Anti-Social Club: SoCal’s Boutique Hotels Just Want to Be Your (Very Cool) Living Room
By: Janet Mercel
Something has happened to the hotel hotspot. Hospitality used to be about drinking the drink and tasting the food. Not knowing exactly what you were walking into ahead of time was part of the fun, before cocktail menus and powder room wallpaper were selected solely for photogenics. The concept of mystery has been gone for a while, but a host of small hotels in and around Los Angeles are getting creative in bringing it back. Privacy is at a premium, if the brouhaha around the opening of San Vicente Bungalows last year is any indication. Guests Only restaurants and bars are the new normal, and if a hotel isn’t actually private, it feels like it is, or at least as though you’re relatively protected and experiencing something individual.
Curated visual moments are just as valuable as ever, but now it’s more about being in the moment. At Korakia Pensione, a ridiculously beautiful hideaway in Palm Springs, they told me, “We want something left to the imagination. It’s so much more special to see it for the first time.” Branding collabs on everything from luxe toiletries to top-tier interior design and cult-following food & bev programming gives people who follow that kind of thing 5-reasons-in-1 to go, and everyone else to keep coming back.
The Prospect Hollywood | Whitley Heights
The glamorous, Martyn Lawrence Bullard-designed Prospect opened on Oscar weekend, and most appropriately, hosted the producers of Best Picture Parasite, among its first guests, and is soaked in as much stardust as you’d expect from the man who decorated the homes of Cher, the Osbournes and Tommy Hilfiger. The restored Colonial with the shiny red door stands out in the sleepy neighborhood of Whitley Heights, (I know this because I walk by it every day on my way to the gym), and you’d never guess the Kodak is just down the hill. The teeny, jade green-lacquered bar is currently guests only but eventually they’ll be inviting the neighborhood in, and this spring we can expect caviar and oysters night in the courtyard garden, or maybe Jamón slicing and Rioja, depending on what sure-to-be-brilliant local restaurant partnership they settle on.
Guests Only Access (for now) | 24 Rooms
Perks: Membership access to NeueHouse Hollywood a mile away; Tartine Bakery breakfast pastry; Diptyque candles, (custom scent only otherwise available at the Waldorf)
Surfrider | Malibu
There is no shortage of optimal views on the west coast, and hotels seem to have the monopoly on vantage points, but this one takes the cake. Formerly a dilapidated 1950’s motel, refurbed by architect and native Californian Matthew Goodwin and his Aussie wife, Emma Crowther, the lofty structure is fully about the all-day rooftop restaurant and bar. (The Pacific, yards away across the PCH, is mind boggling, and I refused to ruin it by snapping it with my iPhone. You just have to go.) The Surfrider is pure, Woodstock-era surf culture, and it’s also one of the most comforting spaces I walked into. The staff of Golden State sun children made me feel immediately welcome, the bleached out living room with its coffee bar and record player feels like a real home, and if you’re going to spend a chill Sunday morning waking up in Malibu and nursing your tea or Ayurvedic tonic in the sun, I suggest you do it here.
Guests Only Access | 20 Rooms
Perks: Grown Alchemist Organic Skincare; Parachute robes; Vittoria Coffee, LOVE Yoga; access to Malibu Health Club and Soul Cycle.
Hotel 850 SVB | West Hollywood
The white clapboard house on a quiet block of San Vicente Boulevard reminds me of rolling up to my grandmother’s in salty, seaside Gloucester, MA, an effect designer Rita Konig and hotelier Jeff Klein seem to encourage. The lower-key companion to Klein’s members-only Bungalows nearby, guests pour themselves cocktails from a vintage liquor cupboard in the living room and brew tea in the marigold painted kitchen. There’s even a rustic wood dining table for community meals, or your next dinner party. It’s all wonderfully beachy, and Peter Dunham’s Fig Leaf textiles make the simple rooftop a sunset-watching oasis by way of Spanish villa, (Hollywood loves an iconic botanical print.)
Tip: Reserve the Petite Duplex if you can; the double-decker suite is tucked under an eave in the original historic bungalow and feels like a private loft. (But maybe avoid the first floor room in the lobby; the walls were a tad too thin to block out ambient comings and goings.)
Guests Only Access | 23 Rooms
Perks: BTL SVC pre-batched cocktails minibar; access to SVB Bungalows; in-room yoga brick + mat
The Tuck | Downtown LA
If 850 SVB is your eccentric relative, The Tuck is your cool, vaguely annoyed younger cousin, which is to say, awesome. Its owner, Argentine Chef Juan Pablo, built the hotel for a new generation of traveler, one that eschews old school traditions like concierge and room service. As of March 1, 2020 the spot operates with self-check in, (although there’s always someone on call if needed), and is finished in the grey washed, noir chic of a David Fincher movie. The Spring Street spot is everything we love about any downtown, be it New York or Los Angeles. When I asked Pablo about those that still want a certain kind of hospitality hand-holding, he shrugs. “That’s not really our customer,” he says. “A lot of people are self-sufficient and private, they don’t want constant interaction. You can always come down to the bar if you want to be around something.” That would be the new speakeasy and venue, Night Night, off the lobby, complete with a disco happy hour from 7 to 10 PM.
Open to everyone | 14 rooms
Perks: Cult favorite Uncle Paulie’s Deli, newly opened in the hotel’s street level, serves the bar and is open for breakfast and lunch, with a take-away coffee window.
Silver Lake Pool & Inn | Silver Lake
Palisociety hotel group debuts another gorgeous spot, but this one has a whole new vibe. Partnering with Timberlane developers, (co-owner of beloved Botanica restaurant), and Venice Beach design firm, Electric Bowery, (NeueHouse, Bluestone Lane), they reimagined a 1980’s motel into a splashy-tiled Mexican Modernist retreat for travelers, and a very chilled out, mini-resort for locals. (The elevated pool and terrace helps.) There’s not a whole lot over this way in terms of hotels, and the SLPI fills a community void, along with introducing one of the neighborhood’s best new restaurants, Marco Polo. The open air bar spills into the white stucco garden in a maze of exterior staircases, and the cocktails alone are a draw. There’s four different kinds of spritzes, and a Cynar and grapefruit cocktail that tastes exactly like Swedish fish dipped in sea salt, while Italian classics like linguine and olive oil cake pair with exotics like Kanpachi sashimi with parsnip hay.
Open to everyone | 54 rooms
Perks: Event programming with local record label, We Are Hear; in-room Nespresso machines; ongoing nightly specials (Mini Martini + Music Mondays and Floaty Fridays: pool float + ice cream float happy hour); very pet friendly.
Gold Diggers | East Hollywood
This place is entirely its own animal. Part recording studio, part bar/live venue, part hotel, it’s basically a residency for musicians and the people who love them. The owners collaborated with design firm Night Palm Studio to refurb the former production/sound studio/bikini bar into a recording complex with 9 studios, a soundstage, and a boutique hotel with cushy pastel rooms and a rotating cast of local artists to compliment the graffiti Slayer left behind on wall. (They tell me Joni Mitchell, The Doors, and Guns & Roses were all here.) With a clientele that is so far “60% recording artists”, who write music, practice and record all day, perform new material in the bar downstairs at night, and hang out in the lobby suite/green room in their down time, (plus a staff of sound buffs that is way warmer and more welcoming than you might imagine), this is where your best Penny Lane dreams become a reality.
Perks: VIP guest passes; white noise machines + earplugs, (necessary); Pleasure Chest fun kit; custom SHAG beard oil + room essence.
Open to everyone | 11 Rooms
The Charlie | West Hollywood
This place has been around a bit longer than the others, an original Spanish Hollywood bungalow hotel, and it has pure charm to thank. From 1924 to 1936, it was all owned by Charlie Chaplin, who lived in the main house, rented the rest, (and must have made one hell of a landlord.) Each suite, (The Marilyn, The Steve McQueen), is more temporary residence than wellness hotel experience. What it lacks in amenities, it makes up for in ambience, with a drop-dead courtyard of brick paths, fireplace, arches and elaborate fountain. If you want to grab a few friends and create your own little world for a few days, (or hide away in solitude finishing that screenplay), this is where to do it.
Guests Only Access | 14 suites
Perks: A few blocks from everything on Melrose; washer, dryer and full kitchen in every suite.
AURIC ROAD | Outside LA
AURIC ROAD is a collection of “petite resorts” with very different personalities, always on the dreamiest properties with a modernized, immersive experience, be it meditation and yoga, cruiser bikes, or local guides to show you the best hike or pristine surfing spot. Both locations are adults only, with hot, fresh ground coffee delivered to your suite (or villa) every morning, and home-cooked breakfast on the house, (or blue majik almond milk if that’s more your thing.) These two spots outside L.A. are worth the trip.
Korakia Pensione | Palm Springs
The two neighboring villas that make up the property, the 1924 Moroccan and the 1930’s Mediterranean, originally housed the painter and explorer, Gordon Coutts, and silent film star, J. Carol Naish, respectively. They were notorious havens for their musician and artist friends on escape from the city, and it’s easy to imagine the original hosts doing the traditional Moroccan tea service to greet guests, or projecting films in the desert courtyards, where the view is one of the most striking I’ve ever seen. (The two swimming pools are nestled in the bowl of Tahquitz Canyon, and the resulting effect of the rising mountains is surreal.) Tip: Don’t forget to raid your wine cave before you pack the car, the resort is BYOB.
Guests Only Access | 16 Mediterranean villas, 12 Moroccan villas
Hotel Joaquin | Laguna Beach
Something about the O.C. territory and immaculate privacy here gives serious off-the-grid vibes: this place is truly a step away from the hustle and bustle. It’s generally pretty quiet, regardless of how full it is, and the attention the staff is able to provide is noticeable; organic wine tastings and discussions on specialty cocktails, dining on the pool terrace with a bananas view of the Pacific, spacious, breezy rooms, and a surfer staff that sets you up on the sand with all the beach chairs, flippers, and paddleboards you could want make the hospitality here worth its weight in gold.
Guest Only Access | 22 Rooms
