Work Meeting at the "Jonathan Club"

Los Angeles has an interesting history. A piece of this history is that I briefly experienced recently was a place called the Jonathan Club in downtown Los Angeles.

I had never heard of it prior to my visit for a work meeting (where we met our new CEO), but I was impressed with the concierge service from the get go. Valet parking all too common here, but rarely do you drop your car off in so much style. (Side note: I hate valeting my dented, old, dusty, common Accord. I feel like you at least need a 3-Series to qualify for valet.)

The building is beautiful, decorated in the classic lavish styles, but the fine attention to detail in the holiday decor was what impressed me the most. There were large, impeccably decorated fresh pine trees and pine wreaths in every large room (the smell was incredible), and a fascinating miniature village that spanned several yards on the 2nd floor. Some photos...

The main staircase

One of the main meeting rooms

The huge miniature village.

I learned that this club was founded in 1895 and when it originated, only white Anglo Saxon Protestant men were allowed to join. While those days are longs since past, it still is an exclusive club, where you can only join if you're invited by a current member, and there's a strict dress code (i.e. men must wear collared shirts tucked in, dress shoes and a minimum of a sport coat).

I got a kick out of the marble-walled restroom. They didn't have paper towels. No way. There were embroidered individual hand towels, and a posh laundry basket in which you to toss your soiled towel.

This "gentlemen's club" environment is so foreign to the way I grew up, so this taste of an upper-class lifestyle was worth a few remarks in my book.