West Hollywood
I’m all about adding value for the readers, so in this space that I was going to dedicate exclusively to a review of Mr. S Leather in Los Angeles, I will also include – at no additional charge – a review of 665 Leather, a review of a very slow night at the Eagle, some great places for ice cream and a review of the West Hollywood Ramada Inn. You’re welcome, kinksters!
I recently had occasion to visit sunny Los Angeles with my partner. While trying to tack pleasure onto the end of a business trip, our #1 stop on my “must visit” list was Mr. S Leather. Like many of you, I’ve made a few purchases from Mr. S, and have always been struck by their high quality and very friendly service. So I was wound up to see what their retail location would be like. First of all, Mr. S L.A. is right around the corner from Scoops Ice Cream, which is a phenomenal purveyor of incredible ice creams. It’s like a little secret among the locals and there’s always a line, but it’s so worth it. So within a one-block radius you have amazing ice cream and an emporium of top-of-the-line sex and BDSM toys. So yeah, it’s pretty much one of the coolest city blocks on planet earth.
Walking into Mr. S, for me, was like that scene in the original Willy Wonka when they walked into the chocolate room. Only replace edible treats as far as the eye can see with assorted implements of kinky fuckery. The selection was fairly comprehensive and the layout of the store is easy to navigate. You enter through the rear (naturally) and they offer a tattoo parlor on site right as you walk in, which is convenient if you want to brand your pig boy while you browse. The staff was flirty, friendly and helpful and went out of their way to make me feel comfortable while I shopped. They even encouraged me to try things on my partner, which I gladly did.
Friends can attest that if you tell me my ass looks good in something, I will probably buy it. Even if it’s shoes. I’m totally a sucker for retail-flattery. So when one of the employees oinked at me while I was trying on jeans and said “your ass looks nice in that, Daddy,” I knew I’d be getting them – price tag be damned. I wish more places “upsold” like that. It would take the sting out of having to go to Best Buy.
While my typical online browsing allows me to show restraint (no pun intended), I quickly found out that shopping in the store can be dangerous for me. I’m very instant gratification driven, and things that I would normally talk myself out of online become far too enticing in person. Between that and the oinking/woofing, I pretty much shot the vacation budget at this one stop. However, I regret nothing. Mr. S prices are concurrent with their quality, which is high but totally worth it and they aim to please.
I could go into more graphic detail, but it’s easier to reduce it down to this: Ample selection of most of their online products; super-friendly staff; fitting rooms that you can pretty much see into and centrally located in the rapidly gentrifying Silverlake portion of Los Angeles. If you’re in L.A., go there, shop there, you won’t be disappointed.
Mr. S is connected to the Faultline, which we didn’t check out this time, but you have to admire its handy access to Mr. S. We did check out the Eagle, though. A friend of ours DJ’s there and we wanted to stop in and see him. It was our last night in L.A. and my 8th consecutive night on the road, so I was pretty much done with the trip. Even though we were at the Eagle before the crowds arrived (apparently there was a huge bus trip on the way back from Palm Springs), it was still everything I hoped it would be. For those of you who have been to the L.A. location, or have been to other Eagles around the U.S., you know that it is more or less the gold standard of leather bars. Just clean enough to not scare off the timid and just dirty enough in all the sexiest ways. It was easy to see how when that place is jumping it can get pretty out of control. We WILL be going back, I assure you.
Part of what I love about L.A. is that despite being dauntingly large and hideously congested with traffic, it’s still laid out pretty sensibly. Case in point: you have Mr. S and the Eagle on the Silverlake-side of Santa Monica Boulevard, but all you need to do is head West on Santa Monica and you end up right in the heart of West Hollywood, where 665 Leather and the Ramada WeHo is located. It’s not a reasonable walking distance, to be sure. But as the song goes, nobody walks in L.A. Everyone does valet,however, because there is NO PLACE TO PARK, particularly in West Hollywood. Which is why I recommend the Ramada.
Mondrian Skybar at Night
If you have the operating capital to stay at the Mondrian, then please do so. Being a writer with a modicum of artistic integrity (that’s code for broke-ass), I try to do vacations on a budget. And the Ramada helps accomplish that. It’s centrally located in the heart of WeHo and offers one of the most valuable things you can have in the area: an off-street parking space. This alone makes the Ramada worth it. Although be warned: a reasonably high-clearance vehicle is recommended, as the garage exit hits a sharp point and I scraped the bejeezus out of the bottom of our rental. Also, they charge a pretty steep premium for the spaces, which are too few for the hotel, but it’s still easier than trying your luck at finding a space on the street. The rooms are not fancy by any stretch, but the beds are ample in both size and comfort, which probably suffices for the average clientele. My biggest complaint is that the showers can’t withstand more than one person at a time. If you have a bed big enough to sleep at least four full-sized adults, shouldn’t you have a shower that can at least comfortably fit two? Another thing to note: just because this is a hotel in the middle of all that West Hollywood gaiety, it’s not like you can run around like a naked maniac. There were lots of vacationing gay (and a few straight!) families walking the halls. So if you thought you were going to run down to the ice machine in just a harness, cock ring and hood, think again, Romeo. It’s a family establishment. They have a pool, which we didn’t check out. I’m usually creeped-out by hotel pools, even the ones that aren’t in the middle of gay meccas. I generally regard them as bubbling cauldrons of bodily fluids. And I only hope that they keep it at a 50/50 water to chlorine ratio, particularly on Pride weekend. Regardless, the Ramada West Hollywood is the cross section of affordable and “clean enough.” Perfect for someone wanting to visit L.A. and be close to the action, but isn’t planning on spending tons of time in their room. If you don’t have a place to crash, I recommend it.
The Ramada is walking distance to a bunch of gay clubs, chief among them The Abbey. It’s about a half-mile hike, but totally worth it. The Abbey is a good place to dance, socialize, eat (great food and spectacular desserts), and spot occasional up-and-coming porn stars. During a previous visit we were a table away from a contingent of COLT models grabbing a snack, so that made for a pleasant distraction.
The Ramada is also a block and a half away from 665 Leather. Smaller and more boutique-style than Mr. S, 665 also carries a comprehensive selection of gear – albeit in more specific niches, and boasts another very friendly staff. I would bet money that I’d seen the guy behind the counter in some leather porn. If it wasn’t him, then the guy behind the counter SHOULD be in some leather porn.
While Mr. S covers a broad base of fetishes, 665 goes into greater depth with the neoprene, rubber and suction/insertion toys. Their selection of dildos was a bit more gonzo than Mr. S, eliciting at least one “oh… that doesn’t go INSIDE a person!” from me. Of course it DOES go inside a person. But that person better not have any walking to do for a while. Another thing I liked about 665 was that while Mr. S looks very much like a leather fetish shop from the street, 665 looks more like a small Restoration Hardware from a distance. As you’re driving in from Beverly Hills, you probably would have to do a double take on your first drive-by to realize that this cheery looking little shop contained a feast of erotic delights. Not wanting to leave empty handed, I bought some gun oil and got on their mailing list. If you’re in West Hollywood, be sure to stop in. It’s only about a block and a half from Millions of Milkshakes, which is worth checking out as well. They gained recent acclaim for being a haunt of Miley Cyrus, who has her special “Miley Milkshake” on the menu.
And now that I have managed to mention Miley Cyrus on the same blog that can casually discuss extreme fisting, I can die a happy man.
By the way, have you noticed how I locate all my favorite leather fetish stores by their proximity to ice cream based businesses? This is not an accident. For me, a perfect world is pervy sex with regular ice cream snack breaks.
There you go, a very brief and shockingly non-comprehensive review of a tiny slice of the leather scene in sunny, earthquakey Los Angeles. Stay tuned for the rest of my series on the Leather Scene in American Cities. Next stop: Dubuque, IA. That will be a very short post.
