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July 16, 2008
Can Suede Save the Tacky Bonaventure?
Suede Bar, downtown's newest lounge, opened last week with little fanfare. Can the red suede bar that promises "beautiful staff" and a "sexy ambience" save The Westin Bonaventure from its tacky self or is it just more of the same?
Downtown's Westin Bonaventure Hotel is odd. While it was perhaps a shining beacon of commerce and luxury travel when it first opened in 1976, the fading hotel now reads more like a bad 70's porn film. It's kind of groovy, but ends up creepy. The addition of L.A. Prime in the 80's, a move thought to return the Bonaventure to its glory days, did little to change the minds of downtown residents and out of town guests. The Bonaventure's only cachet seems to stem from its role in several films including this month's Hancock, Escape from L.A., This is Spinal Tap, and perhaps most fittingly, the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century show.
Will Suede Bar, with its cigar humidor and coconut mojitos, give The Bonaventure a much-needed boost? Will it become a destination for the after-work crowd to lounge and play and feel "sexy"? We doubt it, but we're willing to check it out to be sure.
Photo by gamillos via Flickr
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I will forever associate it with Ann Jillian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Living_(1980_TV_series)
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LA Prime is terrible...thats why. the view is nice though
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Oh, and their own description makes me never want to go there.
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Whenever I look at it I think of the last scene in that corny "Midnight Madness" movie about those high school kids going around LA on a wacky scavenger hunt.
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I went there last week. It was nice, the ambience was chill, and the staff was "good-looking." However, because it has just opened, their appetizer options weren't available yet because they were just figuring everything out.
The general manager was very nice however, and gave us free cheese and crackers as complements to our drinks for free in lieu of the appetizers.
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I like going to the Bonaventure Brewing Company. It's not bad, and I get Happy Hour prices with my student ID. The inside of the Hotel weirds me out though. All that concrete feels weird. Riding the elevators is fun. Great views. Also the Subway there serves cheap pitchers of beer. Yes, that Subway. Get a sandwich and some beer for really cheap.
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Even though it feels a little predictable to that claim an old, sorta campy thing was cooler than the new cool thing...I will miss the tacky Bonaventure. My college roommates and I spent many happy hours in the rotating bar drinking from movie-camera-shaped mugs and watching L.A.'s freeways from different angles.
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"I like going to the Bonaventure Brewing Company."
Good micro brew for sure. You can always tell from the taste of the beer if a micro brewery keeps their tanks clean and sterile. BBC does. Even though their stout isn't really heavy enough to be a true stout it's still quite tasty. The food isn't bad.
For the best, inexpensive happy hour food downtown try McCormick and Schmick's, top of the stairs, across from the Central Library.
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Wagonmonster - I agree - their own description of it is almost as creepy as the weird indoor fountains and bizarre shops/businesses on that top floor!
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Also the movie In the Line of Fire: the climax is John Malkovich vs. Clint Eastwood and a whole lot of broken Bonaventure glass.
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Also, I believe the major escalator scene in Rain Main took place at the good old Bonaventure...right?