Twirling the Night Away

It’s a Saturday night, and we’re all dressed up and headed for the Regent Beverly Wilshire for dinner. That’s the posh hotel at the foot of Rodeo Drive so beloved of tourists with an itch to shop the boutiques on the famous Beverly Hills boulevard. As we pull into the drive, valets snap to attention, the extravagant flowers in the lobby ready themselves to be admired, and as we approach the desk, a smiling host locates our reservation without a moment’s hesitation. Ah, there are our friends, already seated at a table in the Dining Room. We say hello, and I realize I can’t quite catch the name of their friend. That’s because the trio playing light jazz and standards is placed 10 feet from our table.

Who knew this normally solemn restaurant featured dinner and dancing on the weekends? Apparently everybody else that night. The opulently decorated room is filled with couples waving to each other as they take to the dance floor--courtly gentlemen who know how to twirl a lady, and beautifully coiffed, bejeweled women showing off their figures in short evening dresses. Whatever their age, they’re nimble on their feet--here because they love to dance. One couple, obviously students of ballroom dance, dazzle with their footwork. A new grandfather twirls slowly on the floor with his baby granddaughter in his arms. Soon we’re swaying to the music at our table, caught up in the festive mood.

I can’t say that the food is particularly memorable that night. It’s typical of the style you find in so many high-end hotel restaurants: all looks, not so much taste. It’s not bad. It’s just not very distinctive. My mother would, I’m sure, be impressed by the quality of the silver, the linens and the porcelain, though. That’s why bringing her here would be such fun. She’d reminisce about the supper clubs of her youth. Besides, how often do you get swept up in such a feeling of joyful abandon? I envied those octogenarians cutting up on the dance floor. And I went home and put on some Duke Ellington.

BE THERE

The Dining Room, Regent Beverly Wilshire, 9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 275-5200. Open for lunch and dinner daily; dinner and dancing on Friday and Saturday nights. Dinner appetizers $9 to $23; main courses $16 to $40. Valet parking.