Their new popularity is helped by never having changed their location. Despite alterations that have removed its namesake patio and busied its look, the little hotel fits well in the bustling downtown which, thanks to the wide pleasant grassy mall that divides Venice Avenue, and the resurgence of downtown retailing, has become a popular pedestrian area. The hotel's large plate window on the avenue fits with the look of bakeries, boutiques, and the drug store. The building is not set back with a circular drive. There is no special No Parking zone.
Guests are no more fashionably dressed than for an appointment with the optometrist.
She looks faintly stagey, a petite woman treated well by her years. She and her late husband have been the only owners since 1948. A certain style has settled in with an appreciative clientele that returns winter after winter. Guests share a long lobby that is more like a living room that bedrooms open onto. Coffee perks all morning.