downtown
Travel
By MARY HOLLAND
Benny Chan/The Broad/Diller Scofidio + Renfro
The Standard, Downtown LA.
WHAT: Standing tall on a prime corner near iconic Pike Place Market, the six-week-old property houses 158 rooms, a locavore-loving restaurant and a glorious rooftop bar. It’s all encased in a glassy, asymmetrical structure designed by the Seattle area’s modernist architectural whiz, Tom Kundig (thompsonseattle.com). WHY: The Pacific Northwest conjures up images of hippies, hipsters and fleeceFro jacket connoisseurs. To some degree, m $279 the stereotypes hold. But this hotel aims per for something chicer, sleeker and more nigh posh — but not without genuine heart t and local flavor. The most coveted guest rooms (below) — sporting muted white, brown and navy color palettes — overlook Elliott Bay. WORKING WELL: Helmed by Josh Henderson, whose Huxley Wallace Collective runs acclaimed restaurants around the city, ground-floor eatery Scout serves up dishes that are at once hearty and sophisticated. Think heirloom tomato salad with basil and smoky cream, pork with sweet potato hash, mustard greens and a poached egg, and pasta with garlic scapes, parmesan-buttermilk sauce and edible flowers. The eatery is decorated in a mod woodsy style, with plaid fabric on the banquettes and vintage Boy Scout mugs on the wall. NEEDS WORK:
A basic gym is shared with the apartment building next door. Luckily, it’s easy enough to run along the waterfront; Mount Rainier looms above the horizon on clear days. MUST TRY: Billed as the highest rooftop patio bar in the city, The Nest (top) is worth a perch. Amid couches, fire pits and an indoor lounge with leather chairs, toast with one of the hotel’s cocktails, all named after birds. The top fowl is The Flamingo, an oversized beverage made for sharing served in a copper vessel that combines vodka, rum, cognac, pineapple juice, lime juice and Perrier Jouet ($150). Currently in the works is its older sister, the Big Bird, which, if added to the menu, could serve 10 to 15 people and cost as much as $1,500. So sip a regularly priced cocktail as you take in the cityscape, including the homes of the Mariners and Seahawks, ferries crisscrossing the bay to Seattle’s outlying islands, and the snow-capped Olympic and Cascade mountains beyond. BOTTOM LINE: Forget grunge, because the Evergreen State’s crown jewel just got an ample dose of glam. It’s not cheap, but it sure is cool. — Hana R. Alberts
«
Knead, where Grand Central Market’s most underrated breakfast sandwich awaits: EW neighborhoods over-easy eggs, fontina better represent Los cheese, tomato jam and aruAngeles’ newfound gula wedged between two commercial and buttery slices of toast. cultural vibrancy Once sated, head for the quite like its historic newest — and the most downtown. Anchored by the heart-pounding — addition Staples Center and set a few to downtown, the OUE Skymiles east of the Sunset Strip, space LA atop the US Bank this once-forgotten district Tower. It’s America’s tallest has had a cool, stylish makebuilding west of Chicago. over — with new hotels, WHERE ART THOU: The free, recently opened Broad museum. This open-air observation shopping, restaurants and deck has panoramic views cultural spots. The regeneraof the city — from the HolImitation of Life,” which runs — along with ample tequila, tion of Downtown LA didn’t lywood sign all the way to through early October. mezcal and cool Tecates. happen overnight; cleaning the Pacific (skyspaceHad enough art? Then Nearby, you’ll find Califorup a gritty inner-city head to Redbird for dinner, nia’s largest book and record area took time. la.com). If you where chef Neal Fraser (a store, The Last Bookstore But today aren’t afraid native Angeleno) serves new (lastbookstorela.com). downtown of heights, American fare — think fresh Nothing better symbolizes buzzes try OUE’s scallops with fava beans and Downtown’s ascent than with a split-level duck with wild rice and cherThe Broad museum, which 24-hour Skyslide, a ries (redbird.la). The food opened last year (thebroad. vibe transluhere might be the highlight, org). The museum is free, remicent glass but the beautiful, historic setwhich means lines can snake niscent pipeline ting is almost as impressive. around the block. (Pro tip: of Soho that transStaying over? Then conor South ports brave pre-book tickets online.) But sider The Standard hotel, the wait is worth it. Inside, Beach. visitors you’ll find classic works, such which inhabits the former Here’s what between the Superior Oil headquarters as Andy Warhol’s “Twenty to do the next building’s 70th and whose 2002 opening was Jackies” and “Three Maritime you’re in PROST OFFICE: The and 69th floors. a harbinger of more change lyns.” While the gallery has town. Standard’s beer garden. If all that to come (from $219, stana phenomenal permanent Start your adrenaline collection, it also has rotating morning with a coffee from has made you hungry, head dardhotels.com). Although exhibitions by blue-chip G&B at the landmark, nearly to B.S. Taqueria, the new much of the building’s artists and photographers century-old Grand Central brick-and-mortar Mexican interiors have been updated, including “Cindy Sherman: Market (grandcentralmarspot from local pop-up king the marble-clad walls, office ket.com). There, its open-air, Ray Garcia elevators and 360-degree coffee bar serves (bstaqueria. rooms are Hollywood award-winning java that com). Equal reminders of Bel will wow even the snootiest parts cocktail the building’s 405 Air coffee snobs. Throughout lounge and Mad Men-era Downtown LA the market, look for a mix of upmarket taco past. There’s Beverly LA new and classic food stalls, joint, Garcia’s a ping-pong Hills some of which have been simple and room and a around since the ’50s. Go straightforchic ’50s-style 10 Santa early to beat the crowds — ward menu restaurant, Monica though there’s always a line includes highbut the real at the naughtily named (and lights such as clincher is the 110 Los Angeles Calif. rooftop, commuch-hyped) Egg Slut. Brave clam and lardo International the queue for their beloved tacos followed plete with Pacific Airport brioche-bunned sandwiches, by crisp chura bar and Ocean 2 mi. or instead, make your way to ros for dessert heated pool.
Thompson Seattle
Andrew Pogue
Los Angeles’ once-gritty downtown offers sights, arts and eats
Checking In
nypost.com
OUE Skyspace LA.
SLIDE SHOW: Careen down a glass ramp atop the tallest building west of Chicago.
F
Nic Lehoux
downtown
New York Post, Tuesday, July 12, 2016
goin’
45
By MARY HOLLAND
Benny Chan/The Broad/Diller Scofidio + Renfro
The Standard, Downtown LA.
WHAT: Standing tall on a prime corner near iconic Pike Place Market, the six-week-old property houses 158 rooms, a locavore-loving restaurant and a glorious rooftop bar. It’s all encased in a glassy, asymmetrical structure designed by the Seattle area’s modernist architectural whiz, Tom Kundig (thompsonseattle.com). WHY: The Pacific Northwest conjures up images of hippies, hipsters and fleeceFro jacket connoisseurs. To some degree, m $279 the stereotypes hold. But this hotel aims per for something chicer, sleeker and more nigh posh — but not without genuine heart t and local flavor. The most coveted guest rooms (below) — sporting muted white, brown and navy color palettes — overlook Elliott Bay. WORKING WELL: Helmed by Josh Henderson, whose Huxley Wallace Collective runs acclaimed restaurants around the city, ground-floor eatery Scout serves up dishes that are at once hearty and sophisticated. Think heirloom tomato salad with basil and smoky cream, pork with sweet potato hash, mustard greens and a poached egg, and pasta with garlic scapes, parmesan-buttermilk sauce and edible flowers. The eatery is decorated in a mod woodsy style, with plaid fabric on the banquettes and vintage Boy Scout mugs on the wall. NEEDS WORK:
A basic gym is shared with the apartment building next door. Luckily, it’s easy enough to run along the waterfront; Mount Rainier looms above the horizon on clear days. MUST TRY: Billed as the highest rooftop patio bar in the city, The Nest (top) is worth a perch. Amid couches, fire pits and an indoor lounge with leather chairs, toast with one of the hotel’s cocktails, all named after birds. The top fowl is The Flamingo, an oversized beverage made for sharing served in a copper vessel that combines vodka, rum, cognac, pineapple juice, lime juice and Perrier Jouet ($150). Currently in the works is its older sister, the Big Bird, which, if added to the menu, could serve 10 to 15 people and cost as much as $1,500. So sip a regularly priced cocktail as you take in the cityscape, including the homes of the Mariners and Seahawks, ferries crisscrossing the bay to Seattle’s outlying islands, and the snow-capped Olympic and Cascade mountains beyond. BOTTOM LINE: Forget grunge, because the Evergreen State’s crown jewel just got an ample dose of glam. It’s not cheap, but it sure is cool. — Hana R. Alberts
«
Knead, where Grand Central Market’s most underrated breakfast sandwich awaits: EW neighborhoods over-easy eggs, fontina better represent Los cheese, tomato jam and aruAngeles’ newfound gula wedged between two commercial and buttery slices of toast. cultural vibrancy Once sated, head for the quite like its historic newest — and the most downtown. Anchored by the heart-pounding — addition Staples Center and set a few to downtown, the OUE Skymiles east of the Sunset Strip, space LA atop the US Bank this once-forgotten district Tower. It’s America’s tallest has had a cool, stylish makebuilding west of Chicago. over — with new hotels, WHERE ART THOU: The free, recently opened Broad museum. This open-air observation shopping, restaurants and deck has panoramic views cultural spots. The regeneraof the city — from the HolImitation of Life,” which runs — along with ample tequila, tion of Downtown LA didn’t lywood sign all the way to through early October. mezcal and cool Tecates. happen overnight; cleaning the Pacific (skyspaceHad enough art? Then Nearby, you’ll find Califorup a gritty inner-city head to Redbird for dinner, nia’s largest book and record area took time. la.com). If you where chef Neal Fraser (a store, The Last Bookstore But today aren’t afraid native Angeleno) serves new (lastbookstorela.com). downtown of heights, American fare — think fresh Nothing better symbolizes buzzes try OUE’s scallops with fava beans and Downtown’s ascent than with a split-level duck with wild rice and cherThe Broad museum, which 24-hour Skyslide, a ries (redbird.la). The food opened last year (thebroad. vibe transluhere might be the highlight, org). The museum is free, remicent glass but the beautiful, historic setwhich means lines can snake niscent pipeline ting is almost as impressive. around the block. (Pro tip: of Soho that transStaying over? Then conor South ports brave pre-book tickets online.) But sider The Standard hotel, the wait is worth it. Inside, Beach. visitors you’ll find classic works, such which inhabits the former Here’s what between the Superior Oil headquarters as Andy Warhol’s “Twenty to do the next building’s 70th and whose 2002 opening was Jackies” and “Three Maritime you’re in PROST OFFICE: The and 69th floors. a harbinger of more change lyns.” While the gallery has town. Standard’s beer garden. If all that to come (from $219, stana phenomenal permanent Start your adrenaline collection, it also has rotating morning with a coffee from has made you hungry, head dardhotels.com). Although exhibitions by blue-chip G&B at the landmark, nearly to B.S. Taqueria, the new much of the building’s artists and photographers century-old Grand Central brick-and-mortar Mexican interiors have been updated, including “Cindy Sherman: Market (grandcentralmarspot from local pop-up king the marble-clad walls, office ket.com). There, its open-air, Ray Garcia elevators and 360-degree coffee bar serves (bstaqueria. rooms are Hollywood award-winning java that com). Equal reminders of Bel will wow even the snootiest parts cocktail the building’s 405 Air coffee snobs. Throughout lounge and Mad Men-era Downtown LA the market, look for a mix of upmarket taco past. There’s Beverly LA new and classic food stalls, joint, Garcia’s a ping-pong Hills some of which have been simple and room and a around since the ’50s. Go straightforchic ’50s-style 10 Santa early to beat the crowds — ward menu restaurant, Monica though there’s always a line includes highbut the real at the naughtily named (and lights such as clincher is the 110 Los Angeles Calif. rooftop, commuch-hyped) Egg Slut. Brave clam and lardo International the queue for their beloved tacos followed plete with Pacific Airport brioche-bunned sandwiches, by crisp chura bar and Ocean 2 mi. or instead, make your way to ros for dessert heated pool.
Thompson Seattle
Andrew Pogue
Los Angeles’ once-gritty downtown offers sights, arts and eats
Checking In
nypost.com
OUE Skyspace LA.
SLIDE SHOW: Careen down a glass ramp atop the tallest building west of Chicago.
F
Nic Lehoux
downtown
New York Post, Tuesday, July 12, 2016
goin’
45
