Haute Destination in Downtown LA — Roosevelt Apartments. Who Knew?

My own sense of feeling At Home In Hollywood involves being able to get around quickly, sans traffic jams or Waze, in all the neighborhoods west to the mansions of Malibu, east to the studios of Burbank, north to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and south to Silicon Beach. Then, of course, there are the occasional forays out to Pasadena for the Showcase House of Design every year, and downtown for the occasional Laker’s game or cultural event — but the latter only if someone else drives. I confess dreading downtown L.A.’s crazy freeway on ramps and off ramps (one nicknamed “Suicide Alley”) and trying to maneuver all those one-way streets without winding up in a make-sure-your-doors-are-locked neighborhood.

Until Saturday night, when I was introduced to the Roosevelt Apartments.

In your head right now, you’re likely picturing the Roosevelt in Hollywood, and you’d be mistaken. I’ve been to that legendary hotel dozens of times, for movie premiere parties, celebrity gifting suites, intense meetings with entertainment execs, and lunches by the David Hockney painted pool with out-of-town guests I’m trying to impress. This Roosevelt is a haute apartment building on 7th and Flower, as downtown L.A. as downtown L.A. can be.

A set of “only in L.A.” circumstances took me there. With 24-hours’ notice, my husband and I were invited to the rooftop wedding celebration of a hip couple I’d never met before. Here’s how it all went down: a few weeks prior, I’d been asked to join an Irish design tour, called The Retreat, with top interior designer Grania Murray, whose celebrity clients include Pierce Brosnan, Andre Agassi and Seffi Graf. Her take on design? “Being raised in Dublin – tripping over culture everywhere I looked –  has given me my spirit, my sense of color and  above all, my recognition of objects of exquisite craftsmanship. Now that I live in LA, I’m loving the sunny, edgy, yet casual way of life, and my Irish background allows me to add a European twist to the Southern California lifestyle.” How could I refuse a trip being guided by a woman with a sense of design like that? Grania and I were spending a considerable amount of time on the phone going over the details, when on Friday she popped out with, “I just got married and we’re having a rooftop celebration tomorrow. Why don’t you and your husband come? We ask that you wear cream or white.”

Now that was intriguing, and could be worth the Dreaded Trip Downtown, even though Hollywood’s Guru of Hue Jill Kirsh tells me that white is not really in my Warm Blond color palate, and that a pinky beige is a better neutral for me. I could rustle something up in my closet, and my Jim was dying for an opportunity to wear his new cream linen blazer.

We had no idea what to expect, other than a whole new coterie of interesting people we’d never met before. We’re kind of into that. But when we finally located the lobby, we were overwhelmed by it’s glamor, with marble marble everywhere, ornamentation up to the ceiling and beyond, and elegant, modern crystal chandeliers. It took two elevators to whisk us up to the penthouse, and friendly residents entering and exiting on different floors gave us peeks of elevator lobbies with grand photo and art displays.

Once we reached the penthouse, we were treated to a chic club house, Asian inspired planters and water and fire features, a pool, terraces with bars and cooking facilities. Then there were the glittering city views of downtown Los Angeles at night. Jim and I looked at each other with the same unspoken thoughts in our heads. “Cosmopolitan living at it’s finest. Could we ever trade our suburban lifestyle for something like this? Maybe…”

Then there were the fabulously diverse and friendly guests: young and old, large and small, a cultural rainbow all dressed in cream and white. Once we got over the embarrassment of congratulating and introducing ourselves to the wrong couple, then finally meeting the very congenial Grania and Mark, we felt like we fit right in. So much so, in fact, that we asked the concierge for rent info on our way out.

We found that there are currently a decent number of apartments for rent, from studios to three bedroom, three baths to a penthouse, with rents ranging from $2,400 per month to $5,300 per month for the penthouse, confirming what Grania had told us earlier, that prices were far lower than they had been in Santa Monica, where she was living before she married Mark.

While we waited for the valet to bring our car around, we chatted with the people eating on the patio of 10E, an elegant restaurant right next door. One man acted as if he owned the place. Turns out he did, and he invited us in for a drink. Oh, and the bouncers at the door of a pub called Dublin, a little further down, told me to go on in and have a look, but they’d have to card me first. I know they were just being cheeky, but I fall for that every time.

As Jim and I drove home, we discussed the possibilities. He’s a New Yorker originally, and has always longed to return to big city life. And every time I visit a major metro like New York, London or Barcelona, I speculate what life would be like in the busy thick of things. We could rent out our suburban homestead for a few years…Heaven knows there’d be a market for it…

But all those visions of becoming an uptown couple disappeared when we pulled into the driveway and saw our big white ball of fluff wagging excitedly at us from his chair in the living room bay window. Frankie Feldman is not a big fan of the city life — he shies away from traffic and needs green lawns and big trees to sniff on his daily walks. Besides, he’d probably collapse in a big heap of doggie depression if we took him away from the neighborhood kids, and they’d be devastated as well if he became a downtown dog. So Jim and I will be content to visit Mark and Grania and all those beautiful restaurants every now and then. We do this not for ourselves, but for the love of Frankie Feldman.

Haute Destination in Downtown LA — Roosevelt Apartments. Who Knew?