What's New Downtown L.A.? - Part One

Hello, hello!  I'm going to alternate gloomy NYC posts with sunny L.A. ones for a little while.  

So a couple of weekends ago, Mr. Paradis and me took ourselves off to Downtown L.A. To catch a buzz.......

No, not THAT kind.  But.....the kind of buzz around what is hip and NEW......prompted by this recent article in the NY Times

introducing the brand-new ACE Hotel that has opened on Broadway, Downtown.  

Like NY's, L.A.'s Broadway is a swathe of vintage theaters from the golden age of movie-making-and-going.  From the era when you could spend whole sweltering afternoons inside futuristically cooled and globally referenced and embellished entertainment palaces watching film after film.

Some of these theaters seem utterly untouched by time.  Someone turned off the lights and never came back it seems.  Whereas others.....

have become another animal altogether.   This one, gutted and resurrected as a retail destination, URBAN OUTFITTERS (also of the East Coast!)

And demographics being what they are, for those Urban Outfitters shoppers, yet ANOTHER TWO BOOTS PIZZA (also from NY!) right here, on Broadway.  

But change comes slowly.  If I am honest with you, L.A.'s Downtown is still very much about Latino families out shopping together.  But that is another kind of post.  

Although cafe culture is for the moment colonizing the Downtown-scape, how long will it last?

How to be properly accessorized for your stay at the Ace: standard poodles please!  Just skip the foofy-pocket-pets and go for scale! The Ace strives for a "low-key" vibe but that doesn't mean you can't live large.

The bearded guy with the giant Annie Hall sunglasses and wooly cap?  Yeah, he's your doorman at the Ace Hotel.  The check-in desk guy?  Maybe a little more what you'd expect......

Come back for Parts Two and Three? Cuz there are yet worlds to discover.

In Downtown L.A.  See you here.  Soon.