The Beverly Hills Flats

 

“Beverly Hills” is really a misnomer, since not all of Beverly Hills is, indeed, hilly. Particularly in recent years, some of the most expensive transactions in Beverly Hills have been in the area of Beverly Hill affectionately called “The Flats.” “The Flats” can encompass a few different areas, but here I’ll call it from Santa Monica Boulevard north to Sunset and then another handful of streets north of that. The streets in “The Flats” are generally wide and easy to navigate, and a walk (Walking? in LA?) is even possible on the sidewalks.

 

A little bit of everyone and every type of architecture. There are plenty of new mansions, old English Tudors, old 1920s and 1930s Spanishes … and everything in between. For many years the wrecking ball did, indeed, wreck havoc on some of the best old homes in Beverly Hills. Now the city is trying to be more stringent about preserving its classic old architecture – in both the Flats and in the hills to their north.

 

Lucille Ball, Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth, Madonna, Jeff Bezos, David Geffen, and Gene Hackman.

 

The Coffee Shop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Boutiques on and near Rodeo Drive, Porta Via for a killer Cobb Salad, Dr. Harold Lancer for dermatology, Dr. Brian Novack for that nip-tuck, stylist Catherine Bloom at Neiman Marcus, the Beverly Hills Library (where I wrote a lot of my first novel), the Cactus Garden on Bedford, Avra for Greek food in a “who’s-who among the olive trees” setting.