The area’s hotels and restaurants have reason to celebrate this New Year’s Eve, with many reporting bookings anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent higher than last year.
From the massive party at the Queen Mary in Long Beach to the more exclusive gala at the Hotel Bel-Air to downtown hotels packed with Rose Bowl players and fans, the hospitality industry is benefiting from a holiday that falls on a weekend.
The 453-room Omni Los Angeles Hotel is sold out on New Year’s Eve, a 50 percent increase over this time last year (with an average $65 a night jump in the room rate).
Last year, the Omni was hurt when the “Legends of Los Angeles Pop” New Year’s Eve celebration planned for downtown L.A. was canceled with only two weeks notice due to security issues and slow pre-sales.
At the Park Hyatt Los Angeles in Century City, 75 percent of the hotel’s 363 rooms are booked, a 20 percent improvement over last year. That’s partly because the Michigan Wolverines are staying there.
There are several pricey packages around town. The Hotel Bel-Air is ringing in the New Year with the debut of a Colin Cowie-styled gala dinner ($375 per person) that includes live music, dancing, a five-course meal and a flute of Dom Perignon. It is also offering a four-course, 6 p.m. dinner ($105 per person).
The Queen Mary is charging $99 per person, up from $85 last year, and expects 6,000 attendees at its shindig.
For dining only, Spago Beverly Hills expects to sell out its 6 p.m. $125-per-person seating and its late $250-per-person seating, as it did last year. Prices are consistent with 2003.
And at Patina in the Walt Disney Concert Hall bookings are 10 percent to 15 percent higher than last year, said Marketing Manager Amanda Smith. It has a 5:30 p.m. seating that is $110 for four courses (up from $100 last year) and a 7:30 p.m. seating that is $175 for six courses (up from $155 last year) and includes a D.J., dancing and a champagne toast at midnight.
We’ll Drink to That
Adolfo Suaya will be trading his coconuts for a scorpion.
Suaya, founder of the Gaucho Grill chain, will close Los Cocos, a Mexican restaurant at 6679 Hollywood Blvd. on New Year’s Day. In its place, he and a new set of partners will open L Scorpion, which will feature a large variety of tequila, a tequila sommelier and a Mexican menu.
Suaya is teaming with Table 8’s Chris Heyman and Josh Woodward, film director Robert Rodriguez and Mexico City businesswoman Kathia Molina.
Rodriquez, who directed “Desperado,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and “El Mariachi,” will handle much of the interior design and development of a menu with family recipes.
Construction will begin in January and the restaurant is expected to open in early summer. The group also hopes to open a second L Scorpion in Austin, Texas this summer.
Around the corner at 1710 N. Las Palmas Ave., in the same building as L Scorpion and at the former site of Bar Deluxe, Woodward, Heyman and a third principal, Jonas Lowrence, are opening ROK Bar, a venue that originated in Miami Beach. As in Miami, Motley Cr & #252;e drummer Tommy Lee and D.J. Paul Oakenfold are partners. ROK Bar here is scheduled to open in mid-February, prior to the Grammy Awards.
Dusty’s
After opening five restaurants in Montreal, selling them in the 1990s and becoming involved in real estate, restaurateur Maria Miller is back in the food business with a Silver Lake restaurant called Dusty’s.
Miller and son David DiSalvio are partners in the venture at 3200 Sunset Blvd. American Apparel’ Dov Charney, who is friends with Miller and her two sons, is an investor.
The 2,300-square-foot restaurant serves primarily French cuisine, as well as Continental European fare and sandwiches.
Staff reporter Rebecca Flass can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230, or at
[email protected].
