Los Angeles Travel Guide
Tags: Hotel Brunch / Hotel Breakfasts / Thompson Hotels / Hollywood Hotels / → All Tags
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Gets Jazzed About Brunch
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel has a long and checkered history that well pre-dates today’s celebrity tantrums and “Super Sweet 16” parties. As a way of hearkening back to that golden-hued heyday, the hotel has started offering a new ”Jazz Brunch” on Sundays from 11:00am-3:00pm.
Since the special brunch starts at $18 per person, it’s actually a pretty good deal, especially for a Thompson Hotel, and especially considering that overnight parking will run you around $30, and the standard rate for a stay at the hotel starts at $225 a night.
If you’re anything like us, you’re naturally dubious about any meal that is accompanied by live music. What is this, the shoe department of Nordstrom’s? But we checked up on it, and here’s the scoop.
Tags: Hotel Bars / Los Angeles Hotels / California Hotels / Celeb Scoop / → All Tags
The Five Best Hotel Bars in Los Angeles
Butterflies on the ceiling of Bar Marmont
Cocktail culture is a different breed in Los Angeles. This is a town known for "doing lunch," after all. Aspiring screenwriters and actors usually work during the day and hit clubs late at night, and slick producers hustle deals both during afternoon meetings and after hours. Happy Hour just isn't as popular here as it is in other cities you might visit.
And what makes choosing a bar even more difficult in LA is the rate of trend turnaround; one week some place is the place to be, the next you wouldn't find a Twilight cast member caught dead there.
Recently, the erstwhile travel reporter Jen Leo tweeted @HotelChatter asking us what hotels in Los Angeles would be great for a happy hour. This inspired us to revisit some of the city's most well-known hotel bars to do libation reconnaissance. Below you'll find the results of our liquored social experiment. More after the jump...
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Los Angeles Hotels / Celebrity Chefs / → All Tags
Food Frenzy At Los Angeles Hotels This Month
Foodies in Los Angeles are all abuzz lately about some big turnover in hotel restaurants around town—both on the menu and in the kitchen. Plus, now that there’s an end in sight to beach weather, it’s time to put the bikini away and start thinking about packing on the pounds for winter. Here are four of the stories and specials we’ve been following lately.
Last week, we stopped in for a dinner at the new restaurant in Beverly Hills’ Avalon Hotel, oliverio. To complement the 1960’s Italian-style redecoration (pictured above), new chef Mirko Paderno (formerly of Cecconi’s in West Hollywood), has created an Italian-inspired menu that is equal parts familiar and fanciful, with dishes like an octopus carpaccio with wild arugula, lemon and olive oil ($14); a panna cotta-like cauliflower soufflé with parmigiano sauce ($11); truffled pizza with spongy potato-based dough ($16); al dente tortelli stuffed with braised lamb in a light tomato-olive sauce ($17); and an enormous breaded veal chop with roasted potatoes ($34).
Believe it or not, even with pairings from the manageable and affordable Italian wine list, we still had room for desserts like semifreddo with cranberries and pistachio, and a citrus budino with bruléed lemon crème.
Tags: Halloween Hotels / Los Angeles Hotels / Movie Set Hotels / → All Tags
Celebrate Halloween Where 'Ghostbusters' Was Filmed
'Tis the season for a parade of hotel parties. Holiday dinners in the hundred dollar range are just around the corner, but it's Halloween that precedes the hanging of tinsel from marble-tiled lobbies. Most of the upcoming events we've heard of are the standard ballroom/costume/D.J. affairs that attract crowds of 20-somethings. Raucous fun, maybe, but they also tend to bring out scenesters in droves, which leaves those looking to celebrate over classy cocktails in a lurch.
Enter L.A.'s Millennium Biltmore, who is hosting an "All Hallow's Eve" party at their Gallery Bar on October 31st from 4:00 PM to 2:00 AM, and forgoing "sexy nurse" overtures in favor of a vintage vibe. The Millennium may not have haunted hotel room lore like that of The Roosevelt, but it did serve as one of the filming locations for Ghostbusters, if that means anything to you.
Tags: What's On The Block / Whats-on-the-Block-Map / Los Angeles Hotels / Standard Hotels / → All Tags
What's On The Block at the Standard Downtown LA?
We continue our What's On The Block: Los Angeles Edition by heading downtown.
So far this week, we’ve taken you to Santa Monica, the Sunset Strip and Beverly Hills, so we thought we’d end our Los Angeles What’s On The Block series with one of our downtown haunts, The Standard.
Sure, there are newer hotels in the area, but we keep coming back to this Andre Balazs property thanks, in no small part, to its central location in the heart of the downtown. At least, the part of downtown that doesn’t get too scary after dark.
Let’s start right behind the hotel at the LA Public Library and Park. The Central Library, which opened in 1926, is a bona fide Los Angeles landmark. Learn more about the architecture and notable art works of the building on a Docent Tour (our favorites are the scary fairy tale sculptures in the children’s court). Try not to get hit by a skateboarder as you cross the little park for a luxe lunch on the patio at Café Pinot.
Tags: Hotel Closings / Hotel Renovations / Los Angeles Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Dorchester Collection / → All Tags
The Overhaul of the Hotel Bel-Air Begins Today
The iconic 63-year-old Hotel Bel-Air closes today for a massive multimillion-dollar renovation that'll take two years to complete.
Burrowed among the canyons in L.A., the hotel's hosted a slew of stars, from Grace Kelly, Jackie Gleason, Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe to Oprah, Robin Williams, Hillary Swank and Nicole Kidman. Despite its star-packed clientele, the hotel was in desperate need of an Extreme Makeover: Hotel Edition.
To keep its luxury cred, the hotel will renovate its 91 rooms and suites, Champagne Bar, restaurant and private dining rooms. The Hotel Bel-Air also will add 12 villas on it 12-acre grounds and a new spa with seven treatment rooms and three junior spa suites. General manager Tim Lee told the L.A. Times that technology needs to be updated, as 99 percent of guests can't use their cell phones at the hotel. And we won't even get into those caveman-like big-box TVs in the rooms.
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Los Angeles Hotels / Fall Hotels / → All Tags
The Chateau's Bar Marmont Introduces 'Cozy Fall Dishes'
The Chateau Marmont is known more for celebrity sightings and backdoor deal brokering than as a culinary destination, but as fall finally descends on Los Angeles, we found ourselves yearning for the scent of wood smoke (non-wildfire-related, of course!), a nip in the air, and some hearty dishes—even if it is still in the 80’s during the daytime. Luckily, the Chateau’s down-market stepsister just down the driveway, Bar Marmont, is serving up a new fall menu of just what we’re craving.
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / SLS Hotels / Khloe Kardashian / The Kardashians / Los Angeles Hotels / → All Tags
Superficial Love Sells (Magazines): Khloe and Lamar Outside the SLS Hotel
We believe in love at first sight. We also believe in when you know, you know. But do we believe in happily ever after? Well, not necessarily. And our doubts about fairy tale endings plummet when we hear of couples tying the knot after a month of dating.
To be fair, we have a very dear friend who married her husband after just two weeks of dating and a year and a half later, they are still together. But they didn't get a $300,000 advance for photos of their wedding (taken at a Las Vegas wedding chapel) and they didn't film the entire extravaganza for a reality show.
No, that's all Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom, the reality show sister and the Laker player who got married yesterday after just four short weeks of courtship.
Tags: Hotel Rumors / Los Angeles Hotels / Marriott Hotels / Hard Rock Hotels / Hotel Hype / Edition Hotels / → All Tags
Who Will Be Marriott's Neighbor at LA Live: Schrager or Rock Stars?
Curbed LA has some great scoop today on the potential hotel that may open up across from the JW Marriott at LA Live (and also attached, a Ritz-Carlton).
Latest rumor about that mystery AEG-funded hotel--planned for right across the street from LA Live--comes courtesy of Karen Englund, director of sales and marketing for Marriott at LA Live: She tells us that the new hotel will likely either be a Hard Rock (as noted before) or an Ian Schrager hotel.
Now we, like Curbed, read the words Ian Schrager and we immediately thought of Edition Hotels. But we have to remember that Ian still can open up his own independent hotel a la Gramercy Park. But we bet Marriott would much rather an Edition Hotel than a competitor like Hard Rock.
We say? While we would love an Edition to open up in our backyard, a JW Marriott and a Ritz-Carlton might be too many luxury hotel rooms. Besides LA Live fits the Hard Rock brand better. Just our two cents. What do you think?
Tags: NFL Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / Los Angeles Hotels / Kimpton Hotels / → All Tags
MNF is Back and The Palomar Westwood Has The 'Home Field Advantage'
All is right in our world again now that football season has officially kicked off. And while we’re still in the throes of scouting out our preferred 2009/10 season game day destinations, we’ve stumbled upon one Monday Night football promotion that sounds really delish. At BLVD 16 at the Hotel Palomar Westwood, Chef Simon Dolinky will be offering the "Home Field Advantage"every Monday Night during football season.
Okay. The name doesn’t exactly convey the coolness of this special, but for folks who want a little somethin’ somethin’ more inspired than you your standard deep fryer football fare, Dolinky is serving up appetizers and drink specials inspired by the game’s home team every Monday night during football season. Cool, right? We think so.
Tags: Hollywood Hotels / Los Angeles Hotels / The Killers / Hotel bars / → All Tags
A 'Killer' Night Out At The Hollywood Heights Hotel
Warning: excessive use of Killers song titles ahead!
You might not be cool enough to score passes backstage at The Killers’ September 16th show at the Hollywood Bowl, but at least you can head to the Stoli Vodka-hosted after party at the Hideout at the Hollywood Heights Hotel.
"Somebody Told Me" that from 10:00pm to midnight, wired concertgoers can avoid the post-show traffic and retire to the nearby (within walking distance!) Hollywood Heights Hotel, where they can enjoy specialty “Killer” cocktails featuring Stoli Vodka (of course) while listening to The Killers’ albums.
Tags: Hotel Renovations / Los Angeles Hotels / Downtown Los Angeles Hotels / → All Tags
The Los Angeles Athletic Club Goes Old-School and High Class
Expect more old-school, gentleman's club touches once the new LACC rooms are unveiled
Last week we brought you news that Los Angeles Athletic Club—which we were surprised to learn was a hotel, too—was offering a Dodger Deal Package to baseball aficionados who wanted an MVP experience at their next game. We also pointed out that, despite the club's amenities, Downtown LA isn't yet the bustling destination that Westward neighborhoods, namely Hollywood, West Hollywood, and even Santa Monica, are.
That said, we've received exclusive news and details about a full-fledged cosmetic renovation to the LACC that should make the prospect of staying Downtown much more appealing. Well-regarded restaurants, like the recently opened Downtown outpost of Chaya, and rich theater culture are drawing formerly hesitant visitors to an area that's in the throes of a Renaissance period. Plus, there's a flock of curious moviegoers who saw (500) Days of Summer, are newly fascinated by the neighborhood (where the movie took place), and may need a place to stay if they're going to explore it.
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