90212 Travel Guide
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Note to Kathy Griffin: blue on blue at the Avalon Hotel is now oliverio
Well, this was out of the blue! The blue on blue restaurant (sorry we couldn’t resist!) Kor Hotels’ Avalon Beverly Hills has transformed into oliverio. Still lowercase, we’re not sure why. Taking over from Chef Scott Garrett is new Executive Chef Mirko Paderno, formerly of L.A. hotspots Cecconi’s and All’Angelo. We don’t know what prompted the changeover, but we’ve gotten a first-look at what the new restaurant, which had a "soft opening" this week, will be like.
We have high hopes for Pederno, whose past accolades include "Best New Restaurant of 2007" in Esquire and "Top Ten New Restaurants of the United States" in Gayot. He describes his menu as "Italian food with regional touches." That sounds ambiguous enough to encompass whatever he wants, but some of the dishes we heard about include: tortelli with braised lamb, butter and sage; gnocchetti with fresh tomatoes and smoked mozzarella; and simple dishes like fritto misto, caprese, and salume served with homemade olive foccacia.
The dish with the most pizzazz has to be the chitarra spaghetti with spicy langoustines, which will go for $21, meaning the restaurant is remaining in the same price category as before.
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Jessica Biel / Justin Timberlake / Hotel Restuarants / Beverly Hills Hotels / → All Tags
Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake Do It At The Avalon...Lunch, That Is
This post about Jessica Biel will not harm your computer.
Once again the The Avalon Hotel has proven to be the newest yet randomest hotspot hotel for celebrities. In the past year, Kathy Griffin, Paris Hilton, William Baldwin, Guy Pearce, Eva Longoria and Selma Blair all have been spotted hanging out at the boutique hotel which is located on the corner of Olympic Boulevard and Beverly Drive--far from the secretive hangouts of the Sunset Strip or the posh hotels north of Rodeo Drive.
This time the hotel was graced with the presence of Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake who ate at the hotel's poolside restaurant, Blue on Blue. A source at the hotel sends us this "sighting":
This just in! Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel lunched today (August 27) poolside at Avalon Beverly Hills. According to a hotel guest: “Both dressed as if they had just worked out and ate their entire plates. Justin enjoyed Chicken Paillard and Jessica had a chicken salad.” Jessica Biel is a big fan of Avalon Beverly Hills and was overhead commenting about how she really loves the new look and design of poolside dining area.
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The Avalon Beverly Hills :: Great, If You Bring Earplugs
So last week, we landed a room at the Avalon for just $118 through Hotwire (booking through the hotel direct would have set us back $270). We had high hopes of sharing the poolside with Paris Hilton and Kathy Griffin, thereby scoring our first LA celeb spot. Unfortunately, it was a Monday night, and a quiet one at that. And so, as sod’s law would have it, there were no celebs. Never mind eh? We saw Billy Zane the next day in Bar Marmont. Anyways, here’s how the rest of it went down.
Room Reaction
Lookswise, we loved the trashy-funk, motel throwback vibe of the whole hotel. The room itself was nicely underplayed – no kitschfest here, apart from the colourful bathroom, you wouldn’t know from the inside that you were in a motel-ly place – we liked the random bamboo column in the bathroom and the way the towels were rolled and racked (like the piles of baby towels posh hotels have in their bogs to dry your hands).
But after five minutes in the room, we realised that the walls were paper thin - we could hear our neighbours’ conversations as clear as if we were part of the chat. And they weren’t just bad at keeping noise out – we got a good few whiffs of how said neighbours spent their night, since we got stoned secondhand from the stench of weed filtering through into our bathroom late that night, and showered the next morning to tones of cheap deodorant (we’re hoping that was to cover the smell of weed, not actually for their pits).
Tags: Hotel Renovations / Kor Hotels / Beverly Hills Hotels / Hotel Packages / Hotel Weddings / → All Tags
Maison 140's Redecorating Appointment Coming Up
Like all respectable Beverly Hills ladies, the Kor Hotel Group’s Maison 140 knows that she’s got to schedule a touch-up or two to keep up appearances, so she’s booked herself for a little facelift this October. All 43 rooms will undergo a cosmetic redecoration, and we’re told she’ll look rested and refreshed by December.
We got a sneak peek at the new look—and we’re calling a mix between naughty French maid and doting Miami Beach grandmother. That means classic bark-patterned glossy wallpaper with Parisian marble lamps, plasma flatscreens over pink faux marble desks, a mirrored wall reflecting a lushly tufted headboard, and a Louis XIV chair with a mohair throw to keep you warm when there’s a draft.
All that and more was handpicked as usual by Kors in-house designer Kelly Wearstler, and we haven’t even told you about the Chinoiserie-chic Bar Noir downstairs that’s a cross between an absinthe bar and a Boca Raton cocktail party.
Tags: Hotel Packages / Hotel Deals / Beverly Hills Hotels / Thompson Hotels / → All Tags
Swank Summer Deal At The Thompson Beverly Hills
Even celebrity business must be slacking these days since the see-and-be-seen Thompson Beverly Hills and its restaurant, BondST, are launching a joint mid-week deal for guests this summer.
When you check in Sunday-Tuesday and stay two nights in one of the Thompson’s King Deluxe rooms (comfy, but not spacious), you get a third night for free and a $100 food and beverage credit at BondST. You must book your room by June 30, and it is good for stays through September 7 based on availability.
The grand total comes out to $575 plus taxes and gratuities, so it’s still not for the light of wallet, but considering the other options in the area, it’s still a decent deal. Plus, you get a sushi dinner at BondST to boot. At least, most of a sushi dinner, since the menu is a tad on the expensive side — but still.
To reserve, call the hotel at (310) 273-1400 and mention the code: SUM09.
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Perez Should Set Up Shop at the Avalon Beverly Hills
It is widely known that celeb snark-blogger Perez Hilton used to bring his laptop to an LA Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to set up an "office" from which to blog every day, and this particular Coffee Bean location has served up caffeine to many a celeb in its day. It was a place to see, be seen, and to glimpse the more-than-occasional famous face while Perez worked diligently to Photoshop white stuff on said famous faces.
But we have a suggestion for Perez: perhaps blue on blue restaurant Avalon Beverly Hills may be the ideal new celeb-heavy HQ from which to conduct your important daily reporting, don'tchya think?
We've already declared it the new celeb hotspot — and the celeb concentration was even heavier than usual last week.
Tags: Hotel Happy Hours / Peninsula Hotels / Beverly Hills Hotels / → All Tags
New Rooftop Cocktail Hour At The Peninsula Beverly Hills
If you’re anything like us, and enjoy the finer things in life without necessarily having the spare cash to indulge in them (especially these days!), the Peninsula Beverly Hills is launching a new Summer Cocktail Hour so you can swan around rubbing shoulders with media moguls and celebrity wannabes without shelling out for one of the pricey rooms.
Starting today and on every Thursday through Labor Day, this new happy hour will be held from 5:00-7:00pm at the hotel's recently renovated Roof Garden bar. Guests can enjoy cocktails, glasses of wine and beer for half-price while milling around the teak bar or fire pit (summer nights can be chilly here in LA.) The deal also includes perhaps that most elusive of L.A. perks: complimentary valet
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Inside The Avalon Hotel's blue on blue Restaurant
You don’t have to be Kathy Griffin with her bestie Paris Hilton to enjoy the poolside cabanas at blue on blue, the restaurant at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills.
The hotel, which used to house aspiring starlets in the ’50’s, is arranged around a classic kidney-shaped pool. Though you can eat inside at blue on blue’s main dining room, we’d suggest calling ahead and trying to book one of the cabanas outside so you can lounge while you eat…and judge everyone’s swimwear, of course.
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Thompson Hotels / Beverly Hills Hotels / → All Tags
Bond St. at Thompson Beverly Hills Dines for a Cause
Are you based around Los Angeles and consistently jealous of all the fun that New York's hotel restaurants get to have during the semi-annual Restaurant Week? Well, thanks to "Dining Out for Life," it looks like you west coasters will have a chance at your own gourmet action on Thursday, April 30.
Instead of simply discounting meals to the delight of patrons, the participating restaurants will instead maintain regular pricing and donate 25% of each bill to Project Angel Food, which cooks and delivers over 11,000 meals weekly to homebound people with terminal illnesses.
Our pick for the event — book now — is BOND ST inside of the Thompson Beverly Hills. They'll only be serving dinner on that night, which makes it extra exclusive (like you need a reason to feel important in Beverly Hills). Arrive a little early and take pre-dinner drinks by the rooftop pool, because that's how you roll in the 90210. To find out more about Project Angel Food, visit their website and call BOND ST to reserve your spot at 310.601.2255.
[Photo: Bond Street Restaurant]
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Tori Spelling / Beverly Hills Hotels / Hotel Parties / → All Tags
Memo to Tori Spelling: Thompson BH is Not Really a Family Hotel
Hi, Tori Spelling? We have a question. And no, before you shoo us away, this has nothing to do with your mother, the conditions under which you and your hubby got together, or your current appearance — heck, we're not even going to bring up that television program of which we no longer speak; you know, the one that may or may not have involved you, um, attempting to run a B&B. No, no. We are not concerning ourselves with that business right now.
What we'd like to know is this: why, why, why in the world — of all the family-friendly, perfectly lovely hotels in the greater Los Angeles area — would you select the Thompson Beverly Hills to throw yourself a little release party for your new book, Mommywood? You know, the book that "tells the hilarious and humbling stories of life as a mom in the limelight" — that moms everywhere are going to be reading?
The Thompson Beverly Hills, as much as we like it, is not really a family sorta place. You know, not really a hotel you wanna bring the kiddies for playtime and such (even though it appears you did bring the kiddies). A little too hip and trendy, we think. Although...with the recent shift of all the wild celebrity happenings from the Roosevelt and Thompson BH to the Sunset Tower and the Avalon, maybe we're totally wrong and you're ahead of the curve on this one, Tori. Maybe soon Thompson will be packed full of families with kids and all the hip-and-trendies will flee. But, um, we don't think so.
PS. We're mostly just kidding. Bring your kids wherever you want. Love the dress! Ciao!
[Photo: Gossip Girls]
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Beverly Hills Hotels / Hotel News / Los Angeles Hotels / → All Tags
When Did the Avalon Beverly Hills Become the New Celeb Hotspot?
Alright, well, it's clear that the celeb-spotting game is a-changing in the LA area. Until recently, we were pretty convinced that dropping into the Chateau Marmont and the Hollywood Roosevelt would sort of guarantee at least one celeb sighting, if not a whole handful. If we were despo, we'd just hang in the Sunset Tower for a few hours until Jennifer Aniston inevitably rolled by.
But, like we noticed last week, it's looking like there's a bit of a shift happening. Last week, there was some debauchery going down at the Sunset Tower and we wondered if it was becoming the new Hollywood Roosevelt (what? Someone was carried out on a stretcher; we're allowed to call that debaucherous), and three celebs — granted, they were the sort of D-listy Paris Hilton, Kathy Griffin and Terrence Howard — were spotted at the Avalon Beverly Hills in one shot.
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Paris Hilton / Kathy Griffith / Kor Hotels / Beverly Hills Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
'D-List BFFs' Paris Hilton and Kathy Griffin Spotted Poolside at Avalon Hotel
A hotel guest snapped this photo of Paris Hilton and "My Life on the D-List's" Kathy Griffin sauntering around the pool at the Avalon Hotel. Paris, fresh off the her Hawaii trip, was helping Kathy out by filming an appearance on her show at the hotel's pool area, Blue on Blue. Here is the scoop from the guest:
Paris and Kathy interacted well - talked for a good 30-40 min in a nice poolside cabana at blue on blue. Funny that Kathy G was waiting in lobby for Paris to join her to walk out around the pool to the cabana - and Paris finally came out in her bikini - spent a minute or so checking herself out in the mirror screen by the front door - finally was ready - a bunch of people were telling her she looked fab - and Kathy G immediately yelled "thank you" and "I know"!!! It got a lot of laughs. Kathy was really nice to everyone - talking and interacting. Paris - kept to herself and on-task.
Apparently, Hustle n' Flow's Terrance Howard was also at the hotel and popped in on the shoot to say hello to Paris and Kathy. Just another day in Beverly Hills folks!
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