Hotel Crush: a vehement, furious, downright pathological appreciation for hotel design and culture
Any excuse to sip bubbly will do, so it was Grammy weekend on which we leaned for a pleasant drenching of champagne and dessert. The setting was Primary Wave at SLS, a hotel that nearly verges on a lifestyle for a brigade of patrons who rely on staples like cotton candy foie gras and liquid nitrogen-chilled cocktails. It was a quick tour through and we were sated…until next year’s crop of novelty stirs our cravings.
Party Lobby and Patio Dessert Table:
The Kitchen:
Paella and Dessert:
We’ve mentioned before that we are blisteringly DIY about some things (manicures, lemonade, VIP birthday cakes) but there is one thing we absolutely cannot do for ourself: a massage.
And for that we go to Moeul.
We discovered Moeul last spring on a day when the knots in our back and neck were so tight that it was reminiscent of a car accident injury, and, again having one of those weeks, we booked in for a reset. With the enthusiasm of an aesthetician performing extractions (“got one!”), Moeul defeated the knots between our shoulder blades with deep Shiatsu and Swedish massage, rewarding our muscles with an application of cooling peppermint oil.
We don’t get massages for relaxation, so the balance of our Blissage was active (and sometimes downright forceful). But the reward is a month knot-free, until the ravages of our punishing desk chair converge on that spot in the middle of our back…
The Sitting Room in the Ladies Locker Room at Bliss Spa Hollywood (those missing brownies were ours…):
The Sitting Area and Lockers in the Ladies Locker Room at Bliss Spa Hollywood:
The Sitting Area and Vanity/Sink Station:
The Steam Showers (Left) Sauna Area (Right) and Locker Room Amenities at Bliss Spa Hollywood:
We love the Hemingway known to Gerald and Sara Murphy – brooding, ambitious, and calculatingly absorbed in a sort of post-war carelessness. It’s this Hemingway, untainted, that’s arrived in a storefront lounge on Hollywood Blvd. dimly lit (to discourage reading, no doubt) and crushed wall-to-wall in books. The drink menu is as spare as Hemingway’s prose, and our Death In the Afternoon cocktail featured absinthe, sour mix, blackberry juice, and a float of champagne. As undrinkable as the Old Man and the Sea, we gamely downed the glass in three gulps over fast conversation with a party of Munich natives. Our curiosity sated, we cut out before the weekend crowd, borrowing a move from the pages of Hemingway himself.
By Hollywood standards it was a slow drip. A Tuesday or Thursday at the height of summer, a night here or there for the rest of July and August. But with our devotion to Sayers Club deep in full pitch, we’re verging on a level of attendance seen only in educational settings or the workplace. It’s rare that a nightclub is this good, and like the thrill of your first concert or trip backstage, we’re happy to report that it’s downright exhilarating.
Ambience: A black box theater with tufted leather couches, 1920s light fixtures, a gripping sound system, and rigorous sense of lighting nuance. We’ve compared Sayers to a scaled version of the Edison during its moment (Lucent Dossier, 1920s film projected on the walls). Drinks are classic speakeasy, like our favorite, the French 75 (pictured left). A mixed drink made with gin and tart with lemon juice, the slightly sweet concoction is finished with champagne and a strawberry.
DJ: We’re known for DJing three or four genres a night, moving in and out of each at full blast. The same mentality goes here, where the DJ will spin the Ronettes, the Presets, and Biggie in the same half hour. Seamless, and perfectly on point. The late ’90s/early ’00s concept of Eighties night or hip-hop night is completely irrelevant here, and the single-genre boredom is absent as well.
Live Music: The reason everyone is here. Thursday night Sessions and Tuesday night funk are infamously good, with knock-out cover performances that have the entire crowd on their feet, breathless and stunning guest performances (like Prince last Tuesday) that leave everyone feeling smarter, taller, better-looking, and on a bender of good fortune.
Crowd: 100% music. The best parties revolve around a superordinate purpose beyond straight pick-up dynamics. It might be a great DJ or a weekly residency, but everybody is united by something more ephemeral than their next drink.
We’ve said before that all you really need is a sturdy suitcase and some good lingerie. Leaning on this line of thinking is the fall collection from our friends at Agent Provocateur. With brilliant advertising spots and seduction for days, we turn your attention to Autumn-Winter 2011.