glass of Whispering Angel, and they are fine. Force of Nature is not trying to be fine. Leena Culhane built something with a genuine point of view — about sourcing, about space, about what a neighborhood bar can be when it's designed for the people who actually live nearby. LA Mag put it plainly in their March 2026 feature: it's the kind of place you tell people about quietly, because you're not sure you want it to change.