Girls dorm heh heh

I picked Hunnybear up at work in the white Pontiac convertible and we drove to Westwood to check into the W Los Angeles. It was cool and a bit cloudy in Southern California. Last night there were a couple scattered showers. We flipped on the TV and every channel had a special report on the “crazy weather” and how to protect yourself and your loved ones from this rain. And I thought Steve Martin was exaggerating in LA Story. These people go nuts if there are a few drops! They wouldn’t last an hour in Seattle.

From the outside, the W looked like a concrete college dormitory with a big W slapped onto it as we pulled up. In fact it had originally been a UCLA girls dormitory. What memories these walls must have had. A team of the classic W black-garbed valets greeted us as we arrived. I asked how much the valet parking was and the first one didn’t know but the second one said $10. Not bad. The steps up to the lobby had very cool waterfalls underneath them. The lobby interior was likewise cool with standard W fun plush furniture and a staggered checkin desk staffed by a team of starlets. I picked the best-looking one to check us in and she gave us a suite on the 12th floor (out of 16). I asked if it was the best available room and she said yes. We waited a long time for the elevator and then went up to our suite.

The décor was much like other Ws—black painted furniture, plush sofas and chairs, and black-framed black-and-white prints—although somehow the Seattle one still seemed nicer. The bedroom had the fabled Heavenly-like bed (an actual king), There was one closet in the bedroom and one bathroom in the front room. A minibar was stocked full of munchies, high-end liquors, and the trademark W “intimacy kit.” A Platinum amenity awaited us: three crisp Granny Smith apples and a half-liter bottle of water along with the standard printed note from the general manager. I hooked up the high-speed Interned access ($9.95), an old hand by now, and gave my email a quick check before we went down to try out the lobby bar. We waited at least five minutes for the elevator. It felt like I was back at school again.

The lobby bar was decorated very much like Whisky Blue in the W New York. Like the W New York, they had no signature drink here, unlike Seattle’s W which had the fabled Emerald Drop, so Hunnybear ordered a Lemon Drop while I felt like a Beefeater martini. Prices were pretty high for LA, around $10 a drink, but they were big drinks. My martini tasted funny so I ate all the olives and then brought it back to the bar. I told one bartender about it but he said policy was that they couldn’t fix other bartenders’ mistakes. My bartender was talking to the manager at the register for about five minutes, both their backs turned. Finally I began waving my arms and a third bartender came over and repaired the damage. Meanwhile Tony and Judy had arrived and she made them a couple of drinks as well. Tony nearly tripped on an uprooted carpet on the way back to the table. He alerted a passing busboy about it but he just stepped on it for a few seconds and wandered off leaving a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Dinner was at Tanino, an Italian restaurant within walking distance. We got seated immediately at a table near the front and ordered an expensive bottle of Barbaresco, my favorite Italian wine. They had Gaja for $168 but we went with one under $100. When Gaja was being discovered back in the early eighties I went around to every Safeway in greater Seattle and bought up every bottle I could find for dirt cheap. Then I quit drinking for a couple years and at some point sold all my wine at a garage sale for like $5 a bottle. Somebody got a real good deal, but I wish I had kept that Gaja.

For starters I had a yummy beef carpaccio with “capers capers”—at least that’s what the menu said, and there were quite a few of them, like Little Caesar’s Pizza Pizza. They only had one veal chop so Tony and I split it and a beef chop. Both were fabulous. Hunnybear gave me a few tastes of excellent John Dory and Judy had a vegetarian pasta. As a rule I don’t eat dessert but Tony ordered three so I just had a few tastes. Dinner came to about $70 each before tip, but $25 of that was the wine.

We walked back to the dorm and headed up to bed. There was quite a bit of street and hall noise but we had no problem sleeping.


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