By Adam Popescu
The fountain coffee shop at the Beverly Hills Hotel is a City institution.
Known for its down-home feel, exceptional food, five-star service and old Hollywood charm, there are few places like it.
“It's a really unusual, fun place to work. It's not like a normal hotel–it's like home,” explained the hotel's Public Relations Director Wendy Schnee.
With life-long counter lovers and generations of repeat business, customers develop a special rapport with the staff here.
Chef Julio Herrarte has worked behind the counter for 18 years, cooking favorites like omelets, waffles and homemade ice cream.
Server Sarah Haynes greets customers by name as well, often knowing exactly what they want, she said.
“When you throw in an expert culinary team, it gets really good,” Schnee said.
Open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the coffee shop offers breakfast options, lunch and dinner fare and 50s’ era specialties like soda, floats, malts and milkshakes, all made with homemade natural ice cream. All pastries, pies and cakes are also made in-house.
“There's nothing like a piece of homemade pie with homemade ice cream,” Schnee said.
The attention-to-detail that has made the hotel an icon in the hospitality industry extends further, Schnee said. Hotel chefs work with guests to accommodate special dietary needs, as well food for some of the pickiest eaters around: children and pets. Hotel chefs even have a special mold for baking doggy biscuits.
Designed by world-renowned architect Paul Williams, the informal restaurant is a historical landmark and favorite spot for generations of industry deal makers. Williams' signature curve style encourages patrons to see people and communicate with each other. (The curved counter was spoofed in an episode of Seinfeld.)
The signature Don Loper banana wallpaper gives the room a 1950s kitsch feel.
Fun fact: the City is named after the self-same hotel, receiving the name “Beverly Hills” in 1914, after the hotel became an incorporated community, because of its large staff.
