Even in a time of roaring apartment construction in Los Angeles, the new Circa complex downtown is hard to miss.
There are scattered wooden work stations where guests or visitors can plop down and be or at least act productive. Hochberg hopes local residents will be among the people hanging out. Among their earlier attention-grabbers are Good Times at Davey Wayne’s, a 1970s-themed speakeasy in Hollywood entered through a refrigerator and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a Koreatown nightclub that combines Art Deco with disco. Their Parisian cocktail lounge Pour Vous had burlesque dancers.
It’s been a hard slog, though, to meet all the safety, health and design requirements of building complicated bars and restaurants far above the street. “It’s all about differentiation,” he said. “You’re trying to differentiate your box from the box down the street.” Hotels in California urban centers such as San Francisco, San Jose and downtown Los Angeles have also recovered but are still lagging behind their 2019 peaks, he said. Such markets are more reliant on business travelers and conventioneers, who have yet to return in full force.
A wonderful place to dine and watch the street takeovers.