"There are Beverly Hills-type restaurants like the Ivy. It's really
nice, but that's what they call
Beverly Hills adjacent to West
Hollywood. There's Chaya, which is a really nice restaurant
adjacent to Beverly Hills."
The Ivy is straight out of the movies. The see-and-be-seen are
sitting at flowered tablecloths on a patio beyond a white picket
fence. Yes, it's Beverly Hills Adjacent, but in a town where
fiction always triumphs over facts, the Ivy is, as Martin promised,
100 percent Beverly Hills. I'm shoehorned into a tiny,
pillow-festooned table that adjoins a table of six wildcat Beverly
Hills women, their voices as loud and emphatic as machine guns.
They are women straight out of a
Steve Martin novel, where people
have names like Loki and Del Rey. They riddle the topics of the
day: men, music, sex, Botox, pilates, and how their feng shui guy
just can't seem to get things right. I hang on to their every
syllable, as if I'm part of their convivial group, even offering to
pony up a five-spot when, divvying up their bill six ways, one of
them falls $5 short. They stare at me like I'm an alien, an
adjacent instead of Beverly Hills proper, and I want to proclaim,
"Steve Martin sent me!" But they're gone in a percussion of high
heels on concrete, one accidentally slapping me in the face with
her scarlet snakeskin purse as she rushes off.
Since Martin isn't around to pick up the tab, I pay my bill and bid
good night to the valet parkers.
Back in the car, Steve provides a perfect coda to the night.
"That's another thing about Beverly Hills. People are really,
really nice. At least to me."
he said ...
steve martin's guide to beverly hills and its environs
lodging
the beverly hills hotel, very expensive, (310) 276-2251
four seasons hotel los angeles at beverly hills, very
expensive, (310) 273-2222
the peninsula beverly hills, very expensive, (310)
551-2888
the regent beverly wilshire, very expensive, (310)
275-5200
dining
chaya brasserie, italian/french/japanese, expensive, (310)
859-8833
the farm of beverly hills, classic american, moderate, (310)
273-5578