LA Confidential: Crazy Rich Asians’ acclaimed author Kevin Kwan’s top places to visit in Los Angeles

Kwan’s next destination was a small Korean-owned coffee shop on the ground floor of the posh Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills. Named Maru (derived from the Korean words san ma ru, which means “mountaintop”), he describes it as “a beautiful little wooden jewel box of a little coffee shop” that serves “the best coffee in Beverly Hills”. As it has become his addiction, Kwan visits the cafe almost daily, lining up for its Asian-style concoctions whipped up with complete precision, like the cream-top coffee. 

“Every day, you’ll find a line of eager people waiting for a good coffee. And I’ve also made friends while waiting in line there,” he says. Like Harrods in London, where people would park their expensive sports cars along the side streets, Maybourne also sees many locals doing the same, making the area more enjoyable. “So it’s especially fun for car aficionados—there’s always a parade of McLarens, Lamborghinis and Bugattis,” Kwan continues.

Read more: Angie Mead King on the cars she loves, modding, and the automative industry

Off to West Hollywood on North Robertson, Dacha is a chic store that adapts the Russian concept of dacha or vacation living into a uniquely Californian experience. “It’s a neighbourhood secret where I buy all my gifts,” the author says. Like a beautiful retreat, the store is oozing with creativity and inspiration, offering an assortment of unique home furnishings, objets d’art that blend vintage with globally sourced items, and the masterpieces of California-based artists and artisans. 

“The owner, Lauren Gregory, has such a great eye. She has a range of chic but affordable gifts, much of it from LA-based artisans,” Kwan explains. His finds include coffee table books, hand-poured candles, paintings by local artist Mirena Kim, ceramics from Matthew Ready, and Homecourt—a line of home fragrances by Friends’ star Courteney Cox.  “She makes soaps and room fragrances that are all organic. They are in these chic little black containers,” he adds. “Dacha is a great place to buy hostess gifts because everything is unique and personal. I’m told Madonna and J.Lo both love shopping there, too.”

On North Highland Avenue is where one, according to Kwan, can find “some of the most beautiful, crazy rich, exquisite antiques in the world”. He was referring to Blackman Cruz, an antique shop highly regarded as a top source of dealers worldwide. “All the top interior designers shop there for their clients,” he says. “Their beautiful objects end up in Architectural Digest or Elle Decor, and their devoted fans include Tom Ford, Jennifer Aniston, Robert Pattinson and Timothée Chalamet.” The famed TV host Ellen DeGeneres also favours the shop and even featured it in her design book, Home.

“I’m very inspired by the place. When I was writing Lies and Weddings, a lot of times [I would go there] in the middle of the afternoon [when] I needed a burst of inspiration. It has the most unbelievable treasures,” Kwan elaborates. Among the rare finds at Blackman Cruz are armchairs by Carlo Bugatti, which inspired Kwan to create a character or a place to be included in his novel. Pieces like Venetian glass would conjure ideas of scenes in Venice, and a Moroccan lamp would trigger images of Marrakesh. “I pay tribute to Blackman Cruz by mentioning it in the book. There’s a scene where a design editor asked Lady Arabella, who was visiting her manor house, ‘Oh, is that from Blackman Cruz?’” he narrates. Blackman Cruz also represents some fantastic custom designers, like Jane Hallworth for lamps and Mike Diaz for hand-crafted wood furniture from Mexico. 

LA’s Sycamore Avenue has become one of the hippest new shopping districts, and right at its heart is Just One Eye, which has become the leading fashion boutique in LA. “It’s an ultra-exclusive boutique known as much for its art collection as for its carefully curated fashion,” says the jetsetting novelist. “It’s such an incredible atmosphere. You’re shopping for beautiful things [and at the same time] surrounded by gorgeous, museum-quality contemporary art,” he says. 

Among the boutique’s exclusive brands is Brad Pitt’s clothing line, God’s True Cashmere. “He has a line of cashmere plaid shirts that I think is genius because all the wives who shop there would buy these shirts for their husbands, right? Because they’re like, ‘Oh, I want him [my husband] to dress like Brad Pitt!’” Kwan enthuses. Despite the shirts looking so essential, the 100 per cent cashmere ones come with a hefty price of $3,000 to $4,000 apiece.  “I’m told that people will go in there and buy 60 of them. People are obsessed with it,” says Kwan.

Just One Eye is also the only boutique in North America with a special Cartier vitrine—unusual for the revered jewellery brand, which would only allow official Cartier stores to showcase their jewellery. There is also a well-curated line of jewellery from jewellers around the world. “You find the most exquisite things in the world there. So, of course, it’s where the characters in my books shop,” Kwan says. 

As if saving the best for last, Kwan’s final stop was the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, a 180-acre property in Pasadena. “It transports you to a whole other world,” he describes. 

Housed in a manor, the museum at The Huntington showcases a vast collection of British, European, American and Asian art spanning over 500 years and includes 45,000 objects from different continents. Stunning decorative and folk arts, paintings, photography and sculpture are also on display in the new wing known as the Huntington Art Gallery, which was the original home of the founder Henry E Huntington and his wife, Arabella, as well as in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. 

“The Huntington has this amazing historic and contemporary art collection,” Kwan says, sharing that the gallery acquired its first Asian-American contemporary artist, Dominique Fung, last year. 

Among the iconic artworks at The Huntington is The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough, which found its place in the drawing room. The Huntington couple purchased the painting for US$728,000 in 1921, the highest price ever paid for a painting at that time. 

“For the first time in 200 years, they allowed The Blue Boy to go on tour and to return to England. And so they had a space; and in the meantime, they commissioned [the portrait painter] Kehinde Wiley to do something inspired by The Blue Boy [to occupy the space],” he says. The result was a portrait of a young African-American that appears to be a modern iteration of The Blue Boy.  “When The Blue Boy came back, they put it opposite Wiley’s painting, so it’s like [the two artworks are] in dialogue,” he continues. This sort of “dialogue” between two iconic works inspired one of the scenes in Lies and Weddings, where one of the main characters, Eden, attended an engagement party at The Huntington. “In a way, it’s an important part of my book and my life because it’s an institution that represents things that I love–nature, art and literature. It’s one of my favourite places to be immersed in culture.”

Having lived in New York for many years, Kwan never thought he would find Los Angeles lovely. However, he has proven himself wrong, eventually seeing himself enthralled with the layers of history LA has to offer. “That’s the surprise of living in LA now and discovering it,” he says. He admits that he is naturally drawn to places rich in history because they are often full of stories. “When you go to an antique shop like Blackman Cruz, everything is a gateway to an amazing story… It helps me imagine the world of my characters. It lends authenticity to the world I write about,” Kwan says. 

He explains that the destinations he explores give him more than inspiration; these actual places make for a perfect backdrop to weave exciting and relevant themes like Asian representation. It could be recalled that his books–from Crazy Rich Asians trilogy to Sex and Vanity and now to Lies and Weddings–revolve around a collision of cultures, of Asians thriving elsewhere in the world and bringing with them their distinct “Asianess”. In addition to this, of course, is an intriguing peek into the lives of the ultra-rich, who were brilliantly interspersed in every chapter, complete with footnotes to make the context more transparent to the readers. “[My novels] represent the sort of Asian wealth today. Privileged Asians are jet-setting and travelling all around the world. They’re sophisticated connoisseurs and not just confined to Asia anymore. I always want to portray contemporary Asia accurately.”

Much as his novels are inspired by the places he explored, his new trilogy also takes after some great works of fiction. Like Sex and Vanity draws inspiration from A Room with a View by EM Forster, Lies and Weddings is inspired by the 19th-century comedy Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope. “So I had the basic outline of the story. I already knew who the main characters would be, but then as I write them, they come alive, and they start changing and telling me who they want to be,” Kwan explains his creative process. “When I started writing about Rufus [in Lies and Weddings] from the first chapter, I knew he would be a young British Chinese Lord. I didn’t know he would be a surfer…Strangely, it’s like I get possessed by these characters, and they tell me who they want to be.”

When asked where he’d like to travel next, Kwan swiftly replied: Mexico City, for its colourful culture and vibrant food scene. “I’ve never been, and I keep hearing how amazing it is. [I heard Mexico City has] very cool, inventive cuisine. Some of the best, most experimental chefs are all based there now. The museums, the art, not just historical art, not just Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but contemporary Mexican artists are doing great work,” he confesses. 

If given the chance to travel with a character from Lies and Weddings, the globetrotting fictionist would choose Rosina Ko-Tung, the free-spirited, outgoing auntie who is also the most straightforward character in the book. “She’s such a fun character. She’s so brutally honest. We all have those people in our lives, right? Like those titas who tell it like it is. She’s always game for adventure. And she’s the big shopper!” he laughs.

Kwan is actively working to bring more Asian stories to the forefront of the entertainment industry. He has exciting plans, including developing a Broadway musical based on Crazy Rich Asians and a TV series spinoff expected to debut in the coming years. Furthermore, he is also involved in the production of the movie adaptation of Sex and Vanity, which has two prominent Filipino characters and will feature the talents of two Filipino actors.

Expressing his passion for increasing the representation of Asian characters in mainstream media, Kwan articulated his concern about the limited presence of Asian stories in Hollywood. He sees his mission as not only telling more Asian stories himself but also encouraging and supporting other creators, writers, directors and actors of Asian descent to share their narratives. Kwan believes that broader representation in Western media will contribute to greater racial harmony.

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