Hip, Hot ... or Ho Hum?

With reference to Carla Hall’s “Downtown, a New Standard in Hip Hotels” (Weekend Escape, July 7): Hall must have visited a different Standard hotel from the one some friends and I visited. Instead of a “hot hangout,” I found the rooftop bar area provided inadequate seating, rude waitresses, watered-down drinks and minute food portions at exorbitant prices. Instead of “hip downtowners,” I found boys and girls playing at being “hip.” The only part of Hall’s story with which I concur is the quote from a local artist, “Wow, you’re really slumming.” That sums up my experience perfectly.

STEPHEN KERN

Los Angeles