UP ALL NIGHT / BILL HIGGINS : Where Lookers Look
Remember when people went “looking for America?” It was a 1960s phenomenon that usually occurred in Neil Diamond songs or films starring Peter Fonda. A ‘90s version of this is Stringfellows. It’s where people come looking for Beverly Hills.
Nestled in the elbow corner on Via Rodeo (that’s the new shopping street with the Disney-gone-Gucci proportions across from the Regent Beverly Wilshire) is the restaurant/disco that Peter Stringfellow opened six months ago. He owns similar establishments in London, New York and Miami.
Traditionally, the one thing all those seekers of America got was a surprise. This is no less the case with Stringfellows. A $4-million restaurant/disco on Rodeo Drive conjures up images of rich foreigners trolling the bar, senior citizens in designer baseball jackets puffing away on the dance floor and an admittance policy that excludes almost everyone but members of the British royal family.
True, the club does have its share of the first two, but it redeems itself with a door policy that is pragmatically democratic. If you’ve got $10 (weekends: $15) and are reasonably well-dressed, they let you in. It’s as simple as that. The de rigueur hulking doorman says he only turns away customers in tennis shoes and dirty jeans. That’s the democratic part.
“And if it was a famous person in tennis shoes and dirty jeans, I’d let him in,” adds manager Roger Howe. That’s the pragmatic part. This attitude (combined with a policy of giving models free memberships) makes for a good-looking young crowd, like the regulars at Roxbury, but better dressed. “Armani for men, minimal for women,” is the way one patron described the predominant fashion.
Mixed in are the somewhat older customers, who come for dinner at the critically well-regarded restaurant then wander upstairs to the disco when it opens at 10 p.m. This can make for startling cross-generational mixes.
“One night I came in and saw Jerry Dunphy and Ed McMahon,” recalled one young woman. “I said, ‘God, am I in the wrong place or what?’ ”
Disco-goers confront one of the club’s limitations. Though the building can hold 700, the glass-floored dance area would be jammed with 150. Dancers also are assaulted with the lights and lasers of an over-amped ‘70s disco. You half expect a white-suited John Travolta to appear in a puff of smoke.
As if to compensate for this, Stringfellows’ patio with tables set under white umbrellas evokes a European feeling. No, make that a Beverly Hills feeling.
Name: Stringfellows, 206 Via Rodeo Drive, (213) 285-9909. Open for lunch Monday through Saturday; open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Disco open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. weekdays, 3:30 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Cover: $10 weekdays, $15 Friday and Saturday. Become a model, get in free. Must be 21 or older to enter the upstairs disco.
Doormen: Very friendly, no attitude.
Drinks: In the disco, beers $4, drinks $5 and up.
Expected Longevity: These guys didn’t invest $4 million because they were planning to leave town.
