The Aster is LA's Hottest New Hotel and Members Club

The corner of Hollywood and Vine is as close as Los Angeles gets to having a First and Main: it’s the village square for America’s entertainment capital, the traditional heart of the local film colony as well as Ground Zero for its recording industry. But for hoteliers David Bowd and Kevin O’Shea, it just looked like a nice place to spend the night. “We’ve always wanted to have a West Coast location,” says Bowd. “This was the perfect location.”

The place in question is a 95,000-square-foot former residential midrise that Bowd and his business-and-life partner O’Shea have transformed into The Aster, a new private club and hotel in Hollywood just steps from the famous star-embossed boulevard. In a city that’s seen a remarkable influx in recent years of comparable “third spaces” —the Second Home coworking campus, opened in Hollywood right before the pandemic; Soho House’s just-completed Holloway House in Beverly Hills; the fitness-focused Heimat in the Sycamore District—the founders of the new multi-use, work-and-hang mecca seem to be betting on style and location to set The Aster apart.

“I’ve always enjoyed being somewhat of an innkeeper,” says Bowd. A serial hospitality entrepreneur, Bowd worked with other operators including Andre Balasz Properties before setting up his own outfit, Salt Hotels, in 2014; to date, he and O’Shea have launched three high-end destinations on the East Coast, and are already planning additional locations in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Having opened its doors to members in August, the LA facility is the flagship for the pair’s new brand, and it encapsulates its founders’ philosophy: with 35 guest suites, the hotel is aimed both at the general visitors looking for a couple nights’ stay as well as at longer-term guests, with luxurious double-size rooms available to members on an extended basis. Members and overnighters alike can relax by the second-floor pool, breakfast in the cushy third-floor lounge, and then dine at the Lemon Grove rooftop restaurant with its stunning views of the Hollywood sign and the Capitol Records building right next door.

For all its amenities (the podcast recording studio; the in-house beauty salon; the elaborate mocktail menu at the fifth-floor bar), what really distinguishes The Aster is an interior environment that puts the emphasis on casual cool. “It was important to us that the space feel very open, very Southern California,” says O’Shea, who headed up the design aspect of the project. “At the same time, we wanted people to feel like they were really sheltered and secluded.” These dual impulses guided O’Shea towards an aesthetic that’s equal parts exotic resort—rattan screens, bamboo pretzel chairs--and old-world comfort—patterned rugs, booklined shelves—with just enough glitzy, brass-and-glass accents to make the place feel a natural fit for Tinseltown. Given its superstar site, The Aster seems bound to become the preferred party spot for the Hollywood glam set.