So, what’s behind the Green Door?

“EITHER you belong here or you don’t,” says Green Door gatekeeper Tom Colley. “It’s as simple as that.”

Try telling that to the throngs of hopefuls who queue up nightly outside the Ivar Street lounge -- the hottest bar in Hollywood since it opened this summer. Heidi Klum held her Halloween bash at the Green Door, Orlando Bloom likes to dine at the club and Lawrence Bender held his 50th birthday party inside the French salon-themed lounge. “I’ve been offered upwards of $4,000, courtside tickets to basketball games. . . . I even had one guy offer me a ride on his private jet to France,” Colley says. “What happens is, you have people who have a ton of money and they’re used to getting everything they want -- and then they come here.”

But the dapper doorman, who learned his trade under the tutelage of Amanda Scheer Demme at Teddy’s three years ago, accepts no gifts when making the all-important decision of who actually gets into the 430-capacity room on a busy night. Acting as more of a curator than a doorman, Colley typically ends up letting in regulars, those who called ahead and are on the list and, of course, groups of well-dressed models. In fact, on any given night after 11, you are likely to hear Colley announce that capacity has been reached, only to let in a group of Dior-clad women -- frustrating many men, many of them, of course, “producers.”

“We try to take care of everyone the best we can, but some nights we just can’t get everyone in,” says one of the club’s owners, Johnny Zander.

Not that any of this is new in Los Angeles. Scenes of outright desperation have played out in front of clubs since the days of the Roxbury. But the Green Door seems to have hit on a timeless quality that transcends Hollywood’s of-the-moment feel.

High ceilings and peeling, textured walls greet visitors as they first enter the front room of the bar, which is actually outdoors. Farther inside, faux French antique furniture is everywhere, as are antique mirrors and plants.

Sweeping velvet drapes partially conceal a library (replete with faux fireplace), and a massive chandelier hangs over a circular couch that sits upon a dark wooden floor.

“You feel like you are transformed out of Hollywood to somewhere in deep Europe,” co-owner Chris Breed says. “You can fade into a whole different experience here.”

The unique chateau-like vibe of the bar is largely Zander’s vision. “It’s based on an old French salon,” he says.

“I was fortunate enough to have dinner at [designer] Karl Lagerfeld’s house 11 years ago . . . and the feeling of the bar is partially based on what I felt when I was there.”

-- Charlie.Amter@latimes.com

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THE GREEN DOOR

WHERE: 1429 Ivar Ave., Hollywood

WHEN: 8 p.m.- 2 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday

PRICE: No cover

INFO: (323) 463-0008