A View From Above

Anytime you see a movie about Los Angeles that features at least one sweeping view of the L.A. skyline, you'll see one of the most recognizable buildings in town: The Westin Bonaventure. It's that snazzy building that looks like a pile of silver poker chips reaching towards the sky: four cylindrical towers surrounding a taller, fifth tower, all with floor-to-ceiling glass. There are elevators in each of the four towers, each color coded. There's a huge atrium complete with a bar, fountains, a lagoon of sorts, trendy (read: expensive) shops, and rather high-priced rooms. Swanky and overdone in a way. But the real star is upstairs, on the 35th floor.

When I was young and visiting my relatives in Los Angeles, I'd ride with my grandparents or my parents downtown to visit my great-grandmother, and my uncles would tell me about the bar and restaurant on the top of the Bonaventure, which is right by the 110 downtown. "You can see all of Los Angeles from up there," they'd say. "It's a really nice place, and it revolves 360 degrees. You can have a drink and view the whole town."

Of course, when you're ten, this sounds really adult, very adventurous, suave, trendy, and all that being a carefree (yeah, right!) adult implies. I always told myself someday I'd have the money to just waltz in and stay there, or at least go up to the top.

Well, I'm unemployed, poor, and most definitely an adult, but today was the day I finally went to the top of the Bonaventure. A group of us gathered after an interpreted play ("Without Walls," starring Lawrence Fishburne, at the Taper Forum) for drinks downstairs from the Taper, then decided to head over to the Bonaventure to meet a friend who was in town for a conference. We went over to the Bonaventure, and entered the lobby. Wow, I'm here.

The four elevators go all the way up, but only the Red elevator went to the restaurant. It's this same elevator that was used in the movie, "True Lies," starring Herr Gropenfuhrer. We got on the lift, and up we went. It's a glass elevator (no Charlie or Willy Wonka, sorry), so as we wooshed up and felt the pressure in our ears, we could see the streets of Los Angeles unfold before us. Once we reached the 35th floor, we disembarked, and entered BonaVista, the revolving bar atop the Bonaventure.

It's a comfortable, somewhat upscale bar. Nothing to write home about in terms of the seats, the carpeting, or the decor. But the views were what we came for, and views were what we got. Yep, it definitely revolves, and it was a rather clear day-- while the ocean wasn't completely in sight, we could see all of downtown, out towards the Baldwin Hills, west towards Century City, northeast to Griffith Park and Hollywood... One newfound friend and I wondered how long it would take for the floor to make a complete revolution. "About an hour," he opined. Roughly an hour later, the floor had returned to its original spot at the time of that remark, so he was right.

The cost of the drinks are about par (or a little bit more) with some of the bars I've been to recently. They're pretty good, but again, it's the view-- the view from above.

I may never be rich, I certainly am not carefree, but I've been to the Bonaventure. Touch finish!