What's On In Bel Air This Late Summer: Garden Tea, Outdoor Films, And Jazz Nights
The gates close behind you on Stone Canyon Road and the city dims by ten degrees. That is the trick of living here in August. Everything you would drive across town for is inside a two-mile radius, and most of it is happening between Thursday and Sunday.
This is a calendar, not a guide. It is written for the household that already owns in the 90077 and wants to know which garden to book on a Saturday, which film is playing under the sycamores next week, and where the sculpture the neighbors keep mentioning is actually installed. The thesis is simple: Bel Air's social season this summer runs on two anchors, five minutes apart, and the residents who get the most out of it treat them as one continuous room.
Hotel Bel-Air has introduced a season of curated summer programming designed around culinary, wellness, cultural and entertainment experiences within its private garden setting. What that means in practice is a Friday-through-Sunday rhythm that has become the closest thing this neighborhood has to a village square.
Start with tea. The new Garden Afternoon Tea draws from the botanicals in the hotel's gardens, with Chino Valley Organic Egg Sandwiches, Swan Cream Puffs and domed Princess Cakes served in The Living Room, which has been reimagined with hummingbirds, jasmine and citrus blossoms on the walls, available Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It is the rare hotel service that residents book more often than out-of-town guests do, largely because The Living Room now looks like a room in a house on Bellagio.
Dinner has its own schedule. During the month of June, The Restaurant at Hotel Bel-Air debuted the new Jet Setter Menu, offered Monday through Thursday, with each evening inspired by different locations and paired with regional wine selections, including a Northern Italy night featuring Brown Butter Ravioli, and a Viennese night pairing Chicken Schnitzel with a dry Alsace Riesling. The Wolfgang Puck kitchen has always been strong on Sunday brunch. The weeknight menu closes a gap that used to send residents down the hill to Beverly Hills for a mid-week table.
Then there is the film series. The hotel's outdoor Movies Under the Stars series returns this July and August with a new lineup including La La Land, Pretty Woman, and Ocean's Eleven. If you have not been, the screen is set in the garden. Bring a light layer. The canyon cools quickly after sunset even in August.
A note on the art program: this year's exhibition schedule at Hotel Bel-Air and The Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by art curator Lily Ackerman, founder of London-based Ackerman Studios, in collaboration with CURA Art, and the current sculpture installation at the Bel-Air property is Nathan Mabry's Bird Watchers, developed as part of that partnership. Admission to the exhibitions is complimentary and open to the public.
The wellness programming is quieter and worth knowing about. Private Pilates classes led by Alana Mesica, founder of LA Pilates studio Pilanies, take place beside Swan Lake, combining Pilanies' mindful approach with the classic Pilates method, with mats, towels and refreshments provided. On the spa side, a curated collection of seasonal treatments includes a 60-minute Signature Massage, an Oxylight Facial for sun-exposed skin, and a bespoke Skin Polish Body Treatment. A morning at the spa followed by tea in The Living Room is, for a lot of the households on Copa de Oro, the entire content of a Saturday.
Drive north on Beverly Glen, cross Mulholland, and the second anchor sits at the intersection. The Glen Centre is not a lifestyle destination. It is the neighborhood's grocery run, its Tuesday-night dinner, and its Sunday farmers' market, and it holds a density of restaurants that people who live outside the canyon usually underestimate.
The tenant mix is worth memorizing:
On weekends The Glen Centre also hosts a farmer's market, which is the single most reliable morning routine in this neighborhood. Coffee at the Starbucks patio, produce at the market, a walk back to the car with two bags and a bouquet. Nobody schedules it. It just happens.
The thesis of this post is that the hotel and the Glen Centre are not two separate calendars. They are one weekend, and the residents who have been here longest string them together without thinking about it. Here is what that looks like from Friday afternoon through Sunday night.
| Day | Late Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | Garden Afternoon Tea, The Living Room | Il Segreto, back patio |
| Saturday | Farmers' market at The Glen Centre, then Nathan Mabry sculpture walk in the hotel garden | Movies Under the Stars in the hotel garden |
| Sunday | Pilates by Swan Lake with Pilanies | Vibrato Grill Jazz, late set |
Two things about the table above are worth reading closely.
First, the geographic compression. Every stop is inside the same canyon system. A resident on Bellagio Road can complete the entire weekend on foot for two of the three days, and by car in under ten minutes for the rest. That is unusual for the Westside. Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, and Beverly Hills all require a longer choreography. Bel Air's density is hidden behind its gates, but it is there.
Second, the calendar is fresh. The Jet Setter menu is a June 2026 debut. The Mabry sculpture is part of a 2026 exhibition series curated by Ackerman Studios. The Pilanies partnership is new this season. If your mental map of Bel Air was set five years ago, half of what is on offer this month did not exist then.
A few honest notes for the household that has lived here long enough to skip the obvious mistakes.
Tea sells out first. The Living Room seats fewer than most guests expect, and Sunday tea in August is the tightest reservation of the week. Book two weekends out, not two days.
The film series is casual, but the garden is not. Movies Under the Stars is a hotel program, not a public park screening. Dress the way you would for dinner in the garden, because most guests come straight from The Restaurant or the Bar.
Vibrato is a two-set room. The late set on Friday or Saturday is quieter, better for conversation, and easier to walk into without a long-standing reservation. The early set is the tourist set.
Jayde's is the concierge shortcut. If you are hosting on short notice, the prepared side counter at Jayde's will do more for a Saturday dinner party than a trip to Erewhon in Pacific Palisades, and it is four minutes from the top of Stone Canyon.
The sculpture is not signposted. Ask at the front desk. Mabry's Bird Watchers is placed in the garden rather than in a gallery room, and if you walk in expecting museum wayfinding you will miss it. This is, in a way, the point of the whole program. The exhibitions are offered complimentary and are open to the public.
There is a reason clients who could live anywhere on the Westside keep choosing Bel Air, and it is not the addresses on the mailboxes. It is that the neighborhood's rhythm rewards people who are actually home. A garden tea, a jazz set, a Sunday market, a sculpture walk, a private Pilates class beside a pond with swans on it, all inside a canyon that empties by nine at night. You do not have to drive to it. You live in it.
If you are considering a move within Bel Air, or you are ready to release a property here with the discretion the neighborhood expects, Nancy Ellin Realty Group is available for a private consultation. Request a Private Consultation to speak with our principal directly.
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