The Standard Downtown LA

Class: First

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 205

It wasn't so long ago that downtown Los Angeles after six P.M. was a ghost town. This is the case no longer, and it's thanks in no small part to the Downtown Standard — in particular, the rooftop bar, with its astroturf, topiary gardens and waterbed loungers, a fixture on the downtown nightlife scene, and a place so exclusive that guests are issued bracelets to guarantee entry. The former headquarters of the Superior Oil company; the interiors today are bright and funky, and the clientele tends to the youthful and eclectic end of the spectrum. Guest rooms include everything a business traveler could want, including sprawling work desks, T1 lines and cordless phones, but the environment is decidedly slanted toward leisure and entertaining; stereo systems and DVD players are standard, and the minibar contains not just snacks and drinks but also such goodies as disposable cameras and Mr. Bubble for the oversized tubs. The plush (and bright yellow) restaurant is open round the clock, as is room service, and the menu, refreshingly enough, is both familiar and affordable. The lobby bar is a scene unto itself but the real action happens upstairs, in the retro-futuristic rooftop lounge, where red-suited waitresses serve cocktails surrounded by the panorama of the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles.