Avalon Hotel Offers Isle of Exotic Drinks

The new boutique Avalon hotel (sister to Maison 140 in Beverly Hills) is set in what looks very like a mid-century motel and has, as the Avalon’s Web site puts it, a “storied heritage as the hotel where Marilyn Monroe once lived.” It goes on to inform the Web surfer in search of accommodation in Los Angeles that the Avalon has been “thoroughly re-created” under the direction of interior designer of the moment Kelly Wearstler. Neither piece of information would convince me to rush out and reserve a room for the weekend, but when a friend blew into town a couple of weeks ago, he checked into the Avalon.

That gave me an excuse to try the hotel’s new restaurant, Blue on Blue. At first I wasn’t sure if those tables set around the perimeter of the pristine bowling-pin-shaped pool constituted the restaurant or not. Or was it the collection of low-slung tables and chairs in front of the bar? Both, as it turns out. Sit anywhere you like, the affable waiter told us before rushing off to serve someone the hotel’s signature drink--which is, of course, blue--with a twist.

The tables outside with a view of the turquoise expanse of pool and the indigo sky above beckoned. Nobody was swimming, but a few guests were making cell phone calls from the severe rectangular chaise longues on either side of a decorative bamboo grove.

Votive candles flutter like white moths from tabletops and alcoves, and our table is decorated with a glazed white flowerpot mounded with moss. It’s all very Hollywood Zen.

The dinner menu is short and sweet, filled out with the usual suspects--crab cakes, baby greens, Caesar, seared scallops, ahi. The food, however, is better than expected. Those crab cakes, plump and golden, and tasting of fresh lump crabmeat, take off with a startling chipotle-fired aioli. Other “beginnings” include a watermelon and goat cheese salad embellished with cilantro oil. Either the suave penne with barely cooked lobster and sweet fresh corn or the tasty mushroom meatloaf on mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy would make a nice enough supper.

Given the young crowd here, it’s not surprising the management puts more effort into its cocktails than the wine list. How can a Morro Bay Chardonnay or Trefethen’s Cabernet compete with a key lime pie martini (a headache-defying mixture of Stoli Vanil, fresh and bottled lime juices and--get ready--whipped cream) or a librarians’ martini of Southern Comfort, amaretto, sweetened fresh lime juice and cranberry juice for interest? They can’t. Not when you and your friends can lounge in one of the beach cabanas sipping these exotic concoctions.

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Blue on Blue, Avalon Hotel, 9400 West Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 277-5221; fax, (310) 277-4928; https://www.avalon-hotel.com. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Dinner appetizers $7 to $14; main courses $16 to $27. Valet parking is complimentary for dinner guests.