RtS: The Roosevelt Hotel - Dakota & Tropicana

[€uroMeinke]

Rank the Swank - Restaurants and Bars


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The Roosevelt Hotel - Dakota & Tropicana
7000 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, California
April 6, 2007
http://www.hollywoodroosevelt.com/ (http://www.hollywoodroosevelt.com/)


The Lowdown
Classic Hollywood meets Hip Hollywood

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The Gig
Drinks, Dinner & Hollywood Ambiance

The Grub
Our table orders a multitude of treats - Manhattans the cocktail of choice, or a few bottles of Voss Sparkling or Still.

Appetizers included:
Oysters on the half shell w/tarragon champagne mignonette
Beefsteak Tartare
Tuna Tartare
Roasted Beets in Arugula salad
Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes

Entrées included
American Kobe Flat Iron Steaks
New York Strip Steak
Petit Filet
Sanoma Rack of Lamb

Sauces for each of these were shared and prepared on the side and included:
Foie Gras & Red Wine
Peppercorn
red wine
3 mustards
horseradish

And sides for the table:
Morels
Pomme Frits w/ truffle oil
Creamed spinach
Carmalized Baby Onions

Wine:
Penfolds Bin 407 (a South Australian Cabernet)

Dessert:
Crème Fraiche Cheesecake
Valhrona Chocolate Souffle
Hennesy VS

The Scene
We wanted to show our Aussie friends a bit of Hollywood so we met up at Hollywood and Highland for the usual tourist fare: Hollywood Sign, Hollywood Blvd & the Walk of Fame, Graumen's Chinese Theater, etc. but couldn't come up with a place to eat. So we decided to cross the street to the Roosevelt to check out the Hockney Pool...

Apparently the Roosevelt under new management has really turned this Hollywood classic into some contemporary swank. The style, still traditional - played up the glamor of the time - ornate tile, suede and leather upholstery, and obscenely comfortable. We immediately checked out the menu for Dakota, the steak house adjacent to the lobby, only to settle in for a 4-hour dining experience.

The dinner and ambiance were magnificent - highlights included selecting a wine and hearing the Lashes tales of wine tasting down under, delighting over tartares, and for me, the arrival of the cognac cart.

After dinner, we finally headed out the pool - first making our way through the crowded hall of Not Afraid's Hollywood fans, and into - or out to - Tropicana - the renamed pool area club, full of dressed up club kids in a scene that captured Hollywood in a way we could have never planned. Perhaps a straighter crowd than originally intended for the nights activities, but definitely still Hollywood Swank.

We had such a great time, that we missed the last train out and had to beg a ride from ISM. Still, it was fun to push past the tony hipsters waiting at the door to get in. The night was delightful - pricey perhaps and hopefully we didn't break the Lashbank - but worth every penny for the experience it was

[MouseWife]

Thank you for that review, it sounds like it was fun for all.

All of that food!! Mmmmm....

No one fell/was pushed in to the pool?

[innerSpaceman]

The L.A. experience desired for the Lashes was doled out in spades.

Hollywood Hollywood Hollywood. Tourist Hollywood. Hipster Hollywood. And a wee wee bit of Skeezy Hollywood (I'm likely the only one glad that jerk threw a bottle from a moving car.)


I knew the Roosevelt had been spiffed up since the days when I'd been a guest of the establishment. The beautiful 20's architecture and trappings benefitted nicely from the TLC. But I was astonished to find the Hockney Pool area, a sparsely populated relaxation zone in days of my stays - - had become Club Kid Central and an unparalled bastion of hip L.A.

The classic abstractions at the depths of the blue pool, masses of lush palm trees swaying over the swank proceedings, off-switchless firepits dotting the lanscape, the plexiglass flying corridor of 50's groovedom and the red-lit Roosevelt sign of 20's stardom towering overhead ... and everywhere, filling every nook and cranny around the pool and beyond ... the hip kids of Hollywood - - young, trendy, dressed to the nines.


And then there was us.



We may have been interlopers of a sort ... but it was as extreme the L.A. scene as I could have hoped for.


I have in mind some future swankings at this sight. But I hesitate to ask lightning to strike twice, I hesitate to pretend I'm younger and more hip than I really am. Yet sometime in the future when our wallets are plump, we should head to the Roosevelt for an evening of swank. We may not be young enough or hip enough, but as with last night - - the green is our ticket to the scene.

[Not Afraid]

OK, Steve. I'll let you tell the story of the "celebrity sighting". ;)

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Wow! While gay bars are fun, I was not jealous of all at missing the event. Now, of course, I really wish we could have been there.

Kudos to all who gave the Lashpair a true LoT evening of swank in Hollywood! :snap: :snap: :snap:

[Not Afraid]

I'm really feeling my 44.995 years today.

[innerSpaceman]

Not Afraid's 15 minutes
(in 3 minute increments)


After dinner, we decended to the Brocolli Pool level, to obtain a bit of relief before heading out to the main pool. The ladies room features a very stylized silhouette of a female form on a small sign protruding from above the door so it can be seen from the corridor.

Seen, and if you are Not Afraid with a contact buzz ... immitated. The ladies room lady was striking quite the pose, and Lisa did her best to duplicate it within the limits of human anatomy. Naturally, the juxtaposition of human and silhouette sign in synchronicity prompted an impromptu photo shoot.

They were still trying to get the perfect shot when I exited the mens room. Lisa was gamely holding the pose while LashStoat flashed away with his camera, and Lashbear caputured it on video. There was hubbub in the hallway as people came and went from a formal event in a nearby ballroom, and one or two other people may have stopped to snap photos. All I could see were flashbulbs popping off all around Not Afraid, the sudden object of quasi-papparazi.

A beefy security guard approached me, and whispered to me conspiratorally ... but with wonderment in his tone, "Who is she??"




I whispered back that I couldn't say, as I didn't want to cause a commotion in the crowded hallway.


Then the flashbulbs stopped, the security guard moved on, I fell down laughing.


But for 3 glorious minutes ... Not Afraid was a Hollywood Star!



* * * * *

No one fell/was pushed in to the pool?
Alas no ... it would seem the natural thing to happen, perhaps night after night. But the frolicsome tradition of party-piling-in the pool from the days of Jimmy Stewart to those of Peter Sellers has come to an end, I'm afraid, in the days of cell phones on every person's person.

[lashbear]

Not Afraid's 15 minutes
(in 3 minute increments)


After dinner, we decended to the Brocolli Pool level, to obtain a bit of relief before heading out the main pool. The ladies room features a very stylized silhouette of a female form on a small sign protruding from above the door so it can be seen from the corridor.

Seen, and if you are Not Afraid with a contact buzz ... immitated. The ladies room lady was striking quite the pose, and Lisa did her best to duplicate it within the limits of human anatomy. Naturally, the juxtaposition of human and silhouette sign in synchronicity prompted an impromptu photo shoot.

They were still trying to get the perfect shot when I exited the mens room. Lisa was gamely holding the pose while LashStoat flashed away with his camera, and Lashbear caputured in on video. There was hubbub in the hallway as people came and went from a formal event in a nearby ballroom, and one or two other people may have stopped to snap photos. All I could see were flashbulbs popping off all around Not Afraid, the sudden object of quasi-papparazi.

A beefy security guard approached me, and whispered to me conspiratorally ... but with wonderment in his tone, "Who is she??"

I whispered back that I couldn't say, as I didn't want to cause a commotion in the crowded hallway.

Then the flashbulbs stopped, the security guard moved on, I fell down laughing.

But for 3 glorious minutes ... Not Afraid was a Hollywood Star!

Pic To Prove This Tale:

[Cadaverous Pallor]

OMG, that is too freaking funny. Visible mojo to all involved. :cool:

We all knew NA was a star - it's just taken Hollywood this long to catch up.

[~MS~]

How fun was That....I love it!

[MouseWife]

Alas no ... it would seem the natural thing to happen, perhaps night after night. But the frolicsome tradition of party-piling-in the pool from the days of Jimmy Stewart to those of Peter Sellers has come to an end, I'm afraid, in the days of cell phones on every person's person.

{the quote was in response to someone falling/being pushed into pool}

*sigh* such is the truth. Would have been a great photo op. :snap:

Oh Not Afraid, what a star you are!! :snap:

[Chernabog]

I'm really feeling my 44.995 years today.

And if you play your cards right, someone else will be feeling your 44.995 years today too. :p C-monkey, you lucky dog you! Rawr! And with a quasi-celebrity too, no less!

[CoasterMatt]

Wow, sounds like you guys had a great time!
If I wasn't already on the verge of collapse, Rose and I might have joined in...
We stayed at CityWalk, and had fun at Saddle Ranch with Bornieo - we each got a nice sour apple shot comped because of the wait for a table :)