Tipple & Brine is the perfect hideaway for a stimulating date night or roaring good time with friends.

The brine in Tipple and Brine comes from freshly shucked oysters, like Fanny Bay and Sisters Point. Three varieties are offered daily. (photo courtesy of Tipple and Brine)

Diners are welcomed by a greeter, who opens the door to the lively bar and dining room with reclaimed wood walls, rustic tables and glossy concrete flooring. Vintage Edison lights hang from the exposed ceiling, and the front windows have a pulley-and-winch system allowing fresh air inside.

Toward the back of the restaurant, a mysterious closed door which makes one feel as if they need to say a secret password for admission, leads to The Tunnel Bar, a New York-style underground subway with a brick tunnel archway bar. Jovial guests sip exotic crafted cocktails at tables beneath photographs of rock ‘n’ roll icons like Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Johnny Ramone.

Richard DiSisto, principal of Vantage Restaurant Group, designed the elegant speakeasy with dim lighting, red leather banquettes, leather covered bar stools and low cocktail tables.

Tipple means to drink in excess and Brine is a salty solution in water. DiSisto’s concept was to create a lively bar and serve fresh from the sea, briny fare.

Recently, he raised the culinary experience with the help of executive chef Marc Johnson, from La Cañada Flintridge. After a few years at Wood & Vine, across from the Hollywood Pantages Theater, Johnson met DiSisto and left Hollywood to revamp the Tipple & Brine menu. Not only does he run the kitchen, he is developing a gastropub menu for DiSisto’s newest endeavor located a few doors down — Downtown Johnny’s.

We ordered robust Fanny Bay oysters, briny Sisters Point oysters and two larger and creamier varieties from Henderson Inlet. They were served with cocktail sauce, fresh horseradish and mignonette sauce made with champagne, white wine and rice vinegar.

The menu also offers a variety of enhanced toasts, including one with creamy burrata, leeks and fennel pollen, and briny sea urchin toast with avocado mousse, radish and scallions. We enjoyed the earthy sautéed mushrooms on a thick slice of yeasty bread with goat cheese, sweet caramelized onion and aged balsamic vinegar.

Tipple & Brine’s Brussels sprouts are made with sweet chili vinegar, mint, miso aioli and peanuts. Johnson also assembles wonderful raw items including albacore hamachi with green onion and blood orange, and salmon tartar with strawberries.

The Tunnel Bar is a lively speakeasy where guests can order classic cocktails and “nuevo libations,” like the Prosperity, made with vodka, St. Germaine, sage, sugar, lime, grapefruit and soda. (photo courtesy of Tipple and Brine)

His healthy sea bass has crisp snap peas, green beans, pear tomatoes, prosciutto and grapefruit gastrique, offering an excellent combination of tart, sweet, salty and crunchy.

I ordered the fresh halibut with black lentils, pancetta relish, mustard pearls and herb salad. It was a delicious union of textures and flavors.

Before venturing to The Tunnel Bar, we enjoyed a glass jam jar filled with creamy chocolate pudding sprinkled with sea salt, cream and a chocolate covered pretzel. Inside the Tunnel Bar, we discovered another set of stairs leading to an outside balcony with tables and chairs. It’s an ideal spot to have an intimate conversation or gather with friends under the stars among the colorful lights of the boulevard. It’s a hidden gem worth discovering.

The Tunnel Bar is open from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., Thursday through Saturday. The space can be rented for private parties and special events.

On Mondays, Tipple & Brine serves oysters for $1 from 4:30 to 11 p.m. in the street-level bar and lounge. The restaurant is open daily from 4:30 p.m.; social hour runs from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. $$ 14633 Ventura Blvd. (818)528-2550.