A high water mark: not your DWP stuff

Contemplating all the Prada, Gucci, Dior and more on display along Rodeo Drive is dizzying enough. The exhaustion of tempering all that consumerist desire with financial reality can wear a person down.

Perhaps it’s a good thing that within stiletto-tottering distance of Tiffany & Co. there’s a new hotel bar where a lady can have a proper drink -- of water, designer water. Just enter the remodeled and renamed lobby bar and restaurant at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, now christened The Blvd. (And yes, there are stronger, alcoholic drinks on the menu -- if necessary.)

The hotel is famous for its address at Rodeo and Wilshire, its starring role in “Pretty Woman” and its reputation as a luxurious, if somewhat stuffy, gathering place for tuckered-out shoppers and business fat cats with fat wallets and their prey.

The Blvd is trying to change that reputation. Its mix of crystal chandeliers, black leather, and ebony and chocolate velvet aims to be modern, fresh and innovative, just like its water menu.

Slide up to the illuminated onyx bar and the uniformed waiter will deliver a suede-trimmed menu listing eight varieties of sparkling water and nine of still, arranged by flavor and texture “intensity.” The list starts with the gently effervescent Voss (an ultra-premium water from Central Norway, the menu explains) and descends to Ty Nant, the “bold, well-balanced composition [that] compliments crisp food textures.” All of the multiple-serving bottles are $6 apiece and are poured into Spiegelau crystal stemware that rests on an embroidered doily.

Now if all this fuss over water seems a bit far-fetched, then you haven’t ruined a $15 glass of good wine by numbing your palette with a chlorinated sip of eau de DWP. Further, some of those William Morris agents who populate the place prefer to keep their intoxicant intake low throughout an hours-long meeting. The option of fancy water to sip like a cocktail gives a person a socially acceptable alternative. The bonus: A well-chosen water can enhance your gourmand reputation and the flavor of your wine.

To further the fun factor at the bar, there are $28 to $30 flights of wines and the gimmicky $185 Baccaratini, a choice of four martinis served in color-coordinated $175 Baccarat martini glasses, yours to keep.

Though The Blvd’s food and drink prices reflect the ZIP Code, the place aims to be a welcoming, European-styled destination, right down to the alfresco sidewalk seats due this summer. By then, the dark cave of a bar in the back of the hotel will be closing for its own three-month nip and tuck.

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The Blvd

Where: 9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills

When: 6:30 to 11 p.m. daily

Price: Water, $6; beer, $6; wine, $9 to $30 per glass; cocktails, $15 to $185

Info: (310) 275-5200