Regent Beverly Wilshire
Beverly Hills
The zip code for the Regent Beverly Wilshire is not 90210, the name of
the long-running hit on television about teenage life in Beverly
Hills. But the enduring grandeur of one of Beverly Hills' best-known
landmarks, built in 1928 during movieland's early glory days,
surpasses the momentary glitz of a passing fancy. Far from being a
Beverly Hills afterthought, today the hotel keeps watch at the
crossroads of chic and celebrity, the corner of Rodeo Drive and
Wilshire Boulevard.
Although the hotel doesn't occupy the center of the movie universe
anymore, it offers unequalled access to Rodeo Drive, a shopping
district mentioned in the same breath as the Faubourg
St.-Honoré in Paris and Madison Avenue in New York. Rodeo's
list of tenants is crowded with top-of-the-line retail stores: Bally,
Buccellati, Cartier, Chanel, Alfred Dunhill of London, Gianni Versace,
Gucci, Hermes, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany and Yves St. Laurent. All these
boutiques, plus department stores such as Barneys New York, Neiman
Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue are within four blocks of the hotel.
At the heart of the hotel's mystique is its presidential suite, a
5,000-square-foot abode available for $4,000 a night. In the past,
long-term residents of the suite included Barbara Hutton (during her
marriage to Cary Grant), Elton John, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Mick
Jagger. At one time or another, nearly every member of Britain's Royal
Family has stayed there, as well as Emperor Hirohito of Japan, the
Dalai Lama and the Aga Khan. But the suite's biggest claim to fame in
recent years may be its use as the room where Richard Gere romanced
Julia Roberts in the 1990 box-office hit Pretty Woman.
While it may not be a priority for most visitors, the hotel public
relations office prints a list of recent celebrity visitors. It reads
like a Who's Who of Hollywood: Anjelica Huston, Al Pacino, Kirk and
Michael Douglas, Walter Matthau, Farrah Fawcett, Dustin Hoffman,
Michael Caine and Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. In a city where
fashionable places to be seen come and go with each season, the Regent
Beverly Wilshire keeps attracting the rich and powerful.
All the glitz and glamour might have faded, however, if not for a $100
million renovation undertaken by the Regent International Hotels
group, which bought the property in 1985. The hotel added a modern spa
and workout facilities, as well as updating all the rooms. It restored
the main lobby in the Wilshire Wing, giving luster to its marble
floors and its soaring ceiling. Today, Regent Hotels has joined forces
with the Four Seasons hotel group, and the combined company now runs
the hotel. The hotel also took steps to cater to the modern-day
business traveler; there is a complete business center.
There's more than fancy exteriors here, however. The Regent Dining
Room, a winner of Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence, wins
high marks for its modern Californian continental cuisine. Chef Thomas
Moran took over the kitchens late last year and has been offering
dishes such as seared tuna with shiitake mushrooms and salmon cooked
on the hotel's mesquite-fired grill. The grill also turns out
excellent meats, such as beef tenderloin, veal, lamb and duck.
The Regent Beverly Wilshire hosted Cigar Aficionado's Big Smoke in Los
Angeles last year. The hotel maintains a cigar-friendly environment in
The Bar. Filled with leather chairs and velvet sofas, The Bar welcomes
smokers into a comfortable gentlemen's club atmosphere. The Bar keeps
a teakwood humidor for customers, with cigars including Dominican
Montecristos and Dunhill Peravias and Valverdes.
-- Gordon Mott
Regent Beverly Wilshire
9500 Wilshire Boulevard / Beverly Hills,
CA 90212
Phone: (310) 275-5200 or (800) 421-4354
California, (800) 427-4354
Rates: single, $255-$365, double
$275-$385, one-bedroom suites, $425 to $660, presidential suite,
$4,000
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