The storefront has no sign. The business has no employees. But the suds already have a following.
At Exodus Beer House, owner Kyle MacDonald says customers are traveling hours for hard-to-find pours and four-packs.
“As of right now, I have the best tap list in L.A.,” he tells The Sun.
It’s a big claim from a newcomer who just arrived in Southern California four months ago.
But behind the low-key white storefront at 2819 Pico Blvd., the Sacramento native has a decidedly personal pitch: a beer house stocked with brews from people he knows, served by the guy who went out and got them.
And for now, MacDonald literally is the guy who sources his stock.
He runs the former Weary Livers space himself, opening six days a week and spending Mondays — his “day off” — traveling to pick up new inventory.
The name, he says, comes from Bob Marley’s “Exodus,” a tune framed in unity and community.
A pint-sized operation
After 12 years in Hawaii, where he opened a brewery, MacDonald came to Los Angeles with industry connections, an appreciation for the local beer scene and a specific real-estate wish list. He hunted for months for a manageable space with no kitchen and a Type 42 license.
He needed something he could run alone — at least to start.
Spaces in Malibu and Pacific Palisades were either too big or came with restaurants he didn’t want.
“I messaged the landlords a few times and nobody was getting back to me,” he remembers. “I started to give up.”
Then an online listing finally paid off.
“I came in here and looked at it one time,” he says. “I told them, ‘I’ll take it.’”
The address already had a drinking history. Before Weary Livers, it housed Barkowski, a nod to writer Charles Bukowski with black-and-red décor and a pool table up front. Weary Livers followed with a moody, Victorian-inspired aesthetic, plague-doctor branding, and a giant 12-foot skeleton watching over customers.
MacDonald says the operators he took over from had been using the space to host events — trivia, singles nights, chess and karaoke. Running a bar proved a different proposition.
“They have a huge following on social media, but not much knowledge of how to run a bar,” he says. “So I think (the previous owner) just got in a little over his head.”
By MacDonald’s account, the business was making money; the model simply wasn’t the right fit.
For him, the location put him in a part of town he already liked to visit — but where finding the beer he wanted had always been a challenge.
The broader L.A. beer community, however, sold him. “Everybody out here brings each other up,” he says.
Friends in cold places
MacDonald’s brewing career began before he was old enough to order a pint.
He and a close friend started making beer, produced a few batches bad enough to nearly call it quits, but then finally landed a brown ale worth drinking.
“All right, this is good,” he recalls thinking. “Let me keep it going.”
Home brewing turned into professional brewing in Sacramento. Eventually, MacDonald found himself in business on Oahu. Now planting roots on the Westside, he says every beer he stocks tells a story.
“It is a place to put all of my best friends’ beers on (tap) in a time where it’s hard to sell beer,” he says. “That’s what I pride myself in: bringing in beers that nobody else can get.”
The man behind every pour
Customers are finding him through word of mouth and Untappd, the beer app where users can scope out his selection before heading over.
One hometown name, however, hasn’t secured a tap handle just yet: Santa Monica Brew Works. MacDonald says there’s no beef or rivalry behind the omission.
“I don’t view anybody as competition,” he says. “We’re all community. Just nobody has approached me to carry their stuff.”
MacDonald plans to hire part-time help and step up marketing once the storefront sign goes up, but for now he’s in no rush to hand off the taps.
“I want to talk to every person that comes in here,” he says. “I want to meet everybody and remember everybody’s name.”
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