Beverly Hills has long been a city of luxury. And soon you could also have a piece of that luxury that might even make you smell luxurious.
The Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce has licensed the city’s iconic shield logo for a luxury perfume. The perfume is expected to launch next spring, with a full line of beauty products to follow.
The city chose Bradford Licensing Associates Inc., a New Jersey company, which selected Long Beach-based JT Brands to create the perfume. Beverly Hills will earn money through royalties, and hopes that the product will be featured in high-end department stores worldwide.
Dan Walsh, chief executive of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, said the city has previously licensed its logo for media-related products, but this is the first time the shield will be part of a retail line.
“The idea was to see if we could monetize the value of the trademark,” Walsh said. “Introducing a perfume and beauty product line is a hand-in-glove fit with the Beverly Hills lifestyle that the brand stands for. The city has worked hard over many years to forge itself in the minds of the consumers as the luxury center of the world.”
He said the perfume would sell for between $75 and $150 or more.
Splitting Up
The Fashion District’s business improvement district is dividing into two following protests from some property owners that the district had grown too big and annual dues were too high.
Kent Smith, executive director of the Fashion District, said the BID’s leaders decided to break off roughly one-third of the district and name it “Fashion District II.”
Though the size of the two new districts combined will actually be larger than the original BID, Smith said the new budget for both new districts will total less, dropping from $3.7 million to $3.5 million.
“We recognized that we’re in very challenging economic times, so we’ve made every effort to lower our costs,” he said. “We’re going to do more with less in a very literal sense.”
Barbecue, Anyone?
Their nouveau Korean cuisine concept has been successful on the Westside, so now two neophytes in the restaurant game are dreaming of creating even more eateries.
Gyenari in Culver City was the brainchild of Danny Kim and William Shin, who teamed up with L.A. restaurateur Robert Benson. They launched the upscale Korean barbecue in summer.
Gone are the intimidating servers and smoky grills. Gyenari’s servers will barbecue your bulgogi thin slices of marinated beef on its custom down-draft grills that don’t leave diners smelling like their lunch.
Kim heads operations for and is a partner in Benson’s company, Open Menu Inc. Shin runs Crown Edition LLC, an electronics importer and wholesale luggage manufacturer.
Their long-term plans are to turn Gyenari into a chain of accessible, upscale eateries that feature a mix of traditional Korean and fusion food.
“Korean food has been orphaned,” said Benson, who also serves as Gyenari’s executive chef. “Chinese, Japanese, Thai and even Vietnamese food has been done. We want to be the Korean P.F. Chang’s.”
The partners invested about $3 million into the restaurant, which includes a hefty sum paid for the custom grills and soon-to-be installed booth seating in the main dining room.
Their goal in the next three to five years is to have at least one more full-service Gyenari and a quick-service concept.
News and Notes
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts announced it will open the second location of its luxury boutique brand in January. The Andaz West Hollywood will be at the site of the old “Riot Hyatt,” so named for the rock bands that have carried out wild antics there Jakks Pacific Inc. has teamed up with eBay to auction off four one-of-a-kind Cabbage Patch Kids dolls created to look like Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin to benefit the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. The auction ends Nov. 4.
Staff reporter Maya Meinert can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.
