Montage Beverly Hills

The Montage Laguna Beach is one of my favorite resorts on the west coast but I hadn't seen the sister L.A. property until a recent whirlwind visit to L.A. I stayed two nights at the Montage Beverly Hills and it was relaxing and the perfect location for my business meetings all over L.A. My room felt like the best guest room at a Beverly Hills mansion. I paid, including tips for each time I needed my car, about $100 for two nights of valet parking, but there really is no other option. Such is L.A.

An outpost of Scott Conant's Scarpetta, which started in New York and is famous for the tomato-basil spaghetti, is attached to the hotel, and has a great bar. The hotel's Parq Bar is also nice but the most buzz is coming from £10 (Ten Pound), a discreet whisky bar above Scarpetta. You'll need a reservation to get in, which is tough to get. I missed it because it is closed on Sunday and Monday nights, when I was there.

I also loved having dinner with family at legenday L.A. Italian spot Dan Tana's, less than 2 miles from the Montage. I LOVE Showtime's The Big C, and one of my TV crushes, Reid Scott, who plays Laura Linney's doctor, was there having dinner.

F for Fitzsimmons on the pillow

 

Lobby

Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula, Beverly Hills

I don't think anything can go wrong at afternoon tea. I'm not nearly as chic and civilized as the tradition is - but I definitely feel like I am when I partake. Last year, I traveled to India with a fabulous writer and we hadn't seen each other since saying good-bye at the airport. She lives in L.A. so we decided to meet at The Peninsula in Beverly Hills for tea. There was champagne, scones, tea sandwiches, a monogrammed napkin with my initial, and hours of catching up about new business projects and juicy gossip with a wonderful friend. The Peninsula is one of my favorite hotels in L.A. - one of the city's top suites is the Garden Suite with a newly redone 1,000 square foot outdoor area with comfy seating and a fire pit. I just hate leaving.

The outdoor area of the Garden Suite

The Beverly Hilton: The Hotel Host to the Golden Globes

"There hasn't been a celebrity in Hollywood for the past 50 years that hasn't been to The Beverly Hilton at least several times...it is the gathering place of the stars." ~Dale Olson, legendary Hollywood publicist

*Update on February 11, 2012*-The hotel's Hollywood history added a tragic chapter today when Whitney Houston's body was discovered in Room 434 at The Beverly Hilton.  She was 48.

In honor of the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards last night, I thought I'd write about my visit to the star-studded Beverly Hilton, which has hosted the Globes since 1961 in its International Ballroom.  The Beverly Hilton has stood watch over Beverly Hills for decades and has major Hollywood panache. And even better--room rates are more accessible than nearby hotels because there are nearly 600 rooms to fill.

The Aqua-Star Pool from AboveThe exterior is a step back in time, to the 1950s when it was first opened by Conrad Hilton.  But you'd never know by the interior--rooms are plush and comfortable with great work space and flat-screen TV's.  There's still old glamour, like the famed outdoor swimming pool next to Trader Vic's, home to the original Mai Tai invented by Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron.

Trader Vic's LoungeThe Aqua-Star Pool is the largest in Beverly Hills, and it was the favorite of famous swimmer and actress Esther Williams. In 1999, Angelina Jolie jumped in the pool wearing her Randolph Duke gown after winning for her role in Gia.

The Aqua-Star Pool

Poolside TablesSome rooms have expansive views over downtown and the hills of L.A.

View of Downtown L.A.

 

 

When's the best time to stay at the Beverly Hilton? Well if you want to experience the Golden Globes red carpet arrivals firsthand, YOU CAN!  A package the weekend of the show includes a two-night minimum stay, breakfast, a gourmet box lunch, and most importantly--RED CARPET seating so you can see who is wearing what.  Start planning for next year!

And don't miss Le Chateau, the wine and chocolate boutique run by sommelier Georges Serna in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton. Beautiful!

Le Chateau

Dinner at Mr. C Cipriani Hotel Beverly Hills (But We Should Have Gone Elsewhere)

While in L.A., we gathered a great group for dinner.  But if only we had gone somewhere else besides the Mr. C Hotel.  The Cipriani name is legendary & this is their first foray as hoteliers, opening a 138-room property in an odd area where Tower Beverly Hills used to be.  Doing what I do, I had heard a lot of pre-opening buzz and was excited to see what they created in Beverly Hills.  I can't speak for the rooms yet, but based on dinner, I don't really care about the hotel.
Exterior of the hotel Our well-traveled group agreed that it was the most inconsistent service we had every experienced.  And not one of us has a tendency to complain.
I'm not going to go into the cost because we knew what we were getting into by going to a Cipriani restaurant. But still...$18 for a tiny scoop of green beans, corn & tomatoes?

Our group of 6 (myself, boyfriend, best-selling author, three fabulous Hollywood types) sat down & here's how it went:

• Throughout the night, 7 people came to our table. We weren't ever sure who our main server was.
• Each person that came to our table had no idea what the other 6 had already asked us
• Drinks remained empty even if we asked-two bottles of water that we asked for 3 times never arrived
• 5 different people brought us the main entrees and mixed up every one of them
• One friend at the table didn't get his entree & it took 30 minutes for it to come out (after we were basically done)
• When his food did come out, it was undercooked so he didn't eat it. But we couldn't find anyone to tell, and the bus boy took an untouched plate of food away so no one noticed he never ate it
• Main things: Inconsistent, harried service. Absurdly expensive for what it is. Forgotten food & drinks. Never, ever an apology. Way too many people coming to our table.

Still, we had a wonderful, long dinner with great people, all with fun stories to tell.  We ended up staying for hours and just laughing about everything. Maybe they are still having just-opened jitters.  I'll be excited to hear what others think.

The Mosaic Hotel in Beverly Hills

This week, I got invited on two incredible trips-of-a-lifetime.  And I received a call from a hotel that a guest had booked a room because they read about it on this blog!  I also spent three great days exploring L.A. and meeting old and new friends.

Back in February, I toured The Mosaic Hotel in Beverly Hills with the nice general manager and left thinking it was a charming boutique hotel in a great location.  But I never wrote anything until now, which will unfortunately be reporting on a bad experience. The room cost over $400 a night.

I've now stayed in hundreds of hotels and am not known as a complainer.  But I couldn't believe the generally indifferent and lazy service by most of the staff.

When we arrived, we were in a hurry to get to a dinner at Mr. C's and by the time we got back, we were exhausted. I noticed how flat the pillows were but it wasn't until the next morning that the kinks in our neck made us take a closer look.

Mosaic bedPicture cardboard pillows and when you take the pillowcase off, they are stained and look 25 years old. Leaving that morning, we passed an open room and noticed they had fluffy pillows.  How did we get stuck with paper-thin hard ones?  My boyfriend asked for new pillows and this is what he was told.

• "Oh yeah, you have to ask for the nicer pillows.  See, we are across the street from a back surgery center and a lot of our guests are patients & will stay here after surgery. They like those harder pillows." 

Why would they tell us that? Does my healthy, handsome boyfriend look like he just had back surgery and needed those pillows? It was a comically bad response that really made us laugh. 

LobbyHere's a pro-tip at this hotel: the front desk guy is also the valet. When you pull up to the front of the hotel, he's supposed to come out from behind the desk and park your car for you. That wasn't clear in the slightest. When the Mosaic lot was full and there wasn’t any Valet guy to be found, we parked our car at the parking lot next door.  We were then verbally reprimanded by the front desk guy (nowhere to be found earlier) for not allowing him to park it:

• "You what? You can't park there. Are you serious? You’re going to get towed and it’s a little sketchy. I'm the valet guy too. I was sitting right here.  Did you even pull up?”

A “sketchy” lot next door? Ok. The rest of our stay we just parked it ourselves and were charged for one night of parking.

I did fall on the bed laughing for a second time when the phone rang.  Instead of a normal ring, a loud, booming "ARE YOU THERE? ARE YOU THERE? ARE YOU THERE? ARE YOU THERE?" echoed throughout the room.  That was the ring!!

The hairdryer was also missing the front face so I could turn it on but not fix the controls. The Internet, while free, was extremely slow and I couldn't use it to work.

PoolThe hotel is within walking distance to Rodeo Drive & a Starbucks. Bulgari bath products were a nice touch and I did like the small pool area. But I can’t recommend the Mosaic.  So disappointing for such a great location!