Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Century City 1978

So all of this talk about Rose actually got me out of the house- to Neiman Marcus for the (off topic) rhubarb body wash and to the Lush store in Century City for the Rose Jam that everyone was saying I needed. Hey, I do as I am told.

But first a History Lesson (since I know you all love those).

She did it.

The Century City Mall was created in the late 60’s as a shopping area for the captive inhabitants of the new neighborhood Century City- a planned community of high-rise offices, the tony West Coast outlet of the Shubert Theater, and pricey high-and low-rise condominiums. All clean with wide boulevards impossible to cross during the span of one traffic signal (Avenue of the Stars had, and has, a pedestrian bridge allowing workers to enter shopping area without crossing the street at ground level and which is shown collapsing in every TV movie about LA having a natural disaster.) It was laid out in a 60’s wealthy suburban vision of Corbu’s Ville Radieuse or Wright’s Broadacre City- minus those annoying poor people. Because while Beverly Hills as originally planned had neighborhoods with housing and apartments that were affordable to people who owned the department store, shopped there, sold the merchandise or just stocked the shelves Century City planned on having none of that. They banked on having their own freeway. “Those” people could come in during the day and do a fast, motorized fade come night.

That freeway didn’t happen.

That didn’t stop more and more expensive buildings going up, most not terribly remarkable. Some exceptions were the remarkably photogenic twin 1975 Century Plaza Towers, by the WTC architect Minoru Yamasaki and which shared the same windswept plaza issue WTC had. What would be a polite zephyr on Century Park East would be a gale on the plaza. 

Or the 1988 Fox Plaza building, done in a Faux-Po-Mo FLW style and made famous while still unoccupied by the movie “Die Hard.” Legend has it that producer Joel Silver tried to get them to let him actually blow up the top third of the building for a climactic scene rather than have to resort to CGI.

Fox Plaza

They said no.

My friend Lynn used to say Century City had “an expensive lack of charm.”

But the whole magilla was actually spurred on in part by Elizabeth Taylor.

The entire 176 acre parcel was actually part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, and while there were nascent plans to develop the land since Los Angeles was ever expanding and Westside real estate was becoming ever pricier it was the colossal cost overruns on “Cleopatra” and it’s subsequent belly flop at the box office that kicked it into high gear. A subsequent sting of poor performers didn’t help: “Dr. Doolittle” did little at the Box Office and “Star!” burnt out. If it weren’t for “The Sound of Music” and “Valley of the Dolls” (yes, really) there might have been more mall and no studio at all.

Century City as it stands (for the next few minutes.

Over the years more and more has been added- more, larger office buildings, a high-rise condo so fancy that no less than Candy Spelling “downsized” from The Manor to the top three floors, and a huge expansion of the mall that tore down one of the signature Gateway buildings (center in the 1978 photo above) to allow for the expansion of the mall and a really big Nordstrom. Now I do miss the symmetry of those buildings, but a convenient Nordstrom is always a balm to any wound. The loss of the Shubert theater is harder since it was just replaced by an office for CAA (I believe) and killed off both Harry’s Bar and a really good Chinese place. Killing live theater, happy-hour egg rolls and the place to get an authentic Bellini to house more agents? No.

So now that I have written War and Peace about the history of Cinema and the Malls of the West Side, how are the products?

Well, first off: LUSH Rose Jam is freaking glorious. It’s rosy and jammy in both the way that real roses can be and the way that actual jam is. Like there’s some actual confection in there. LUSH’s website just says rose and citrus but I think I smell plum and even a little concord grape in there. That’s right- I smell a hit of Welch’s Grape in there and it’s fabulous. I just washed my hands in it at the store (haven’t taken the full on shower yet, but looking forward to it). It almost made up for the cluster-fu@# that is the Century City Mall which totally reminded me why I hate malls in general and this one in particular- impossible to find your way in, around, or out of. 16 ounces was $40. Is there a larger size?

Rhubarb, the way I like it..

Molton Brown Delicious Rhubarb and Rose is wonderful in a different way. Less rosy and more rhubarb, and not gourmand at all. Tart and refreshing and the rose skims in at the end to add a little perfumes sweetness to the tart almost pungent rhubarb. I love rhubarb (I used to filch it out of a neighbors garden as a kid and eat it like celery- I think they thought I was a little wrong in the head) and this is perfect- a lot of time in pastries people will lean into the sugar on, say, a strawberry rhubarb pie feeling that otherwise it will be too tart, which misses the point- the tart rhubarb when cooked down becomes sweet on its own and is perfect against the sweet strawberry. This rhubarb is perfect against the rose. I got this one at Neiman-Marcus in Beverly Hills where I also had not been since the pandemic. N-M was the polar opposite of the frenetic mall: quiet, cool, and best of all contained. As I said to the SA (stealing from Holly Golightly) “Nothing bad can happen to you in Neiman Marcus.” Of course it helps if you’re a greying middle aged guy who looks somewhat affluent (looks deceive) but I’ll take it were I can get it. 10 ounces was $35 and since Neimans has the whole line I will have to go spend some time over there.

Tree Hut Moroccan Rose was an online purchase that was A) a stop gag incase I was in danger of a rose bath goo-free day and 2) a way to get free shipping from Nordstrom Rack. It is a very pretty if somewhat pedestrian rose. It was also $10 for 18 ounces. If you want it, move fast.

The TJ’s in Hadley, MA that serves my hometown. You can finally get two buck Chuck in the Pioneer Valley

The last one is a Trader Joe’s special. A rose water body mist. I keep it in the icebox and after I’ve come in on a hot day there’s nothing more refreshing than a spritz of this to the back of the neck and arms. The fact that it’s a lovely little rose is a plus as well. It’s $3.99 for 4 ounces and if you’re near a TJ’s and see it, stock up. You never know when TJ’s is going to decide on a whim to cancel something. Just don’t denude the WeHo TJ’s of it, please..

So thanks to you all for the wonderful suggestions especially to the many of you who had been telling me about Rose Jam forever. And Lush delivers so I will bever have to deal with Century City again. And to Maya and alityke for the Molton Brown suggestion. I will be going back to Neiman-Marcus. Maybe even staying for lunch. Bar on 4 had great chili as I remember.

All items were purchased by me at the source.

Images; my iPhone, Pexels, and Wikimedia Commons.