Anthea Gerrie Offers Her Insider Guide To West Hollywood, Her Ex-Pat Home For A Decade
It was the first place I laid my head in California and my first home when I was drawn back to live in LA a decade later. So although I am no longer a resident ex-pat, over frequent revisits I have watched West Hollywood evolve from vibrant and creative Los Angeles district to full-fledged city in its own right.
WeHo, as locals now call it, remains as rock’n’roll and as LBGTQ-friendly as it has been for more than half a century, the obvious choice for an eclectic meal out or live entertainment in an intimate setting. But it has also acquired pockets of luxury for those looking for the seal of approval from Michelin and the like – a tough call given its proximity to sketchier Hollywood proper – while remaining less pricey and more happening than its western neighbour, Beverly Hills.
Connecting all three neighbourhoods are Sunset Boulevard on the northern boundary, with the fabulous giant billboards of Sunset Strip defining the WeHo section, and Santa Monica Boulevard running parallel – a mere through-way in Beverly Hills, but once you reach West Hollywood a veritable restaurant row.
It’s vital to visit the Strip and inhale the rarefied atmosphere of a live entertainment hub perched below the most desirable section of the Hollywood Hills, their precipitous streets lined with the gorgeous homes of celebrities and the creatives who help shape their careers.
From here, having taken in a show at the Whisky A Go Go, Viper Room or Comedy Store, head south on La Cienega Boulevard – a thrilling descent by night with the city lights laid out before you – and discover Santa Monica Boulevard, with enticing restaurants beckoning you from both sides of this central junction (La Cienega is a restaurant row in its own right).
A favourite which has made it into the Michelin guide is Connie and Ted’s seafood emporium, a lobster shack moved west from New England which also offers a great take on raw fish. Keep heading east on Santa Monica to discover a celeb tradition – the Formosa Cafe where Sinatra, Elvis and Humphrey Bogart once hung out; expect great cocktails and opulent Chinese interiors.
If you don’t want to leave the Strip for dinner, Ardor, another Michelin favourite, sits at its very edge, hidden within the West Hollywood Edition hotel on the corner of Doheny and Sunset. Here the full spectrum of fine dining delights is served in a gloriously leafy indoor-outdoor setting
.Leave time to discover by daylight the area dubbed the Design District – I have understood why ever since moving into my first West Hollywood apartment overlooking what we called the Blue Whale. This wavy-roofed structure is properly known as the Pacific Design Centre and has been supplemented by equally striking green and red monoliths, their Melrose Avenue site a hive of upscale furniture stores segueing into bohemian fashion boutiques as you continue east. And while it is a few blocks east of the West Hollywood border, The Grove is the most beautiful shopping mall in greater LA.
It’s adjacent to the original Farmers Market, set up in 1934 to showcase the finest produce of local farmers and now also home to food stalls dispensing world as well as American cuisine to be enjoyed alfresco seven days a week. Just south on Fairfax sits one of the city’s most important 21st century cultural attractions – the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, from the folks who brought you the Oscars; an absolute must for any film aficionado.
One of West Hollywood’s most startling evolutions is an expansion in hotel rooms fuelled by the conversion of apartment buildings like the one at 733 West Knoll Drive I first called home – now Le Parc at Melrose.
There’s much to be said for a location close to the junction of Melrose and La Cienega, a classy, walkable corner of WeHo with an intimate, neighbourhood feel, but although it’s more isolated, Petit Ermitage, another apartment conversion perched between Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards, has a special, quite magical atmosphere, offering a cool rooftop restaurant, fitness facilities including morning yoga and great art throughout the premises.
Perhaps the coolest non-boutique hostelry is the Andaz West Hollywood on Sunset Strip itself – known as the Riot House back in the 60s and 70s, when rock bands booked in at the closest hotel to LA’s iconic live music venues(West Hollywood is also home to the legendary Troubadour and Roxy) shamelessly trashed their rooms at the then Hyatt Continental.
Bless Hyatt, they not only hung onto the property but renovated it, wisely closing in the balconies against the potential ambitions of 21st musicians and paying homage to the bad old days in their proudly-named Riot House restaurant, a great place to enjoy breakfast with a view of the Strip.
I do enjoy the Andaz – fun, historic and affordable for such a prime location – but for me it will forever be hard to follow the classy act which is the Michelin-rated Charlie Hotel, an exquisite and secluded cottage complex bought and redeveloped by Charlie Chaplin in which all guests get private kitchens and dining areas in which they can cook and entertain.
It’s within five minutes’ walk of the Schindler House, an incredibly futuristic residence built in 1922 by Rudolph Schindler, one of the great European architects who settled in pre-war southern California, stamping their influence on building design.
But despite its plethora of mid-century modern buildings awash in feature stone walls, West Hollywood also fields a delightfully eclectic American response in architecture inspired by the period fantasies created in the nearby movie studios. Fully-functional follies range from toweringly Gothic apartment buildings dating back to the golden age of Tinseltown to turreted Hansel and Gretel cottages and Moorish mini-mansions.
While the Charlie reminded me of home in England with its villagey cottage clusters and gardens both private and communal, it also closed a circle which started for me on this very street, Sweetzer, one of West Hollywood’s surprisingly quiet residential thoroughfares. A couple of blocks north I found still standing the fine mid-century low-rise apartment complex where I stayed with cousins on my first-ever trip to California and, bewitched by its fairy lights – still a feature of WeHo landscaping – knew immediately I would one day return.
While change on this street and others which became my stomping-ground over the years seems minimal in many ways, one important improvement is the development of once near non-existent public transport. These days frequent buses as well as convertibles ride the glory mile of Sunset Strip, while others stop every few minutes on Santa Monica Boulevard, rapidly connecting the dynamic city with the beautiful Pacific beaches 10 miles to the west.
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Norse Atlantic offers low-cost flights from London to Los Angeles spring through autumn.
Full information and visitors’ guide at Visit West Hollywood
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