Hi !! Do you know me ??

"LANDMARK" is a word perhaps too loosely applied in this day and age. Yet say, "Round building off the 405 at Sunset," and what L.A. local doesn't know the former Holiday Inn?

Passing motorists would be forgiven for not knowing that it is now the Hotel Angeleno, operated by San Francisco-based hospitality company Joie de Vivre. New paint and lights haven't exactly reinvented the cylindrical exterior, but the 209 rooms inside have gotten more notable updates. Why would Joie de Vivre buy an old Holiday Inn with freeway-adjacency issues? The 17th floor tells all. That's where West, a new Italian steakhouse and lounge, floats over a view that stretches from downtown to the Pacific. At night, guests and locals will surely sip cocktails and be mesmerized by the river of lights that is the freeway. But the sunlit happy-hour provides a far superior view — at least on a clear day.