The LaFayette Hotel and Club

San Diego’s iconic Lafayette Hotel hosted the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner during its mid-century heyday. And after stints as an office building, radio station, and movie set — a memorable scene from Top Gun was filmed here — it’s experiencing its second golden age. The property was renovated by a local hospitality group that runs some of the city’s most stylish bars and restaurants, and reopened its doors in 2023 as the Lafayette Hotel & Club, an urban resort steeped in retro glamour and celebrated for its gourmet food and drinks.

Creative, vintage-inspired cocktails flow freely at the Lafayette, not only in the hotel’s collection of hip watering holes, including a mezcal bar crafted from pieces of an abandoned Catholic church in Mexico, but also in guest rooms: each features a curated minibar with a recipe book and fresh citrus fruits. The look is boudoir-inspired, with tasseled lamps, velvet sofas, and rich wood paneling, and the hotel’s public spaces are equally sultry. Until, of course, you step out into the brilliant California sunshine to behold the Lafayette’s crown jewel, an Olympic-sized swimming pool surrounded by cheerful striped umbrellas and palm trees.