Lounge 1888 Opened at the Intuit Dome, With a Members-Only Speakeasy Hidden Inside

A dining room open to anyone, and a room behind it capped at fewer than eighty people who pay to get in.

Lounge 1888 has opened beside the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, and it is really two venues. There is 1888, the flagship dining room and lounge, open to the public. And there is The 8, a members-only speakeasy hidden inside the same space.

The project was developed under restaurateur Sebastian Laborde, with Marlo Richardson handling brand outreach for the launch. Before opening, management ran a local hospitality recruitment fair in July to hire line cooks, prep cooks and sous chefs, which is a more community-minded way to staff an arena restaurant than most.

The name is local history

1888 is the year Inglewood was established as a settlement, following construction of a regional Santa Fe Railway station. Tying a brand-new high-end restaurant to the city's 19th-century founding, inside one of the most technologically aggressive arenas in the country, is a choice worth noticing. Inglewood has spent the past decade absorbing SoFi Stadium, the Kia Forum and the Intuit Dome without much of that development speaking to the city's own history.

The 8

The speakeasy is the part people will talk about. Per Hoodline, The 8 is capped at fewer than 80 guests and comes with private liquor lockers, a vintage spirit vault and a six-course tasting menu that is not listed anywhere on the regular menu. Membership is required.

The concept has a civic backstory. During a public hearing on the arrangement, Gerard McCallum described the thinking as bringing the same exclusivity the arena operates with, including facial ID entry, into a hospitality setting in Inglewood. The enabling legislation applies only to the Intuit Dome and sunsets in 2030.

The main room

The public side is billed as modern American with craft cocktails and premium wines. Reported dishes include wagyu burgers with balsamic onions and truffled deviled eggs, poured from a terrazzo bar running passionfruit highballs.

The restaurant's own site says plainly that it is not a sports bar, which is a slightly funny position for a room with a wall of televisions steps from Clippers box seats. In practice it is both, and the ambition seems to be that you can eat properly before tipoff rather than settling for arena food.

Getting in

This is the part to plan around, because it is not a walk-in off the street.

• Parking: guests are directed to the Intuit Dome West Garage at 10117 S. Prairie Avenue.

• The route: cross the second-floor pedestrian bridge, pass through arena security, then take the escalator down to the main floor.

• No ticket needed: the restaurant is open to the public and can be reached from Century Boulevard without an event ticket.

• Reservations: available on OpenTable.

• Event nights: the members-only area is available to members on some event days only.

Why the timing matters

The Intuit Dome is an 18,000-seat, $2 billion arena that opened in August 2024 as the home of the Clippers, under owner Steve Ballmer. It hosted the NBA All-Star Game in February and will serve as the basketball venue for the 2028 Olympics. A fine dining room attached to that calendar has a very different demand curve than a neighborhood restaurant.

The arena's own dining program already runs Neighborwood Eats, a rotating lineup showcasing Inglewood restaurants, alongside 21 marketplaces. Lounge 1888 sits at the opposite end of that spectrum.

One note before you go: the restaurant's website still lists an April 2026 opening, though the room has been open and taking reservations since. Confirm hours on OpenTable rather than the site.

Lounge 1888 is at the Intuit Dome, 3930 W. Century Boulevard, Inglewood, CA 90303.

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