Gypsy Rose

by Adam Baer | Angeleno magazine | January 26, 2012

“I have an Addams Family aesthetic,” says Dana Hollister, the affable designer, restaurateur, nightlife impresario and East Side resurrectionist. Dressed casually in a black top and jeans, she fields questions at The Paramour, her hilltop Spanish colonial manse in Silver Lake that was originally built in 1923 for an oil heiress, and faced certain destruction before she bought it. “I’m drawn to things no one wants,” Hollister adds, pointing out gothic couches, vintage fabric pillows and a mélange of life-size taxidermic prizes: a white tiger, a zebra and a polar bear donning a Shriner’s fez. Hollister has an alchemist’s talent for marrying found objects, and her interiors boast wit and warmth—qualities that have won her design clients including Tom Petty and Tim Burton.

Owner of the new downtown bar called The One-Eyed Gypsy, Hollister, who hails from Chicago, presides over a hospitality/food/design empire that includes the hidden Silver Lake restaurant Cliff’s Edge, Echo Park’s Brite Spot, and downtown’s Villains Tavern. All of these interiors are darkly inviting and reflective of the intuitive, independent mind that dreamed them up. “I want people to make memories, and these places are just fun!” Hollister exclaims.

A true idea woman who sees an old Silver Lake church and decides to repurpose it as a boutique hotel—yes, East Siders, it’s coming soon!—Hollister breathes life into structures left for dead. She had originally purchased The Paramour (now used for many a film set or charity concert by the likes of Elton John) with the intention of converting it into a hotel. But in the meantime she made it her home, serving as caretaker for one of three estates in Los Angeles with a similar provenance. “I’m just a small part in the life of this wondrous place,” she says. And with those words she lets her lively black pug, Cozzy, out for a dip in the grand swimming pool.

Hollister’s Hots
Lika Moore jewelry, artistic integrity, TED talks, downtown bars, street art (especially Shepard Fairey’s)

Hollister’s Nots
Rudeness, built-in obsolescence, cruelty to animals, indifference, narrow minds