Description
This grand old downtown hotel is like a fascinating puzzle box, with each lavishly decorated room leading to an even more ornate bar or lounge area. Formerly a YMCA when it opened in 1925, the Figueroa was converted into a hotel after the Depression and has since been the site of numerous fashion and awards shows, stellar celebrity sightings and music events. The spacious, high-ceiling lobby is artfully appointed with Moroccan tiles and furnishings, as well as paintings, tapestries, candles, wrought-iron sculptures and lamps from all over the world. Just off to the side of the lobby and the hotel's check-in area lies the Fig Street Cafe, whose menu of pasta and steak entrees is rather limited in selection but is tasty and succulent nonetheless. After you pass through an elaborate hallway, you encounter the Veranda Bar, which is situated next to the hotel's outdoors glassy blue swimming pool. The full bar is a wonderful setting to while away the time after catching a concert at Club Nokia or a Lakers game at Staples Center, which are both just a block away down Figueroa Street. Guests can sit at tables by the pool or recline in an antique canopied bed just steps away from the bar. Hotel Figueroa actually features several bars and specialty rooms, including the music venues Club Fes, Room Tangier and Rabat, each decorated in a distinctly unique Moroccan style, and there are separate venues for weddings and other special events, notably the Nomad Lounge, Blue Door and Rick's Place. Clubgoers can also check in for the night in the hotel itself, which may be dwarfed by downtown's modern skyscrapers but is nonetheless an impressive, multistory edifice.
