The Baby Grand Hotel
On the same island in California where Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis filmed Some Like It Hot, a new boutique property is opening in the bones of the former La Avenida Inn. The Baby Grand, a 31-room hotel from San Diego's CH Projects and Brooklyn design firm Post Company, centers each room on an iridescent clamshell bed. Bathrooms occupy nearly half the floor plan and are finished with clawfoot soaking tubs, marble washstands, and mosaic tile floors. The lobby wears vintage Pompeiian tapestries under a draped fabric ceiling anchored by an oversized Murano chandelier. The former parking lot has been converted into a palm-dense jungle of climbing vines, gas-lit torches, and classical statues surrounding Night Hawk, a Greek open-fire restaurant carved into sculpted rock. Touch the right statue and a hidden passage opens to Fallen Empire, a reservation-only oyster and champagne bar where solid-brass booths in red mohair circle a cocktail bar painted in the style of Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa.
