Slow down, drink tea, smell roses

You don’t have to be at home to feel at home.

Suddenly you come upon an oasis of unsurpassed beauty -- say, the curving allee of palms, hundreds of them, on Beverly Boulevard. Or you discover a haven of calm right in the midst of the city, like the tiny green space with its pond and waterfall behind an office building in Mid-Wilshire.

You breathe a sigh of relief: You’ve been given a respite from your louder, busier life.

My own private idyll is Elixir, an unexpected retreat on Melrose Avenue. I treat it like my second home, the one I don’t have to clean up. No matter what time of day I go, I get that simultaneous sense of quieting down and coming to life.

Maybe it’s the superior white, green and black teas the staffers brew, or Elixir’s amusingly named tonics that fix just about anything that might be afflicting you, including a bad attitude: Mind Over Muddle, Depth Recharger, Liquid Yoga, Virtual Buddha.

Mostly, though, I think it’s the setting that does it. Carrying my black lacquered tray of tea and tonic, I walk through French doors onto a veranda overlooking a garden, and I hear the fountain, the whish and clack of bamboo, birds, background music. I sit in one of the weathered wicker seats, and I stop, look, listen. I wish I lived here -- and I do, for a little while.

Elixir, 8612 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood,

(310) 657-9300.