Our first day in LA LA Land
Looking south at L.A. from atop Doheny Road in Beverly Hills

L.A. Timetable: Departed JFK a day later than planned. Thanks to editorial delays caused by the Blackout last week, JH and I traveled Jet Blue to Long Beach.

You know Jet Blue? The airline de jour that distinguished itself during the Blackout in New York for having canceled only two of their flights during the whole ordeal? No frills, no din-din (bags of snacks and beverages is all), their flights to L.A. arrive in Long Beach which is about ten minutes down the 405 (San Diego Freeway) from LAX, stepping back in time (about forty years) in terms of size and disembarking. In other words a small, lovely airport (original two story moderne design terminal), with one baggage claim (we waited all of three minutes for ours), and the car rental fifty yards from the baggage claim. In other words: no crowds, no hassle and no rassle.

The flight across the continent was smooth and pleasant except for the adorable looking curly-headed three year old two rows behind who SCREAMED (mainly to annoy his mother, I suppose) for three and a half hours of the flight.

Also if you’re six feet or over like me, there is no leg room, so it’s bad for bad backs and knees and not much help to good ones. But it’s cheap and efficient.

Arrived half hour early also, at 7. Waited almost a half hour for the Budget Rent-a-car to prepare the car – a red Mustang convertible. We wanted a Thunderbird, but nothing doing; everybody wants the new Thunderbird.

Looking north on Foothill Road in Beverly Hills

8:15, up the 405 to Sunset Boulevard and east to Bel Air where we’re staying with my friend Donna Estes Antebi in her luxurious guest apartment over the four car garage – two bedrooms, sitting room, kitchen, two bathrooms and two balconies – one overlooking the hills and the other a view of Westwood and out toward the ocean. Very impressed as it was about twice the size of my Manhattan apartment. The a/c was on because Southern Californians think it’s hot when it’s over 72 degrees (they don’t know what we New Yorkers know about heat and humidity). I turned the a/c off and opened the doors and windows to let the cool breezes do the job.

Showered, shaved, changed and headed back down the hill over to Nikki Haskell’s in Beverly Hills where she was having a “white party” to celebrate her first 20 years in the business of StarCaps. We didn’t get there until 9:30 when everyone was settling in for dinner. About forty, including LA’s new police chief and NYC’s former police commissioner Mr. And Mrs. Bill Bratton, (another Nikki – Kleiman) both all in white and looking very L.A.; as well as erstwhile Kid, still in the Picture, Bob Evans with his new girlfriend Tatiana in tow, as well as his temporary houseguest, Hollywood’s hot director (with four blockbusters to his credit) Brett Rattner, whose own house, Hillhaven Lodge (former home of Barbara Stanwyck and Allan Carr, among others)* is being renovated. Also television’s very longtime favorite Susie Pleshette with her husband Tom Poston, and Stephanie Powers with Robert Forester and Wendy Stark and Suzanne du Passe and many more too numerous to mention until next Monday when we’ll show you the evidence in the party pictures.

Back to Bel Air by midnight and in bed by one (four a.m. New York time) and more than exhausted.
Looking west towards Westwood from a terrace in our guest quarters in Bel Air
  Thursday morning, awoke too early (7:30) to the Southern California cloud cover that looks like a gathering storm if you’ve never seen it before. But it burns off by noon or so, and out comes the sun. It’s hard to get motivated after the cross-continent jet-lagging, tired, unable to sleep. JH reminded me that last year this time it took three days to get the juices bubbling, so we took action.
Looking north towards the Hollywood Hills from Alden and Robertson Blvd in West Hollywood
Looking south on Robertson Blvd
  Around lunchtime, down to West Hollywood in the South Robertson area where the rich, the chic and the shameless, Hollywood style deliver their Jags and Rollses and Tundaboids to the valet parkers, and go to lunch under the white umbrellas behind the sorta shabby white picket fence at The Ivy.

A few steps away, across the street from agnes b, the chic emporium, we paid a visit to the offices of Mint LA, the brainchild of two Scotsmen, brothers, Steven and Gordon MacGeachy. Mint LA is a kind of concierge service for the SuperSet – those billionaires who are multi-residential, private-jetsetters whose peripatetic lives are seamless existences where everything is ready, waiting and first-class.
The Mint LA team, from l. to r.: Steven MacGeachy, Natalie Stevenson, Gordon MacGeachy, and Josh Breneman
  Begun by the brothers only last February, the Mint LA service is not for everybody. In fact they have a limit as to how many clients they will take on: 200. Their fee, once they’ve accepted a new member: $12,000 annually. When I say “accept” a new client, I mean, one has to apply for membership first.

 What Mint L.A. does for the member is whatever they want, wish for or need. Example:
n a member calls at 4 in the afternoon wanting a private jet to take them to New York at six. Done.

• A member calls (usually it’s the assistant who calls) and wants a reservation at De Bulli, the restaurant two hours north of Barcelona that has 35 chefs for 50 customers and is considered the Best Restaurant in the World (when they opened, they had several thousand requests for reservations and the waiting list extends for four months). Done.

• The member wants a table in the next few days. Done.

• The member is planning on coming into town in the next few days and needs his or her house opened and prepared. Done.

• The member needs a complete staff change and re-structuring of the household management. Done.

• Tickets to a show. Done.

• A suite at the best hotel in Kona over the Christmas holidays (where they book a year in advance). Done.

• A member crosses the country to attend an important social event and forgets her favorite earrings and needs them now. Done (Mint L.A. arranged for the jeweler to lend a similar pair from their store on the other coast).

Requests from members range from the small (shirts to the laundry) to the unusual (Christmas tree lights in mid-July) to the exotic (chocolate candy boxes), to the whimsical (warm chocolate chip cookies delivered to the door within a hour). Whatever is required is delivered.

Why, I asked, if these “members” can afford an assistant, do they need Mint LA’s services? Because the services requested often require time, investigation, negotiation to complete by an assistant who also has many other daily responsibilities. Mint L.A.’s actualizes these requests quickly and seamlessly.
A detailed entryway of a a house in Hancock Park, circa 1925.
“It is a vast networking project,” Gordon MacGeachy says of his service. The staff of four have extensive experience in a variety of services, from real estate, to travel plans, to staff organization, to obtaining the best reservations at the best restaurants in the last minute.

The Mint LA member already has the means and the requirements. “They have very high expectations, and expect they will be met without a hitch,” MacGeachy explained as we sat at the conference table in their sleek and bright offices overlooking Robertson Boulevard and Cedars-Sinai Hospital in the distance. “They are often demanding, but they are also grateful that we make it happen.”

“The best place to start is always with the source,” is the Mint LA statement. “No matter what you need, we’re the one source you can always count on.”

Since opening several months ago, they’ve signed on 55 members. World famous celebrities, high-powered business people, socialites and executives make up their roster. When they reach the magic number of 200, the membership will be closed. Why 200? “Because that is the maximum we can handle (with a staff which will expand as does member) maintaining our high standards.”

They don’t advertise. All business comes by referral. Do they take anyone who can afford the service? No. They only accept members they feel they can assist optimally and with pleasure.
So. Fascinated by Mint L.A.’s service, and not really in need of it personally, JH and I left their cool sleek offices and went off into the sunny summer afternoon, taking a ride in the convertible down to Hancock Park, another, older residential section of L.A. to have a look.


Outside the offices of Mint LA
Sign of Agnes B. on Alden and Robertson Blvd
DPC's friend, Leonard Stanley, in front of Kings newsstand on Kings Road


Taking in some of the homes in Hancock Park, one of the older fine residential sections of Los Angeles

At the end of a long first day, looking east from Beverly Hills on Sunset Blvd


Photographs by Jeff Hirsch/NYSD.com

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© 2006 David Patrick Columbia & Jeffrey Hirsch/NewYorkSocialDiary.com