Here's a look at the best new Los Angeles restaurants, corporate event venues, hotels, bars, lounges, and private party rooms to open for events this fall. These new and renovated Los Angeles venues can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, conferences, meetings, weddings, business dinners, teambuilding activities, cocktail parties, and more.
In June, the H.Wood Group reopened its 1960s Art Deco-inspired Sunset Boulevard nightclub Bootsy Bellows Los Angeles, with revamped interiors as well as new live choreographed burlesque dance sets. The venue holds 500 for receptions in the front room and 200 in the back room. Actor David Arquette, along with John Terzian and Brian Toll, back the venue.
Sunset Entertainment Group opened Le Jardin in Hollywood in June. The new 9,000-square-foot outdoor lounge evokes the feeling of Southern France. The Sunset Entertainment creative team and Gulla Jonsdottir of G+Design accented the patio with olive trees and vines, paved the space with tiles, and included striped lounge seating and two outdoor fire pits. There’s room for 600 with two full-service bars, an intimate dining area, and a Funktion 1 sound system.
Chef and restauranteur Agostino Sciandri opened Italian restaurant Vespaio in May atop downtown’s Bunker Hill. Located on the ground floor of the Emerson luxury apartment building, the eatery is near MOCA, the Music Center, and Disney Hall. The menu features items from the rotisserie and wood-burning oven, as well as pastas and pizzas. The whole venue holds 215 for receptions, and a patio holds 120 for receptions. A private room holds 40.
In June, Santa Catalina Island Company unveiled new indoor-outdoor meetings and event facilities on Catalina Island, 26 miles off the coast of Los Angeles and an hour boat ride away from three different ports. The new Descanso Beach Club, with its picturesque waterfront location, includes 7,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor function space including Catherine’s Terrace, an expansive and flexible 1,900-square-foot banquet space for 150 seated guests, an additional 2,400-square-feet of prefunction space with panoramic views, a 7,000-square-foot catering kitchen, cabanas, and new culinary offerings.
Lore Group opened Bar Fifty Three in June. The bar, which channels the vibe of the Sunset Strip during the 1950s, has leather booths, mid-century modern furnishings, dim lighting, and a rare collection of vintage art and photographs on the walls that reflects the early Playboy aesthetic; the space is named after the year Hugh Hefner created the brand. The venue has both lounge and booth-style seating, a private full bar, a 50-inch TV for custom content, and on-site catering. In all, the space encompasses 790 square feet with room for 60 for receptions.
Adding to the largest renovation in its recent history, the Los Angeles Athletic Club has partnered with designer Timothy Oulton to recreate the historic Blue Room on the building's fourth floor. In its storied history, the space hosted a men’s social club, whose membership included the likes of Will Rogers, Walt Disney, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and Busby Berkeley. (Eventually that group moved to a ranch during Prohibition.) The Blue Room’s new incarnation, which opened in July, includes crystal chandeliers, vintage sporting equipment, historic athletic photos, and antique lockers. Renovators also discovered a concealed staircase ascending from the third floor Invention Bar. Last used in the 1920s, it's now reopened and is accessed via a hidden entrance behind a bookcase. The venue, which holds 100 for receptions, is available for buyouts on certain days of the week.
In June, the hotel Grafton on Sunset in West Hollywood opened with a multimillion-dollar renovation including a new restaurant, lounge, lobby, guest rooms, and pool. The 108 redesigned rooms and suites each include a built-in sitting area with modern design including leather and metal finishes and a palette of gray, cream, and red. The hotel also has five suites that evoke classic Hollywood themes. The hotel features Oliver’s Prime steak house—which seats 60 or holds 100 for receptions—as well as Bar 20 lounge (pictured), which seats 55 or holds 125 for receptions.
Mexican street food restaurant and mezcaleria Cocina Condesa opened in Studio City in June. Food and drink comes from head chef M. Elena Vega and executive mixologist Gilbert Maquez. The façade is brightly colored with yellow, blue, and red details. Inside, there are thick wooden chairs and tables and a long, boxy bar stuffed with Mexican trinkets; outside, a patio faces Ventura Boulevard. The venue is available for buyouts of 250 for receptions.
Enamel Diction is a nail salon located in the Mid-City area. It holds 150 for pampering or teambuilding spa events, and the venue offers personalized nail color astrology readings by Rose Theodora. (Staff is also available for servicing off-site events.) All furniture is easily removed in the 1,000-square-foot spare venue, which can also be used as a raw space. Other features include a storage facility, a Sonos speaker system, the use of a back patio for catering setups, and a permit-free parking zone. The year-old Enamel Diction has just revamped decor with an eye-catching living wall at the front entrance.
Brandon Boudet and Warner Ebbink opened a no-frills bar known as MiniBar, located adjacent to the 101 Coffee Shop in the Best Western hotel in Hollywood. (The two are also behind Dominick’s, Little Dom’s, and the 101 Coffee Shop.) For their new venture, they partnered with sommelier Jeremy Allen. The intimate venue has '70s-style high bar stools and low gold-dipped tables and plays music from the era. The menu offers eight handcrafted simple cocktails, as well as a wine list, beer list, and rare whiskeys. The space, which opened in June, is available for buyouts and holds 50 people for a reception.
