Every Los Angeles It girl knows a big night out starts at an h.wood Group venue. The hospitality and lifestyle marketing brand is known for its restaurants where Kylie Jenner and Taylor Swift are considered regulars, and clubs, including Delilah, Bird Streets, and Bootsy Bellows. The group’s latest addition? Keys, a new music venue that brings Sunset Strip back to its roots as a destination for VIP artists, musicians, and industry tastemakers.
Keys opened their black-and-white doors Aug. 1 with a line cascading down Sunset Boulevard, suggesting that Thursday is still the new Friday on both coasts. The girls sported platform shoes, lined lips, and glimmering accessories reminiscent of the billboard ahead of them featuring the Bratz. The characters were the presenting sponsor of the evening, showing up everywhere from a gold vintage Cadillac wrapped in Bratz graphics to gilded napkins and toys sprinkled throughout the space. The Bratz team’s rationale for the collaboration was simple: Who else would be at the newest and hottest opening at the epicenter of music and entertainment?
Upon entering the over-12,000-square-feet club, I was swept into what I can only describe as a modern, three-story Daisy Jones dreamscape filled with guests dressed in black silk and sparkles, sipping cocktails on the dance floor and between the plush tables lining its perimeter. I ordered a Spicy Siena, fondly named after h.wood Group co-owner Brian Toll’s wife, and weaved around burlesque dancers clad in piano-printed bodysuits. Although the first floor was home to the DJ booth, headlined by Zack Bia and electronic violinist DSharp, I ascended the velvet spiral staircase all the way to the top room for a panoramic view — and its own dedicated bar and a few pool tables, for good measure. The underground space had the complete opposite effect with a Moroccan-inspired green room meant to host VIP artists.
Coming up for air, I found myself in a mix of Leon Bridges and Wiz Khalifa, who leaned on the DJ booth behind Bia, while nightlife icon Marsha Molinari danced through the crowd amongst Love Island’s Sierra Sade Mills and her crew. One last sip of my Spicy Siena, and it was clear: The show was just getting started.
