Beverly Hills may be home to bigger—and perhaps splashier—hotels than The Thompson, but there is none that can claim to be cooler.
Yes, it’s true that Beverly Hills has its fair share of grande dame hotels. And yes, it is equally true that each of those hotels come complete with storied histories embroidered with tales of scandalous celebrity romances, lavish soirees and all sorts of shenanigans of the rich and famous. Likewise, at some point in time, each of the hotels that now rank among the top tier of Beverly Hills’ most tony addresses has also been crowned the fairest address of them all in Beverly Hills. All of that is a given.
But, though aging and change happen in Beverly Hills in a much different way (and rate) than they do in most other parts of the world, the fact remains that time marches on, bringing with it a slate of new faces and hotspots. And there is no brighter star in the 90210 at the moment than The Thompson, a boutique hotel with a discernible hipster edge that sets it apart from its more traditionally elegant neighbors.
Ornate and precious are not at all the descriptors that spring to mind when you step into the lobby of The Thompson. Instead, adjectives like sleek, modern and contemporary provide the most accurate introduction to The Thompson experience. But then again, what else might one expect from a hotel group with a manifesto (not a corporate philosophy, mind you) that states the following:
More precisely, our inspirations are those distinct personalities we wish we’d known, and raised a glass with, from Julie Christie to Steve McQueen, Michael Caine (in Alfie mode) to Marcello Mastroianni, Grace Kelly to Alfred Hitchcock, Pablo Picasso to Jean-Luc Godard. Edie Sedgwick to Chet Baker. “Let’s get lost,” indeed. If they were real, we’d welcome in The Royal Tenenbaums and The Big Lebowski. We’d go to Paris for absinthe to fuel Dorothy Parker’s Round Table, or to the desert for peyote to bedazzle Bill Burroughs’ Beats. We’d be on the bus with Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. Further! Mick Jagger, circa 1973? Sure, bloke. Bobby Kennedy? Enter, Mister President.
They had me at Julie Christie.
But they really won me over when I arrived at the hotel and found that I had been upgraded to one of the property’s recently renovated penthouse suites, where floor-to-ceiling windows peer out over the sprawl of Los Angeles and a minimalist, muted décor creates an effortlessly inviting environment for the discerning urban professional who demands more of hotel than a place to rest a travel-weary head.
My suite functioned not only as my temporary accommodation but also as a home away from home and a proper workspace thanks to both a full kitchen and dining area that easily doubled as a conference space. Beyond that, the vibe of the Thompson is such that it is the penultimate meeting place. Take a meeting in your suite, meet a client for lunch at the stellar Caulfield’s (and do try the Lobster Club) or take advantage of the rooftop bar, which is exclusively reserved for hotel guests and offers some of the best views in Beverly Hills. And then, in between it all, slip up to the pool, order a cocktail and savor the best that one of America’s most buzzed-about zip codes has to offer.
Whatever you do, try The Thompson, because as the hotel’s manifesto clearly states, they “are not your grandfather’s notion of hotel.” In fact, they are something infinitely more appealing.
Find out more about The Thompson Beverly Hills at thompsonhotels.com.