On Ducking Under the Velvet Rope

I think through the course of the 3+ years I’ve written weekly essays, I’ve proven that I’m a pretty normal guy. I put my pants on two legs at a time while doing a stylish backflip just like everybody else. Living as a native Angelino, however, I’ve gotten to do my fair share of very cool things. I’ve seen cool musicians at small intimate venues, watched some of the greatest athletes in the world, stop and stare at celebrities just trying to do regular stuff like get a coffee or go to Universal Studios with their kid…but these are all kind of normal things that you could do in most major cities. This past week I got to do something I’ve never done before, something you can only do in beautiful Los Angeles, California: spend a night hanging out at the Chateau Marmont with the people who know it best.

The Chateau Marmont is an LA landmark. It was originally an apartment building built in 1929. If you know anything about history, you’ll know that 1929 was a top-10 worst time to build a luxury apartment building, what with the Great Depression and all. This beautiful assortment of apartments was converted into a hotel in 1931, just in time to benefit from the tourism generated by the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Since then, the Chateau has become an oasis for rich and famous people to hang out together away from the riff-raff (aka the rest of us who by our mere presence remind them of the inequality they massively benefit from).

If I’ve learned one thing in my 32 years of living, it’s that there’s nothing cooler than hanging out in a place with people who work there…and that’s exactly what I got to do. Thanks to some dear friends, who I won’t name (because I don’t want to blow up their spot) I was able (with my family and fiancé) to have an incredible dinner in the most envious corner table, with a couple of folks who knew all the ins and outs of the hotel and restaurant. I got to hear tales of which celebrities were kind and normal, which ones were haughty assholes, and which ones just got the soup every night even though all the food is really good!

This was another experience that continued to teach me that there is no better way to judge someone’s character than by how they treat service workers. Whether you’re grabbing a coffee at Starbucks or spending thousands of dollars to live at this wild old hotel while they do construction on your multi-million dollar mansion, the people who make it all happen are always listening, they’re always watching, and they’re always ready to spill the tea…because what else is there to do when you work too much and get paid not enough to deal with people who work not enough and get paid too much?!

So, what’s your version of my Chateau Marmont experience?