Starck-Designed Restaurant Lights Up L.A.

It had all the forewarnings of a tragically hip new L.A. restaurant.

Its owner is Sam Nazarian, one of the biggest names in Hollywood nightlife and creator of paparazzi-stalked hotspots like Hyde, Area and Katsuya. Philippe Starck designed the space, located within the new SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills, with Spanish-born D.C. uber-chef Jose Andres at the helm of an elaborate new dining and restaurant experience called The Bazaar.

Visitors arrive to a sleek all-white valet area and a sidewalk of stalking flashbulbs off bustling La Cienega Boulevard located a Bloomingdale's bag throw from L.A.'s Beverly Center. Not quite Beverly Hills, the street is known locally as Restaurant Row, featuring touristy outposts of The Stinking Rose and Lawry's Prime Rib. A quick-moving valet opens my door without a single hello and advises, "Parking is a flat $15."

Starck's Rio redux: A small staircase and exceptionally decorated terrace of Colonial canopy chairs and potted topiaries leads to a sublime lobby entrance, where a booth of jovial hostesses inquires about name and reservation. While many of L.A.'s top restaurants are about the cute staff and catchy design, there is something uniquely sexy and fun about Bazaar. The space immediately reminds us of Starck's work at Faena Hotel Buenos Aires and, more recently, the Fasano Hotel Rio. Deconstructed social areas are arranged in bold groupings with warm homey tones interrupted by silver-plated Chippendale chairs and bold leather-tufted furnishings. As the hostess actually offers to seat our incomplete party, a rarity in L.A., we volunteer to hit the bar and scope out the scenery.

New dining concept: Bazaar isn't just a restaurant, but a cluster of public spaces that includes Bar Centro, a hip and dark bar of mirrored, shoulder-height seating and tables neighboring the Patisserie with its long bar of glass-domed sweets and confection delicacies. The space marries Starck's love of minimalism with a textured decadence that's equal parts "Alice in Wonderland" and "Pan's Labyrinth." Large white sofas and club chairs are arranged in circles, conducive to conversation. There's an in-house accessories boutique called Moss.

Bazaar Restaurant

Take your seat at Bazaar: The main dining room of Bazaar is known as Rojo y' Blanca, two rooms lined in pewter-colored velvet drapes dividing them from the lobby. Wood paneled walls offset honed slate flooring with chunky shelving accented in votive candles, Hollywood portraits and old theater scripts. Dining tables are a mix-and-mash of marble and wood tables surrounded in slip-covered sofas and high-back chairs designed by Starck. It's the most dazzling restaurant space to hit L.A. in a generation, and we haven't even seen the menu.