A tongue-in-chic dive motel

Popular plate: If jet lag has you awake before the Farmer's Market is open for breakfast, wander up Fairfax to Canter's, a 24-hour deli that's been a Los Angeles Landmark since 1931.

Word to the wise: The hotel doesn't have its own gym, but there's a pool, and comfort food restaurant Tart.

Once a seedy dive motel frequented by desperate starlets hoping to bump into producers from CBS Studios nearby, the property was madeover into a modern boutique hotel harking back to the cinematic charm of its kinkier days. And the result is an absolute winner.

Playing on its location across the road from the Farmer's Market (adjacent to The Grove), rooms are furnished in country bumpkin style complete with denim bedspreads, latticed beadheads, farm yard-inspired artwork and a rocking chair. But a typical barnyard lodging this is not, for there's also a flatscreen TV, iPod docking station, free WiFi and DVD player in every room. If you fancy a roll in the hay, the 'No-Tell Room' has mirrors on the ceiling and a fully stocked bar, as well as a mural of a wheat field to inspire, well, you get the drift.

Conveniently, the three-star sleep is also within walking distance from the shops on Melrose and Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard.