Hollywood

Our Favorite Hotel Summer Drinks

August 25, 2011 D.C., Hollywood, Palm Springs, The Beat

The hotel cocktail can be overpriced, rushed, and cranked out with the same care as a beer on tap. But it can also be deliciously reviving, the perfect complement to a sunny afternoon or evening outdoors. Here are our favorites to move you gently through the last few weeks of scorchingly pleasant weather.

The Parker Palm Springs – Fresh Squeezed Lemonade: We love the cold, tart taste of fresh squeezed lemonade and the Lemonade Stand at the Parker is devoted solely to this. With poolside ordering and shady lounge chairs, this is our favorite setting for an hour drowned in our Kindle and some Balzac.

W Hollywood – Berry Caipirinha: A good caipirinha is neither too sweet nor too sour, and the W Hollywood has struck the perfect balance of both. We love the addition of muddled strawberries which nearly turns the drink from a cocktail to a Jamba Juice.

W D.C. – Mixed Berry Mojito: Nothing seems more decadent than sipping a mint and berry cocktail on a weekday afternoon against the backdrop of snipers patrolling the rooftop of the White House. We love this refreshing cocktail for all the reasons we love mojitos (mint, lime) and berries (sweet, slightly acidic).

Squeezing the Lemon

August 17, 2011 Hollywood, The Beat

Summer days are hot, smothering, and oppressively wonderful, and we’re devastated when they’re gone. (Not entirely gone, as temperate weather in Southern California ensures, but not 80, with fresh lemonade, night swims, and pool parties..) With a month and a half of deluxe summering to squeeze, we’re working poolside and reporting vigorously, determined to gulp every last drop. Today’s mission: a sunny lounge chair at the W Hollywood rooftop, and a plate of our favorite ceviche tacos.

We loaded our Kindle, packed our notebook, and headed to the 12th floor rooftop pool. Swatting past tables of posturing and big moves that come standard in this town, we enlisted the hostess in our quest for a sunny lounge chair. (The one on the end near the bar? Perfect.) Our afternoon passed in a blitz of heat and plunge into a new book, and we emerged as satiated and tranquilized as a Day 3 vacationer.

Our advice? The vacation you need just might be in you own city. And it’s nearly effortless to take it.

The W Hollywood rooftop pool is open daily from 11am-6pm (though we don’t recommend weekends).

Sayers Club

July 15, 2011 Hollywood, Speakeasy Swank, The Beat

We remember sleepy weekday evenings in the Cahuenga corridor when you could still find street parking and grab a martini for less than $10. Those days are as over as Spider Club, but what’s lost has been gained in swinging pendant lights and the refreshingly good sound system of the new spot called Sayers. References to the Edison and PDT are liberal, and It’s rare to find DJing or cocktailing this solid in Hollywood (anymore). We love the blitz on our tongue of the French75, a champagne flute drizzled with lemon juice and perfectly in beat with our Tuesday night.

Bliss Hollywood

July 4, 2011 Bliss, Hollywood, Spaaah, The Beat

Happy 4th of July! Oh my. The brownies, the champagne, the smell of blood orange + white pepper. . . and a luxuriously satiating Elemis Tri-Enzyme Facial from our favorite Hollywood spa. This 60-minute resurfacing treatment brutalizes dead skin cells and restores hydration. The two peels were so swift and results-oriented that we could see a difference right after and overall improvement in skin clarity for nearly two weeks. A side benefit of this facial? The wonderful aromas of Elemis’s famed skincare line, with enough ginger and mint to revive the laziest of holiday afternoons.

Le Posh Salon

May 25, 2011 Hollywood, Spaaah, The Beat

A visit to a new spa is like a new crush – the rush, the anticipation, the comparison to ones prior. Our curiosity was piqued on many drives down Sunset Blvd. as we watched Le Posh Salon grow out of an unwieldy streetcorner on a frantic rush hour corridor. We hesitated on the bright neon sign outside, but we’re not one to judge on externals alone. The interior is stunning – bright, spacious, full of light, and frosted with the kind of orange you want to paint on your fingernails and wear as dangly earrings.

We were greeted with a glass of Veuve (just our style!) and called leisurely to our appointment with Tisha, the massage coordinator. Music in spas is a topic we’ll cover later, but we were wholly impressed by the ambient music selection during our 60 minutes. Blissful, soothing, but neither too organic or too sycophantic-female-singer. The deep pressure and tension-relieving strokes of Swedish massage had us nearly asleep and our hour felt luxuriously longer.

We followed our massage with another glass of Veuve and a pedicure with Malvina in the brightest pink we could scavenge. Good pedicures in Los Angeles are a dime a dozen, but a truly outstanding one is as rare as Laurent Perrier by the glass. Our feet looked and felt amazing after (“are those still ours?”) and the perfect polish lasted for weeks.