LAS PALMAS HOLLYWOOD

From the street, Las Palmas Hollywood looks like a poorly-aging Mexican restaurant, but it’s one of the hottest clubs in town—the kind of place where Carmen Electra celebrates her birthday and where Leonardo DiCaprio and drinking buddies hang out. If you’re worried about getting past the velvet rope, show up early to enjoy a quiet dinner before the scene heats up.

The dining room features a dramatic 500-gallon jellyfish tank over the bar, windows hidden behind sheets of cascading water, a tin-stamped ceiling, and neon-illuminated blue shag carpeting on the walls. In the midst of it all are candlelit white-linened tables and some cozy booths at which to enjoy well-prepared caramelized sea scallops with onion confit and balsamic reduction, sashimi, Korean rib-eye with jalapeño butter, and rack of lamb.

Owned by nightlife veteran Loyal Pennings’ h.wood Group, with partners John Terzian and Brian Toll, Las Palmas Hollywood represents the second coming of one of Hollywood’s most legendary clubs. Originally opened by Pennings in 1998 in what was once a low-rent Mexican restaurant, Las Palmas became the place to be if you were hip and famous. And as such, it became notorious for its iron-clad door policy. The club itself is basically one large room, split into three distinct parts: a bar area, a sunken dance floor and wide-open hangout space with a tiny stage for impromptu performances such as the one put on by singer Ferras during a break in the DJ’s set on opening night.

There is also an outdoor patio where skinny types suck down cigarettes with abandon. A high ceiling with dark wooden rafters, Spanish-style arches and tile and a glowing jellyfish tank behind the main bar (the one feature left from the original Las Palmas Hollywood) round out the scene.

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