The cheapskate's guide to Beverly Hills

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Even if you have no desire to shop till you drop a walletload of money, if you're in Los Angeles, it's still worth making the trip to Beverly Hills.

Yes, the brand-name, high-end shops on Rodeo Drive are ridiculously expensive, but no one says you have to buy. Ogling is free. And there is much to gape at.

All those high-end clothes you normally see only in magazines? In Beverly Hills you can touch them as they hang on a rack.

Perhaps the best display space is at Prada (343 N. Rodeo Drive), which has a theme to its displays that verges on art installation. In July, the theme was travel, with mannequins toting luggage on the front steps of the store, which is so cool it doesn't bother with a sign out front announcing it's the Prada store. The facade is blank.

Inside, the travel theme carried on throughout the store, perhaps most extensively on the second floor in menswear. Arches symbolizing airport-security metal detectors led into a showroom designed to resemble an airport baggage claim, all done in a stark black-and-white color scheme. A simple button-down shirt can run well over $100, and that's one of the store's less expensive items.

Up the street at Juicy Couture (456 N. Rodeo Drive), a pink knight stood guard near the stairs to the second floor. Upstairs, a pool table in the middle of the men's department was available for patrons to use to pass the time while other members of their party shop. In July, clearance items included T-shirts marked down from $58 to $39.99.

Rodeo is also home to upscale brands such as Hermes, Chanel, Brooks Brothers and Cartier. But if those stores are out of your price range, walk one block east to Beverly Drive. There you'll find some typical chains (North Face, Gap, Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel) but also some less expensive, less common shops.

Canadian clothing retailer Roots has a small store (371 N. Beverly Drive) that offers the company's trademark comfortable casual wear. T-shirts retail for $20-plus, but sales can bring the price to under $20.

Down the block at Adriano Goldschmied (329 N. Beverly Drive), a giant wheel of denim sits near the front window. It's made of 3,000 pounds of compacted jeans, a store specialty. But they're pricey ($150 and up for men's and women's denim). Still, it's worth trolling the back of the store for clearance items. In July, T-shirts from HBO's "Entourage" were on sale for 50 percent off -- about $25 after markdown.

Beverly Hills is also a place to come just to people-watch. Plenty of restaurants and coffee shops, particularly on North Beverly, have outdoor seating, offering a good opportunity to watch the beautiful people who stroll past. And they are beautiful. As soon as you step off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport, an inferiority complex can set in. Beverly Hills just ups the ante.

During my visit, a bride in white and her tuxedoed groom -- followed by their wedding party -- strolled down Rodeo as a photographer and videographer tried to capture the moment. It wasn't clear where they came from or where they were headed.

Celebrity sightings in the Beverly Hills business district are frequent. Sometimes the paparazzi are even known to follow the celebrities to the door of a store. Then they lie in wait for the star to emerge, laden with shopping bags.

If you get tired of watching people, you can start watching TV. The West Coast beachhead of the former Museum of Television & Radio, now The Paley Center for Media (465 N. Beverly Drive), offers access to TV in the same way as its New York outlet. (Suggested donations: $10 adults, $8 students/seniors, $5 children under 14; Hours: Noon-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday.)

Visitors can watch what's scheduled to play in theaters, or they can go to the library and call up a TV show from the center's archives. Evening Q&A panels with the casts and producers of current TV shows are scheduled with some frequency. Visit PaleyCenter.org to check to see if there are any events when you plan to visit.

For automotive fans, wandering the streets of Beverly Hills is like stepping into a showroom for high-end cars from a multitude of manufacturers. BMWs and Mercedes are the Hondas of Beverly Hills, with a healthy dose of Toyota Priuses in the mix for eco-conscious residents.

But you're also likely to come upon a Bentley or Rolls-Royce. During my visit, a sporty yellow convertible Rolls garnered stares as onlookers walked past its curbside parking spot along Rodeo.

The car, a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, retails for about $400,000. But staring at it longingly didn't cost a penny.

Eateries run the gamut from chains (Cheesecake Factory, 364 N. Beverly Drive) to local restaurants, like Nate'n Al, Delicatessen Restaurant (414 N. Beverly Drive) with $7-$14 sandwiches and The Beverly Hills Diner (474 N. Beverly Drive), where a burger can be had for less than $6.

At the Via Rodeo outdoor mall, you can even have breakfast at Tiffany's. Actually, it would be breakfast at 208 Rodeo -- the name of the restaurant and its address -- on the sidewalk outside of Tiffany's. But this restaurant isn't on the cheapskate's to-do list: While breakfasts run $11-$14, lunch and dinner prices are higher, with entrees topping out at $42.

Dessert shops are popular, too, including Pinkberry (9409 S. Santa Monica Blvd.), which was all the rage in Los Angeles about a year ago. The shops serve nonfat, low-calorie (50-90 calories per serving) frozen yogurt ($2.50-$5.50) in three flavors (original, coffee and green tea) with plenty of toppings available (95 cents each).

Then there's Sprinkles cupcake bakery (9635 S. Santa Monica Blvd.). If, like me, you think $3.25 is highway robbery for a cupcake ($13 for a box of four), you can just get the best part at Sprinkles: An icing shot is a reasonable 75 cents.

And what great icing it is. The milk chocolate is fluffy, not too overpowering. It's sugary but smooth. The shots come in a paper cup -- the same kind used for ketchup in some restaurants -- and they even wrap it up securely if you get it to go.

But if you plan to visit Sprinkles, be sure to go before noon; otherwise, you're likely to encounter a line outside the store that can reach up to three storefronts long.

"Beverly Hills doesn't wake up until noon," noted a Sprinkles patron in line in front of me.

That's noon every day, but it's especially true Sunday mornings when the Beverly Hills shopping district is a ghost town.

If you're looking for a place to jog and window-shop in the Los Angeles area, you can't do better than Rodeo on Sunday morning.

(Contact TV editor Rob Owen at rowen(at)post-gazette.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)