The Swan Map · Los Angeles · 6 rooms
Where to go outin Los Angeles.
The drive decides the evening, so each night is one neighbourhood. And it is the only city on this list where being overdressed reads as being from out of town.
Open to you right away
One room, given in full
The night, the hour the room fills with the people you came for, who is in it at that hour, and what an evening there actually costs. No sign-up, no email.
Hotel bar · Beverly Hills
Polo Lounge, The Beverly Hills Hotel
The oldest deal-making room in Los Angeles, and still the one where the industry's senior people actually have breakfast and drinks.
- When
- mardi, mercredi, jeudi · 5.30 – 8pm
- The check
- $40 to $90 for drinks; $40 to $70 for breakfast.
- Getting in
- Book ahead
Who is there
Entertainment, at the level where people have assistants. It is also a hotel, so a meaningful part of the room is in town for a week and has nobody to have a drink with.
What to wear
Los Angeles formal, which is relaxed and expensive: good trousers and a silk shirt, or a simple dress in one colour. A flat or a low heel. A full evening look at seven reads as out of town.
How to walk in
The patio, not the inside room, and the bar rather than a table. Breakfast is the undervalued slot — the room is half full, the conversations are business rather than social, and nobody is defensive at nine in the morning.
At the bar, early, to someone also alone.
“Is this a meeting that finished early or one that has not started?”
In this room it is always one of the two, and it gets a real answer. Then ask what they are working on — in Los Angeles that is a polite question, not an intrusive one.
This room has not been visited in person for Swan Club yet. Call before you travel — and if you go, tell us what you found and we will correct the page.
In The Club
5 more in Los Angeles, where the people who decide cross paths
Memberships, invitations, rooms where the hour matters more than the address — fewer people, and more of the ones who count. You do not walk into these by accident. For each one, the same thing as above: the night, the hour, what to wear, and the first sentence.
Galleries
Westwood
Sport
Santa Monica / Culver City
Racetrack
Arcadia
Benefit
Mid-Wilshire / Downtown
Galleries
Downtown Arts District / Hollywood