noplasticshowers

Even though my trip up 101 from Palo Alto was delayed by the President of the United States (motorcade blod clot), my arrival at the Palomar could not have been better. Rachel was at the front desk to say hello continuing with her silly “rock star” riff. This time there was even a welcome plaque.

Room 830 is a very nice suite. Best bathroom in the Palomar to date for me. Plenty of light and space with a great view.

The view from 830.

The sitting room (before the loot arrived).

View into the bedroom. A double sliding door demarcates the space.

Interesting architectural feature number 42.

And the all important bathroom with a great glass shower cube and a huge bathtub (which, of course, did not get used).

Way not plastic.

Connector.

The loot pile arrived shortly after I did. Thanks for the loot Rachel and Emilie!

No time to eat the loot. Alas.

By far the best part of this visit was sampling some real mixology on the fifth floor. Jacques Bezuidenhout has been charged with upping the quality of the bars in all 50 Kimpton properties. He is making good progress. Though Jacques and I have corresponded, I had yet to meet him. We fixed that. Jacques is great!

Using Amer Picon from home, Jacques made us a batch of Liberals. He used rye (I usually use bourbon) and orange peel (I slip in a Luxardo cherry). Very nicely made, and what a treat to have a real Amer Picon Liberal away from home. He also shared some superb wild agave tequila (which came with a really cool story) and a fascinating new rum blend.

Jacques has his work cut out for him with 50 properties in the portfolio. I’m 100% behind his venture. Superb idea and exactly the right guy to do it.

After drinks, we sauntered down the street for a very fancy dinner at benu. Benu is a newly-rated 2 Michelin stars place with a $180 ginormous tasting menu. Benu was very good, but in my view over-rated and over-priced. In particular the pairings we had definitely need some work. Some of the items were outstanding though. Frankly it was just as much fun having drinks with Jacques beforehand!

If noplasticshowers went past five showerheads, this trip alone would clinch it for the Palomar.

The best thing at benu: duck with truffle bun. This was delicious.

As icing on the cake, United pulled off two uneventful trips that went smoothly and efficiently. I hope it is the beginning of a trend.

I’ve been staying here two or three times a year since the ’90s, and I just found a new room. My old favorite #28 was unavailable, so Joji put me up in #31 this time.

I like the hardwood floors and the space. Maybe this is my new favorite?! So fickle.

The bedroom has excellent floors and a nice set of windows. They look better when they’re not covered.

There should be a plate on the wall in every room.

Colonial with a flat screen TV. I wish this TV problem were less pervasive on planet earth. My computer bag makes a rather ugly throw pillow.

Last night when I arrived, French class was well underway. Very nice.

And now to the large (for the Cowper) bathroom. Here is a classic noplasticshowers mirror shot taken through the wall mirror.

Plenty of room, even in the shower.

The shower itself needs a bit of TLC. A new showerhead would probably improve the water pressure situation, and would certainly elevate this shower up the shower food chain. The door needs a whack or two as well.

Shower cube.

Time to go get some breakfast (including epsresso!).

The Cowper retains is well-deserved “best place to stay in Palo Alto” rating of five showerheads.

And here is the Golden Gate bridge.

I have certainly been ranting about United this year. I would like to stop. But that would require United to improve.

Not gonna happen. Instead they keep saying they are granting me miles (which never show up in my account) or giving me some other kind of bribe. I really just wish they would fix their dang airline.

On a recent flight back from Hartford, CT I was upgraded on a regional jet in advance. Then one of the seats was apparently broken, so they chose me to de-upgrade even though it was not my seat that was broken. Screw that. I am certain that once again the computer did not understand my actual status.

The gate agent in Hartford offered me a certificate for $250 for my trouble. That has yet to arrive. I doubt it ever will. UNITED AIRLINES SUCKS.

Hertz will have to join them today. For some odd reason, I had no car when I landed today at SFO. It took 15 minutes to find a car. So much for #1 club gold. I wonder if United and Hertz are in cahoots?

Maybe I should just stop travelling.

Regular readers know that the College Hotel is by far my favorite place to stay in Amsterdam. We’re running a small Conference here this week, and the venue is absolutely perfect for a meeting.

And get this. Serious mixology is available at the College Hotel now too! Bartender Luke Gerntsen is leading the way and is particularly good with the knife.

I checked in way early after an awful flight and a swing and a miss at Privium (did I mention that United sucks? Oh OK). The College Hotel was kind enough to allow me to shower in an unoccupied room since my room was not yet available. Here is how the shower in 301 looks. 301 is cramped but quirky. All bed.

Shower in 301. Nice to recover in from a crap flight on United.

Bathroom pod in 301.

Lunch with colleagues (which we’ll just ignore) and a trip to see the tulips began to improve my mood.

Keukenhof beauty. Stunning.

Upon return, my room, 123, was ready. My first reaction was that I preferred 105, but 123 has grown on me and I enjoy the three major windows and light during the time I spend here in the daylight. FWIW, I was met with a fruit plate and a personal note, which is a nice touch and fairly uncommon in Europe.

Through the double doors.

The shower is plenty big with multiple heads (including a soaker) and a very interesting double door.

The rest of the room is set on two levels with a sitting room (small but very nice) and a bedroom. The layout is quirky and nice. It takes a while for me to remember I am in Europe and to recall the size of my apartment in Trento way back when!

Window seat in the sitting room.

Comfortable bed (well, anything is great after 36 hours awake).

Architecture.

Now back to mixology. Mads Voorheove (who I suppose it Luke’s understudy, but who is very good in his own right) mixed up a nice Royal Navy for me, after which we had an extensive lesson in Genever. We tried three Bols products (Songe Genever, Oude Genever, and the one I have at home…trendy Genever for export) and two Corewyn products (standard and 10 year). Both of the Corewyn products were superb.

We visited Feijoa and said hello to Rob and company. The rum selection is still top notch. And then we paid a visit or two to the speakeasy at door 74 where we were served by Ben and Tess.

What a joy to have real drinks in such a nice hotel. Life is good.

First some numbers:
1,411,587 miles
almost 10 years of 100k status
premier 1k status (with lifetime gold)
a handful of global premier upgrade blips
4 days in the row flying on United planes (indy, newark, dulles, amsterdam)

Now, try to fly to Amsterdam and use one of the “global premier upgrades.” Did we think it was going to suck in advance? Yes we did. We know that United sucks and nobody is listening. UNITED SUCKS AND NOBODY IS LISTENING!

So, how could it be any worse? Well, pull up a stool and have a listen.

I went to the gate pretty early to discover that I had been dropped from the upgrade list AGAIN. This is the third time the computer has done that for no apparent reason. Nobody can tell me why. Anyway, I got on the upgrade list again way too late (as number one of course)…and lo and behold there was a seat.

30 minutes before takeoff I was upgraded and given a paper boarding pass for BusinessFirst. I boarded. 10 minutes later the gate agent came and asked me to move. “The computer made a mistake.” My economy seat was already occupied, but they made that poor guy move too.

Only later did I find out what really happened from the crew (who were all very nice and who also agree that Jeff Smisek is a crap CEO and he should resign so someone else can “clean up the mess” FWIW). A premier gold had been confirmed upgraded on an earlier flight that he missed when he fell asleep in the Denver red carpet club. That meant he was standby on my later flight. He should have had the last available seat. But he raised such a stink about being in business class (since he was previously confirmed) that the solution was to bump me…a guy with double his status…back to economy?! What an asshole. And what pathetic gate agents. I guess I am just not enough of a jerk to get my way even when I am right? And they were dead wrong about who should have been upgraded. Sadly, I found out too late to stand my ground.

So the awful (and I mean worst ever) gate agents AnaMaria Espimo and Asmara Samery are responsible for my current foul mood. Not to mention the asshole.

Just to pile it on, I was slated to join up with Privium in Amsterdam, but it turns out the that Dutch don’t understand McNames. My passport says “MC NAME” but the application said “MCNAME” so back to square one for that process. Ridiculous. Come to think of it, maybe that is the problem with the United computer?

United sucks enough that it needs a reboot. Start at the top.

My company has an apartment in NYC. Apparently it is a very advanced apartment, as evidenced by the apartment number:

That’s Dr. Apartment to you.

The view from the 36th-ish floor is pretty good.

View from the corner window.

Looking north from the roof (one floor up).

The building next door seems familiar. And kinda tall.

It’s nice to have net, a kitchen, multiple bedrooms, a washer and dryer, and lots of stocked stuff in NY. May have to stay here all the time and blow off 70Park.

The Grant Street Inn is my go to hotel in Bloomington, and a good thing too, since my company is opening an office in Bloomington!

This trip coincided with a launch party for our new office, with a guest list of 150 business leaders, academics, and local politicians. And we somehow picked the Thursday before graduation to do this?! Thankfully, Paul Wagoner saw to it that our people were all properly accommodated during the busiest weekend of the year for hotels. Thanks Paul! We’ll all be back.

Since there are plenty of previous pictures of room 30 (my fave), I opted for an outside looking in picture this time.

Room 30 from the outside. You can tell why it is a reasonably quiet room (even on graduation weekend).

In other news, the breakfast room (which I never seem to have time to eat in) has been remodeled and expanded. The new addition across the street should come on line very soon.

The new breakfast room look.

Bloomington is a great little town, and Grant Street Inn is the best place to stay. Four showerheads (plus some).

In mixology news, The Rail (as rumor had it in Indy) is a very good bar indeed. I was fortunate to meet both of the owners. Andy Butler is a Bloomington native wine guy who lives in Napa. His partner’s name escapes me.

After concocting a Liberal (incorrectly using Averna instead of Amer Picon or Torani Amer), we attempted to recreate the Cynar Stinger from Indy and were bummed to discover that there was no white creme de menthe around. So we moved to the bar and Matt McDaniel mixed us up a (still buggy) drink called

Montenegro’s Revenge
2 oz Zaya rum
1 oz Carpano sweet vermouth
.5 oz Montenegro bitters (good stuff)
.25 oz Cynar
2 dashes of Angustora bitters

So what are the bugs? Well, the simulator says we should adjust this drink as follows:
2 oz Mt Gay Eclipse (lose the varnish flavor and sweetness of Zaya)
1 oz Carpano (same, but could use Dolin’s Rouge)
.5 oz Montenegro bitters

Cynar plus angustora plus Montenegro is just too much going on. We’ll try it out at home later this month and let you know how the adjusted version comes out.

In any case, the experimenting was a blast. I can’t wait to return.

Uh oh, looks like the word “boutique” is being thrown around with impunity these days by a number of hotels that really are not. The latest iteration of that problem can be found in Hanover, NH (where Dartmouth is). Six South calls itself “a boutique hotel” more than once. It is more like a plussed up Holiday Inn than anything else I can think of. Thin walls (the guy next door is currently on his cell phone), hamster-cage rectangle room designs, veneer plated plywood modular furniture, and cups covered in plastic (though I must admit that’s better than plastic cups).

Cups covered in plastic?

Maybe it is more like the Indigo in Jacksonville than like a Holiday Inn. But it is less like what I would like to think of as a boutique hotel.

Bedroom designed just like a plastic shower hotel, but the shower is not plastic.

Ikea chic. TV worship welcome here.

The couch is kind of nice.

Nice couch sadly crammed in the room.

The bathroom is problematic, mostly because it makes a mockery of my heuristic (which is why we call it a heuristic and not a rule, I suppose). The shower is glass! But the bathroom is tiny and feels like a Hilton?! Horrors.

Glass shower. Very confusing.

Cramped bathroom in classic hotel you don't want to stay in layout.

In the end, the Six South is going to have to settle for a three shower heads rating. Just not good enough to stay in again.

Hanover is a charming little town caught in the time warp caused by Dartmouth. Mixology has yet to make a serious appearance.

Some interesting news on the United Express front. I flew up on Mesa (UA 3797) and the flight attendant Darita Sterling-Ward was just super. If Mesa gets more people like Darita on the staff, I will need to revisit the sense of dread I feel when I am sentenced to fly Mesa.

Wow. I am about to get another taste of economy class to Europe courtesy of United. I am flying to Amsterdam in early May and was counting on my 1,000,000 miles and 100k status along with a couple of “system wide upgrades” to boost me to business class. Nope. The return trip is already filled to the gills. And I am number 8 on the upgrade list with 6 seats available on the way over (and 30+ people below me on the list).

My system wide upgrades (and I have lots of them) are utterly useless. My 100k status? About the same. I can barely remember why I used to fly on this airline.

Hey Jeff Smisek, you have completely ruined United and ticked off a bunch of your best customers. Time to resign.

I really can’t stand United any more. United Sucks even more in 2012 than they did in 2011. In advance.

In a knockout blow, Shuttle America (one of United’s many subcontractors operating United Express) defeats Mesa Airlines (the absolute worst United Express subcontractor) almost without lifting a finger.

Shuttle America? New Embrear jets configured to store luggage and seat people comfortably. Mesa? Canadair regional jet where if you are lucky you may be able to fit your laptop bag. Mesa needs new regional jets. A CRJ700 may be better than a J-41, but that comparison was from the ’90s.

Shuttle America? Happy intelligent flight attendants. Mesa? Surly not too swift fight attendants who know their company sucks.

The unanimous decision goes to Shuttle America. Avoid Mesa at all costs.

In other news, the Granite City restaurant in IND terminal A ranks among the worst airport restaurants still alive today. Just plain bad food. Their bar scrapes so low that they don’t even have a bottle of Campari (!) meaning the classic fallback Negroni is not to be procured.

We have been forced to identify a new even further down the list backup cocktail for use when you are stuck in a bar in a ’70s time warp when martinis were only bad gin and people stored the vermouth bottle in the same room but didn’t open it. Without further ado, the White Lady:
2 oz gin (in this case Bombay Saphire ?! hah)
1 oz Cointreau (I suppose this could degenerate to Triplesec in an emergency)
.5 oz lemon juice (squeeze it yourself from pre-cut wedges)

Try going to the Granite City bar and then boarding a Mesa CRJ700. Not so good.