Kitschy but classy, the hotel lets guests chill and drink poolside next to an enormous outdoor fireplace. At the lobby bar there’s a tiki influence, with spiked snow cones (like the boozy Chi Chi with vodka and coconut) as well as a drink named for the hotel itself: The Garland 1972, a mega-Mai Tai with Plantation rum, aperol, lime and a swizzle stick emblazoned with the phrase, “Keep The Good Times Going!”
The hotel’s restaurant, the Front Yard, also has a bustling bar, dripping in late mid-century modalities, from Bob Dylan posters to Mexican conceptual sculptures to glass bubble cage sconces. The Holy Smokes, made with mezcal infused with Madagascar vanilla and Thai chiles, is a vignette of the valley in a glass. Listen in on the buzz and you might hear two friends debating 1980s Filipino politics, New York City fashion designer gossip, or tales of the gay bar scene in Berlin — from North Hollywood to the world, this is a superlative bar in which to be a fly on the wall.
