Kamala Harris’ Los Angeles dining habits are haute and spicy, as residents in her neighborhood have noticed her penchant for eating out at the exclusive Hillcrest Country Club and a beloved local Mexican chain.
A new report in The Wall Street Journal detailing the vice president’s life in Los Angeles, where she and her husband Doug Emhoff share a $2.7 million, 3,500 square foot home in the Brentwood neighborhood, notes that in addition to the posh country club, neighbors have noticed another “habit”—a taste for L.A. institution El Cholo.
The current initiation fee at Hillcrest is $300,000, according to a source familiar with club memberships who spoke to the Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity. Monthly dues are $2,300, which comes out to $27,600 per year.
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Emhoff, a high-powered entertainment lawyer before he took on the role of second gentleman, has reportedly been a member of the historically Jewish country club for many years. The Hollywood Reporter reported that its initiation fee in 2011 was $185,000, meaning it’s unlikely he paid at the current rate. A favorite hangout of Hollywood legends including Al Jolson and Milton Berle, it was founded in 1920.
Hillcrest’s general manager did not reply to requests for comment. Reached by phone, a club employee said he was unavailable.
The facility boasts an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, an Olympic-size swimming pool, and a fitness center. According to the club’s website, women are not allowed to wear shirts “with reference to sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco or social or political statements” to the tennis courts, while no such stipulation is made for men (who are nevertheless instructed not to wear shirts with wording “unless they are specifically designed for tennis”).
The club boasts five different dining options—The Grill, The Patio, The Lounge, the Courtside Café and the Poolside Café—though only the first three offer dinner. Prices are not listed on the dinner menus, which include standard fare starters like oysters and shrimp cocktail and mains including miso sake black cod and a wagyu flat iron steak. The Wall Street Journal did not specify if Harris had any preferred menu items.
El Cholo, meanwhile, is decidedly less exclusive. The chain, which has six locations in L.A. and one in Salt Lake City, has an outpost in Santa Monica, not far from Harris and Emhoff’s L.A. abode.
Apart from noticing where their power couple neighbors dine out, one neighbor told the Journal that it’s “very annoying” to live next to America’s second family. Another said to the paper, “I will vote for her if she agrees to sell her house.”
In no cases were the complaints personal. The residents of the well-heeled area simply seem perturbed by a growing security radius around Harris’s home, which would likely only grow bigger and more ironclad if she became president.
