Hotel Bel-Air
Los Angeles
In the early part of this century, the hilly area of Los Angeles that
is now Bel-Air was just a real estate developer's dream. In 1922,
Alonzo E. Bell built Bel-Air as an exclusive community of estates
linked by winding streets and accessed through a pair of towering
marble arches that front on Sunset Boulevard. In the heart of his new
subdivision, Bell opened a planning and sales office. This arcaded
mission-style structure is now the oldest part of the Hotel Bel-Air.
The Bel-Air, which sits on 11.5 lushly wooded acres in the middle of
some of the most expensive real estate in Southern California,
routinely hosts world-famous celebrities; yet it is homey and
comfortable enough to still be a sort of clubhouse for its
neighbors. One gent who lives near the hotel can be found at the
Bel-Air Bar almost every evening for an hour or two before dinner,
savoring a cocktail and a fragrant cigar.
The hotel's secluded location and small size, the residential style of
its rambling 92-room complex and its luxuriant gardens full of trees
and flowering plants are attractions that keep guests coming back year
after year. This exclusive resort property has no long, anonymous
corridors lined with room numbers; instead, most guest rooms and
suites open directly onto the hotel's gardens. Many rooms have private
patios that are coveted during the summer months; wood-burning
fireplaces are popular amenities during the winter.
Under the able direction of executive chef Gary Clauson, the
Restaurant at the Bel-Air has become renowned. Clauson has created a
wide-ranging menu that is classic enough not to shock the hotel's
old-money patrons and venturesome enough to interest the entertainment
industry's avant garde. Entrees are priced at $18 to $34 and portions
are extremely generous.
Light eaters may opt for Clauson's spa menu ("Cuisine Legere") of
reduced calorie, low-fat dishes. The wine list is strongest in
California Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, and Bordeaux first
growths. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in the elegant
Restaurant, but I invariably opt to dine outdoors under cascades of
bougainvillea on the terrace. Here, no opportunity to ensure guest
comfort has been overlooked; the waiters adroitly adjust clear plastic
windscreens to block or admit breezes, and the tiles underfoot are
heated to take the chill off the evening.
Best of all, since this is outdoors, you and your cigar are
welcome. Spurred by an upsurge in fine cigars, the Bel-Air recently
purchased a small humidor. Kept behind the front desk, the humidor is
stocked by Alfred Dunhill of London with Dunhill Coronas Grandes, aged
Condados, and Dominican Cohiba Esplendidos and Montecristo Double
Coronas, ranging in price from $7.50 to $11. The cigar selection is
listed on the menu at the bar, a clubby, wood-paneled hideaway that
has a cozy fireplace and features live piano music after 9 p.m.
Bel-Air bartender Gus Tassopulos has noted a marked increase cigar
smoking, adding that the practice is even popular among women. On a
recent evening, he says, one lady sat at the bar and sipped a 1955
Taylor Vintage Port ($56) while puffing contentedly on her
cigar. "She was here a week ago, too, only she was in a different seat
and with a different man," observed Tassopulos with a wink. "I didn't
recognize her at first."
-- Jean T. Barrett
Jean T. Barrett is a Los Angeles-based writer on wine, spirits,
food and travel and a frequent contributor to Cigar Aficionado
and Wine Spectator.
Hotel Bel-Air
701 Stone Canyon Road
Phone: (310) 472-1211;
fax (310) 476-5890
Room rates: $315 to $435 for a standard room,
depending on size; $495 for a junior suite; $550 to $950 for a
one-bedroom suite, depending on size; one-bedroom presidential suite:
$1,500; two-bedroom presidential suite: $2,500.
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