Rolling like a celebrity

Rolling like a celebrity
Even cheapskates can have an exciting time roaming Beverly Hills.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Published Sunday, September 21, 2008

Even if you have no desire to shop till you drop a walletload of money, if you’re in Los Angeles, it’s still worth making the trip to Beverly Hills.

Yes, the brand-name, high-end shops on Rodeo Drive are ridiculously expensive, but ogling is free. And there is much to gape at. All those high-end clothes you normally see only in magazines? In Beverly Hills, you can touch them as they hang on a rack. Rodeo is also home to upscale brands such as Hermes, Chanel, Brooks Brothers and Cartier.

One block east to Beverly Drive, you’ll find some typical chains but also some less expensive, less common shops. Canadian clothing retailer Roots has a small store that offers the company’s trademark comfortable casual wear.

Beverly Hills is also a place to come just to people-watch. Plenty of restaurants and coffee shops, particularly on North Beverly, have outdoor seating, offering a good opportunity to watch the beautiful people who stroll past. And they are beautiful. Celebrity sightings in the Beverly Hills business district are frequent.

If you get tired of watching people, you can start watching TV. The West Coast beachhead of the former Museum of Television & Radio, now The Paley Center for Media, offers access to TV in the same way as its New York outlet. Visitors can watch what’s scheduled to play in theaters, or they can go to the library and call up a TV show from the center’s archives.

Eateries run the gamut from chains to local restaurants, like Nate’n Al, Delicatessen Restaurant with $7 to $14 sandwiches, and The Beverly Hills Diner, where a burger can be had for less than $6.

At the Via Rodeo outdoor mall, you can even have breakfast at Tiffany’s. Actually, it would be breakfast at 208 Rodeo - the name of the restaurant and its address - on the sidewalk outside Tiffany’s. But this restaurant isn’t on the cheapskate’s to-do list: Although breakfasts run $11 to $14, lunch and dinner prices are higher, with entrees topping out at $42.

Dessert shops are popular, too, including Pinkberry. The shops serve nonfat, low-calorie frozen yogurt in three flavors (original, coffee and green tea) with plenty of toppings available. Then there’s Sprinkles cupcake bakery. If you think $3.25 is highway robbery for a cupcake, you can just get the best part at Sprinkles: An icing shot is a reasonable 75 cents.

But if you plan to visit Sprinkles, be sure to go before noon; otherwise, you’re likely to encounter a line outside the store that can reach up to three storefronts long.

"Beverly Hills doesn’t wake up until noon," noted a Sprinkles patron.

That’s noon every day, but it’s especially true Sunday mornings, when the Beverly Hills shopping district is a ghost town. If you’re looking for a place to jog and window-shop in the L.A. area, you can’t do better than Rodeo on Sunday morning.