Pendry West Hollywood

Soaring above the Sunset Strip, Pendry West Hollywood is the Los Angeles lair if you’re in search of a room with a view: Downtown, the Wilshire Corridor, Sunset Boulevard and the Hollywood Hills all form the assorted backdrops to the spacious rooms and suites. With well-heeled neighbours (Beverly Hills to the west, the Hollywood Hills to the north), West Hollywood has remained a little grittier, partly due to its role as LA’s nightlife hub. Inside the hotel though, grit is switched for glitz, thanks to Martin Brudnizki’s opulent interiors.

The entrance is grand and glamorous, with a luminous sculpture shining away, glossy checkerboard floors, plush mid-century-modern furniture, bold abstract artworks and abundant art deco accents. The hotel stays true to its neighborhood’s late-night roots, though, with venues serving drinks until the small hours at weekends – you can even have your welcome drink spiked if you take it along to a bar with the secret word of the day. WeHo may be overflowing with music venues, but there’s one right here at the Pendry, too – recent stars to grace its stage have included Jeff Goldblum and Nicole Scherzinger. In members’ club the Britely, hotel guests have special access to some areas with advance booking, including the bowling alley and restaurant. I wasn’t expecting to get much sleep.

There was something filmic about the whole experience. I got into the golden lift, and then walked through the hallway, with its peach-colored walls, and rich navy and soft grey zebra-print carpet. I’d never seen a corridor quite like it before. In my room, there was lots of marble and gold, and a contemporary chandelier with clustered globes casting a warm glow. 

Once I managed to successfully change out of the seductively soft and snug bathrobe (no mean feat considering how cosseting it was), I headed out to K-Town for Korean barbecue to start my LA food journey. The night ended up a little more lively than expected, but all you need to know is that should any shenanigans occur, and you're feeling it the next day, you’re in the ultimate place to burst back to life. The Pendry is all about the rooftop — Angelenos love their rooftops, and the Pendry is well-known as an excellent one. The pool catches the light for most of the day, so I spent hours there, dipping in and out of it, with brief periods basking in the glorious rays. 

The food offering is solid. The hotel’s restaurant is Merois by Wolfgang Puck, who is kind of a big deal. As I made my way through breakfast, I understood why. I ate probably the fanciest omelette I’ve ever had — featuring Comté, chanterelles and confit shallots — and washed it down with the freshest California orange juice and a very well-made Americano. I’d stuffed myself at breakfast, but I had a peek at the poolside menu to think about what I could have ordered: half a dozen oysters with passionfruit and shallot mignonette, a Maine lobster roll, some melon and mint granita, and a Tahitian vanilla ice-cream bar with a dark-chocolate shell would’ve been my picks.

You don’t need to venture far to sample some of the city's greatest eats, such as Daughter’s Deli, which is an offshoot of Langer’s — the deli Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Gold said was home to America’s greatest pastrami sandwich. The coma-inducing Papa (the equivalent of the famous Langer’s No 19) was indeed the best pastrami sandwich I’ve ever had: tender, fragrant meat, Swiss cheese and coleslaw, all layered to perfection inside the ideally sliced rye bread. 

I was leaving too early for breakfast on the second day. I got up, finished packing and opened the curtains. I looked down at the Comedy Store from my room and regretted that I hadn’t been able to schedule it in. I was waiting for my taxi feeling immensely deprived of caffeine, but the coffee bar in the lobby came to the rescue. As my brain slowly came back to life, I appreciated all the little extra-mile moments I’d experienced over the last couple days, and then remembered that such a fantasy couldn’t live for ever. It is Los Angeles, after all.