kellymonaghan
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The new Hard Rock Hotel is a winner! This report is based on a 3-night stay starting on January 19th, the first day the hotel was open for business.
Imagine for a moment you are an aging rock star. Changing tastes and slumping record sales have reduced your income to pitiful new lows. Years of hard living and fiscal mismanagement have depleted your assets to the vanishing point. Your groupies have left you to your own devices in the palatial Beverly Hills mansion that you have filled with the memories and memorabilia of your high-flying years of hits and worldwide mega tours. Soon you will have to sell this last remnant of your once lavish lifestyle and move into a shabby condo. Then, inspiration strikes: youâÂÂll turn your mansion into a hotel and take in paying guests who will leap at the chance to experience, however vicariously, however briefly, what it must be like to live like a rock star.
That is the "backstory" of the Hard Rock Hotel. ItâÂÂs a story that will never be told in so many words to the guests who stay here, but it is the fanciful tale from which the architects and designers drew inspiration as they fashioned this flamboyant, flashy, and fun hostelry.
Despite the funky backstory, the approach is quite elegant, as is the entire hotel. A sloping driveway flanked by towering palm trees passes a broad oval lawn. At the top is a fountain with a spiraling sculpture of guitars and the rather grand entrance. The California mission style of the building is appealing, if a bit flat. All in all, the place looks larger than I had expected. (It has 650 rooms)
The Hard Rock logo is a large marble mosaic on the floor as you step into an expansive lobby. The first thing you notice is the rock music that pulsates everywhere in the public areas. This is done really well. The volume is just right, loud enough to get into when you want but quiet enough so you can carry on a conversation. The music has also been extremely well programmed. During the day, itâÂÂs heavy on rock classics and at night the volume is turned up a notch and the emphasis is on more contemporary sounds.
To the right of the entrance is Reception to the left Guest Services and the Concierge. Above these desks are large-scale modern art treatments of rock superstars like David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix.. On the lobby level the artwork tends to be big and modern. My favorite piece is a huge blow up of the cover photo from the Stonesâ "Beggars Banquet" album. The staff (contrary to earlier rumors) is neatly dressed in hipster black. Polo shirts and slacks for the staff, black t-shirts and jackets for managers. There are pierced ears, noses, eyebrows, and lips and some green hair, but no one looks truly weird.
Across from the entrance is a sunken lobby lounge that is filled with artfully mismatched furniture to create a hip, post-modern look. Coffee tables double as display cases holding the guitars of rock legends. To one side is a sort of mini shrine to The King. Enormous art glass vases hold elaborate floral displays to complete the look. The far wall is a series of large windows that look out onto the pool area. The wings of the hotel surround the pool making it somewhat the central attraction here.
The pool itself is gorgeous. 12,000 square feet and heated, it boasts an underwater sound system. You can float on your back with your ears under water and groove to the beat. Very cool. One side of the beach is all sand and there are plenty of lounge chairs. At one end is a very zippy water slide, taller and longer than the one over at Portofino. The Beach Club bar sends out servers to take drink and food orders poolside. Soon they will install cabanas, like the ones at Portofino, that can be rented by the day or in four-hour chunks.
If youâÂÂve stayed at Portofino, the look and feel of the rooms will be familiar, except that these are smaller. The furniture is more modern and hipper, of course, with a lot of wavy accents. Each room has three black framed black and white photos of rock greats from a collection of 21 prints; a booklet in the room (not yet available when I stayed) tells you whoâÂÂs who if you donâÂÂt know. Most rooms have at least one curved or angled wall to avoid that boxy look and all rooms are equipped with a small but mighty CD player/radio. They give you a sampler CD when you check in but I was glad I thought to bring along some of my Stones collection. And, yes, you will hear music from other rooms, usually just the bass lines throbbing through the walls. I never found it a problem.
There are lots of hip touches like the toiletries bottles that are labeled "head," "body," "rinse" and some forth. The Do Not Disturb sign you hang on the doorknob says "I hear you knockinâ but you canâÂÂt come in." In what may be a subtle reference to a Beatles song, each room contains GideonâÂÂs Bible. Gideon checked out and left it no doubt to help with some rockerâÂÂs revival.
HereâÂÂs a good tip: They donâÂÂt provide robes with the Hard Rock logo in the standard rooms, but if you ask they will send one up. ItâÂÂs free, unless you check out with it, of course, in which case theyâÂÂll charge you.
Rates start (officially) at $235 a night and are somewhat less than Portofino with some great deals available now for the first few months. (I paid $139 plus tax a night.) I think paying the extra money for a pool-view room is worth it. The seventh floor is the Club Level, with a slot in the elevator giving access only to those with Club Level keys. ItâÂÂs like the Concierge Level youâÂÂll find at posher business hotels: Continental breakfast in the morning, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers, complimentary refreshments all day, beer and wine in the evening, a Hard Rock robe in your closet. Plus, they have a 600-CD collection you can borrow from during your stay. Also on this level is the Graceland Suite which is a real bargain at $1,500 a night. I got to peek in and its not the gaudy overdone place with pink Caddy fins on the bed you might expect from the name. ItâÂÂs actually a beautifully furnished suite with Japanese antiques and abstract art, a plasma TV screen on the master bedroom wall, and a triangular glass-fronted fireplace that opens onto both the bedroom and a shower-jacuzzi area big enough for a rock band and all its groupies. Very hip. Whitney Houston will be staying there come June, I heard.
Interestingly, the Hard Rock Hotel is nowhere near as crammed with memorabilia as the Cafes. ThereâÂÂs some $800,000 of it scattered about the hotel but discreetly. For example, a typical display is some outrageous sequined outfit displayed in a glass-fronted niche with a short explanation of who wore it and when. This, I am told, is a harbinger of Hard RockâÂÂs new look. The Chicago Hard Rock Café, apparently, has already been redone in this new less-is-more style.
There is a limited number of restaurants. The Palm Restaurant chain of steak houses has opened it 22nd branch here. ItâÂÂs noisy and expensive. Figure a MINIMUM of $50 per person. But if you want a 36-ounce steak or a five-pound lobster, itâÂÂs the place to go.
The Sunset Grill is the hotelâÂÂs main restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its kitchen also supplies the Beach Club, desserts to Velvet, the hip bar on the lobby level, and room service. The chef was lured away from the California Grill at DisneyâÂÂs Contemporary Hotel and it was smart talent grab. SheâÂÂs really good. The emphasis is on fresh, healthy food, with no artificial anything.
The flatbread pizzas are really good as are the lunch sandwiches. The dinner menu is very much in the new-American-cuisine mold, things like wild fresh water bass with black lentil cakes and a curried yogurt sauce on the side. Or three large pan-seared scallops on a bed of "heritage" beans (in other words, beans that come from seed that represent earlier strains, before mass market farming began limiting the genetic diversity of our vegetables). I really like this kind of cooking, but I suspect there are people who wonâÂÂt find it that appealing, especially at $18 a plate.
The desserts however should appeal to everyone. They are not overwhelmingly sweet and they are often interesting. The olive oil cake with fruit compote was fabulous and didnâÂÂt taste at all of olive oil (so donâÂÂt let that put you off).
If you like the Sunset GrillâÂÂs menu, you can make a special request with Room Service.
The Hard Rock Hotel is aiming at a family audience and there were plenty of kids in evidence when I was there. But my guess is that it is going to catch on with younger couples, empty-nest boomers, and even business travelers looking for somewhere hipper than the Marriott to stay in when theyâÂÂre in town.
x
Kelly Monaghan
Author of "Universal Studios Escape: The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Theme Park Adventure"ÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂõÃÂÃÂâÃÂá0
Imagine for a moment you are an aging rock star. Changing tastes and slumping record sales have reduced your income to pitiful new lows. Years of hard living and fiscal mismanagement have depleted your assets to the vanishing point. Your groupies have left you to your own devices in the palatial Beverly Hills mansion that you have filled with the memories and memorabilia of your high-flying years of hits and worldwide mega tours. Soon you will have to sell this last remnant of your once lavish lifestyle and move into a shabby condo. Then, inspiration strikes: youâÂÂll turn your mansion into a hotel and take in paying guests who will leap at the chance to experience, however vicariously, however briefly, what it must be like to live like a rock star.
That is the "backstory" of the Hard Rock Hotel. ItâÂÂs a story that will never be told in so many words to the guests who stay here, but it is the fanciful tale from which the architects and designers drew inspiration as they fashioned this flamboyant, flashy, and fun hostelry.
Despite the funky backstory, the approach is quite elegant, as is the entire hotel. A sloping driveway flanked by towering palm trees passes a broad oval lawn. At the top is a fountain with a spiraling sculpture of guitars and the rather grand entrance. The California mission style of the building is appealing, if a bit flat. All in all, the place looks larger than I had expected. (It has 650 rooms)
The Hard Rock logo is a large marble mosaic on the floor as you step into an expansive lobby. The first thing you notice is the rock music that pulsates everywhere in the public areas. This is done really well. The volume is just right, loud enough to get into when you want but quiet enough so you can carry on a conversation. The music has also been extremely well programmed. During the day, itâÂÂs heavy on rock classics and at night the volume is turned up a notch and the emphasis is on more contemporary sounds.
To the right of the entrance is Reception to the left Guest Services and the Concierge. Above these desks are large-scale modern art treatments of rock superstars like David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix.. On the lobby level the artwork tends to be big and modern. My favorite piece is a huge blow up of the cover photo from the Stonesâ "Beggars Banquet" album. The staff (contrary to earlier rumors) is neatly dressed in hipster black. Polo shirts and slacks for the staff, black t-shirts and jackets for managers. There are pierced ears, noses, eyebrows, and lips and some green hair, but no one looks truly weird.
Across from the entrance is a sunken lobby lounge that is filled with artfully mismatched furniture to create a hip, post-modern look. Coffee tables double as display cases holding the guitars of rock legends. To one side is a sort of mini shrine to The King. Enormous art glass vases hold elaborate floral displays to complete the look. The far wall is a series of large windows that look out onto the pool area. The wings of the hotel surround the pool making it somewhat the central attraction here.
The pool itself is gorgeous. 12,000 square feet and heated, it boasts an underwater sound system. You can float on your back with your ears under water and groove to the beat. Very cool. One side of the beach is all sand and there are plenty of lounge chairs. At one end is a very zippy water slide, taller and longer than the one over at Portofino. The Beach Club bar sends out servers to take drink and food orders poolside. Soon they will install cabanas, like the ones at Portofino, that can be rented by the day or in four-hour chunks.
If youâÂÂve stayed at Portofino, the look and feel of the rooms will be familiar, except that these are smaller. The furniture is more modern and hipper, of course, with a lot of wavy accents. Each room has three black framed black and white photos of rock greats from a collection of 21 prints; a booklet in the room (not yet available when I stayed) tells you whoâÂÂs who if you donâÂÂt know. Most rooms have at least one curved or angled wall to avoid that boxy look and all rooms are equipped with a small but mighty CD player/radio. They give you a sampler CD when you check in but I was glad I thought to bring along some of my Stones collection. And, yes, you will hear music from other rooms, usually just the bass lines throbbing through the walls. I never found it a problem.
There are lots of hip touches like the toiletries bottles that are labeled "head," "body," "rinse" and some forth. The Do Not Disturb sign you hang on the doorknob says "I hear you knockinâ but you canâÂÂt come in." In what may be a subtle reference to a Beatles song, each room contains GideonâÂÂs Bible. Gideon checked out and left it no doubt to help with some rockerâÂÂs revival.
HereâÂÂs a good tip: They donâÂÂt provide robes with the Hard Rock logo in the standard rooms, but if you ask they will send one up. ItâÂÂs free, unless you check out with it, of course, in which case theyâÂÂll charge you.
Rates start (officially) at $235 a night and are somewhat less than Portofino with some great deals available now for the first few months. (I paid $139 plus tax a night.) I think paying the extra money for a pool-view room is worth it. The seventh floor is the Club Level, with a slot in the elevator giving access only to those with Club Level keys. ItâÂÂs like the Concierge Level youâÂÂll find at posher business hotels: Continental breakfast in the morning, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers, complimentary refreshments all day, beer and wine in the evening, a Hard Rock robe in your closet. Plus, they have a 600-CD collection you can borrow from during your stay. Also on this level is the Graceland Suite which is a real bargain at $1,500 a night. I got to peek in and its not the gaudy overdone place with pink Caddy fins on the bed you might expect from the name. ItâÂÂs actually a beautifully furnished suite with Japanese antiques and abstract art, a plasma TV screen on the master bedroom wall, and a triangular glass-fronted fireplace that opens onto both the bedroom and a shower-jacuzzi area big enough for a rock band and all its groupies. Very hip. Whitney Houston will be staying there come June, I heard.
Interestingly, the Hard Rock Hotel is nowhere near as crammed with memorabilia as the Cafes. ThereâÂÂs some $800,000 of it scattered about the hotel but discreetly. For example, a typical display is some outrageous sequined outfit displayed in a glass-fronted niche with a short explanation of who wore it and when. This, I am told, is a harbinger of Hard RockâÂÂs new look. The Chicago Hard Rock Café, apparently, has already been redone in this new less-is-more style.
There is a limited number of restaurants. The Palm Restaurant chain of steak houses has opened it 22nd branch here. ItâÂÂs noisy and expensive. Figure a MINIMUM of $50 per person. But if you want a 36-ounce steak or a five-pound lobster, itâÂÂs the place to go.
The Sunset Grill is the hotelâÂÂs main restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its kitchen also supplies the Beach Club, desserts to Velvet, the hip bar on the lobby level, and room service. The chef was lured away from the California Grill at DisneyâÂÂs Contemporary Hotel and it was smart talent grab. SheâÂÂs really good. The emphasis is on fresh, healthy food, with no artificial anything.
The flatbread pizzas are really good as are the lunch sandwiches. The dinner menu is very much in the new-American-cuisine mold, things like wild fresh water bass with black lentil cakes and a curried yogurt sauce on the side. Or three large pan-seared scallops on a bed of "heritage" beans (in other words, beans that come from seed that represent earlier strains, before mass market farming began limiting the genetic diversity of our vegetables). I really like this kind of cooking, but I suspect there are people who wonâÂÂt find it that appealing, especially at $18 a plate.
The desserts however should appeal to everyone. They are not overwhelmingly sweet and they are often interesting. The olive oil cake with fruit compote was fabulous and didnâÂÂt taste at all of olive oil (so donâÂÂt let that put you off).
If you like the Sunset GrillâÂÂs menu, you can make a special request with Room Service.
The Hard Rock Hotel is aiming at a family audience and there were plenty of kids in evidence when I was there. But my guess is that it is going to catch on with younger couples, empty-nest boomers, and even business travelers looking for somewhere hipper than the Marriott to stay in when theyâÂÂre in town.
x
Kelly Monaghan
Author of "Universal Studios Escape: The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Theme Park Adventure"ÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂõÃÂÃÂâÃÂá0
