10 minute read
SIGNATURES & LANDMARKS
Santa Monica’s Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows
Celebrates its Centennial Birthday
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FAIRMONT MIRAMAR HOTEL & BUNGALOWS
LONG BEFORE SANTA MONICA BECAME THE TRENDSETTING “WESTSIDE” TOWN IT IS TODAY IT WAS A QUIET BEACH TOWN COM PRISED OF MODEST HOMES, MEDICAL OFFICES, GAS STATIONS, AND INDE PENDENT BOOKSHOPS. THE CITY BORE A LAIDBACK, BOHEMIAN VIBE IN CONTRAST TO THE FASHIONABLE AND ENERGETIC TOWN IT HAS BECOME. NOW, SANTA MONICA IS BOOMING WITH UPSCALE BOU TIQUES, RENOWNED RESTAURANTS AND OF COURSE, WORLDFAMOUS SANTA MONICA PIER. THE CITY HAS UNDERGONE A REMARKABLE EVOLU TION THROUGH THE PAST HUNDRED YEARS, NOW DRAWING THE RICH, FAMOUS, AND POLITICALLY ELITE TO ITS MULTIMILLION DOLLAR REAL ESTATE MARKET.
By Monique Reidy
Santa Monica claims several globally recognized landmarks that have existed for decades, and one of them is celebrating a centennial birthday this year. The Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows opened in 1921 and was originally simply named “Miramar Hotel.” It has since hosted millions of travelers, prominent guests such as John F. Kennedy, Greta Garbo, Paul McCartney and Bill Clinton, as well as Southern California locals who consider the property to be the perfect staycation destination.
Set on five acres across Ocean Avenue’s Palisades Park, the Fairmont Miramar was originally built as the private estate of the city of Santa Monica’s founder, British expat and former Senator John P. Jones in 1889. His wife Georgina, a garden enthusiast, planted roses, shrubs, and a Moreton Bay fig tree which has since grown to 100 feet high. This favorite Instagramable backdrop is now the property’s most popular point of interest and sits at the Fairmont Miramar entry.
The property became a hotel in 1921 and since then visitors have known that Fairmont Miramar is not just lodging – it’s a historic property that has served as a stage for millions to enjoy vacation experiences. This year, Fairmont Miramar is celebrating its centennial with new programs that include an extensive cocktail & food line-up. One of these is the opening of Soko, a sushi ‘pop-up’ concept which launched July 2021. Under the direction of Sushi Chef Masa Shimakawa, Soko is a casual 8-seat restaurant that is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Guests
can walk in and sit at the bar for a sumptuous dining experience. Soko offers fresh and authentic Japanese sushi such as Yellowtail, Omega Blue Kanpachi, Ora King Salmon, Horse Mackerel, O-toro & Chu-toro and more. Hand rolls, appetizers and platters are also available.
In addition, Fig Restaurant, Fairmont Miramar’s farm-totable restaurant, features seasonal dishes, cocktails, an extensive wine list and a menu that includes Wagyu Beef Tartare, Lamb Bolognese Pasta, Foraged Mushroom pizza and more. The stylish restaurant offers indoor
and outdoor seating that overlooks a koi pond and lush gardens. For more casual fare, Airstream by FIG, which serves beach cuisine from a classic 1986 Silver Airstream Trailer, is located adjacent to The Bungalows.
While guests can enjoy the utmost in comfort and service at Fairmont Miramar, the hotel is close to some of Santa Monica’s favorite recreation destinations. Guests can walk to the Third Street Promenade in less than ten minutes and to the Santa Monica Pier in 20. The iconic California incline will usher visitors to the sands of Santa Monica Beach, and for a bit longer stroll, Montana Avenue, with its posh boutiques and eateries is also nearby.
The historic property boasts views of the Pacific Ocean, the Santa Monica Pier and the scenic bluffs that separate Pacific Coast Highway from Ocean Avenue. There are expansive gardens, a
chic lobby lounge, a library area with plenty of comfy seating and bar cart service, a relaxing pool and 297 guest rooms. This elegant beachside hotel features 31 original bungalows, 176 ocean view guest rooms, and a six-story historical wing offering larger rooms with city, garden or ocean views.
A centennial celebration is an extraordinary milestone and the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows is proud to have evolved through the years and still retain its grandeur. Through its lively history it still bears the crown as one of the most pleasurable and luxurious properties for the past one hundred years. v
FAIRMONT MIRAMAR HOTEL & BUNGALOWS 101 Wilshire Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90401 (310) 576-7777 www.fairmont-miramar.com “This elegant beachside hotel features 31 original bungalows, 176 ocean view guest rooms, and a six-story historical wing offering larger rooms with city, garden or ocean views.”
Aldik Home
Making SoCal Merry for 70 Years
For Southern Californians, Aldik Home offers a winter wonderland holiday dream come true or a chance to recreate the wonderful childhood White Christmas’ of yesteryear.
BY ROBYN FLANS
ACCORDING TO BRYAN GOLD, media manager (and son of owner Larry Gold) at Aldik Home, many of their loyal customers are drawn to the artificial snow-covered Christmas trees.
“There’s an element of fantasy to them.” Gold says. “It creates that magical, wintery look for those who have never had it and for all the transplants. ‘Ooh, this looks like the tree I grew up with in the Northeast,’ or whatever the sentiment brings. We find that the act of purchasing a Christmas tree is a very emotional experience for people.”
Aldik Home has become a Southern California tradition for generations now, started by Bryan Gold’s grandfather Richard Gold (AKA Dick) in 1951. Richard returned from the war in the mid 1940’s, and after spending a few years in the music business, he opened up a shop on Melrose with his friend Al, selling artificial flowers. They combined their two first names to create Aldik Artificial Flowers. Al didn’t stay for very long, but Richard’s son Larry joined on when he was old enough in the ‘70s, and they became an import company.
Based in Van Nuys in the same building they are in today, Aldik specialized in silk flowers and silk arrange-
ments. They later substituted silk for a more durable polyester material and also used other synthetics, although still called “silk”. The father/son team were one of the first businessmen to travel to China, exploring that new frontier in the early 1980’s. At that time, they were the largest importer of silk flowers and Christmas décor in the country. As the company grew, Aldik had a new headquarters in Valencia and then Moorpark, maintaining the Van Nuys location, which ultimately became the retail store. In 2009, the import business was discontinued, and the Van Nuys site remained as a retail store (and now a small online presence) with Larry at the helm.
“We carry a lot of artificial flowers that not only look real, but they feel exactly like a real flower,” Gold asserts. “Those are all of our Natural Touch silk flowers. We have customers who are going on vacation and have people watching their house who water all their flowers and plants and they can’t tell the difference, so they end up watering them too.”
Those products and holiday décor have made Aldik Home a staple in Southern California. But during the Christmas season the store becomes an experience. Each year the store’s designers create a new fantasyland in their 24,000 square foot space, so patrons return year after year to explore the 60 uniquely decorated Christmas trees with many never-before-seen extraordinary ornaments.
“You can shop right off the trees,” Gold says. “If you see an ornament you like hanging on any of the trees, you can take it right off,” Gold says. “We’re continually redecorating them.”
This year there’s a new exciting addition to the featured ornaments. It’s a bub-
blegum glass ornament, which Gold describes as “a round glass hand blown or mouth blown ornament. From the outside it looks like a flat color, so let’s say a red, not too shiny, color, but when it’s held up to a light, the way this designer makes his ornaments, it almost looks like a light has been put inside of it. It almost looks like an incandescent ornament.”
The uniqueness of Aldik Home is why you may have seen the store featured on “Keeping up With the Kardashians” in 2017. They’ve been fans for years and their designers come into the store, as many do, during the holiday season. Gold says Aldik is also very popular with hotel designers for their holiday décor.
With quality as their calling card, Aldik boasts that consumers might find cheaper products, but never of the same caliber. Take, for instance, their trees.
Aldik carries the Neuman line of trees, which Gold says is the only manufacturer that designs light strings specifically for Christmas trees.
“All other manufacturers, including the well-known online ones like Balsam Hill or Frontgate, use regular light strings like you buy at Target which wrap around the branches and kind of go crisscross to the other branch next to it,” Gold explains. “Not only do you see the wires going back and forth, but the lights end up going wherever they end up. On the Neuman tree, the light strings are shaped like a hand, so if you stretch your fingers wide, the lights would be right at the end of your fingertips. That allows them to put the lights at the end of each prominent tip on the Christmas tree so all the lights will be exactly where you want them to be, on the outside, so when you decorate, you won’t be hiding any of the lights and you have all your lights shining back on your ornaments,” Gold says, adding the trees are full enough to decorate extensively.
Gold adds that the wiring is also stronger, and there is a 10-year warranty on the construction of the tree and a 4-year warranty on the lights.
Mothers who remember coming to the store every Christmas with their moms bring their kids year after year to enjoy the same magical outing. Gold ventures to say, “Aldik is probably the most ornate Christmas experience there is in the country.”
Every year the challenge at Aldik Home is to outdo itself so patrons can count on a breathtaking, unparalleled, completely different, spectacle. One year there was a big Christmas tunnel. Another year there was a large gingerbread house that ended up in Dr. Phil’s house, and this year there will be a grand Christmas Village.
And you won’t want to miss the 10-foot tree with a remote control that executes close to 60 different special effects like light color changes, light twinkling, and everything except washing your dishes.
“If somebody wants to see a showstopper display, there’s only one place to go,” Gold says. And we don’t disagree. v
ALDIK HOME 7651 Sepulveda Blvd. Van Nuys, CA 91405 (818) 988-5970 www.aldikhome.com
