noplasticshowers

Boston was crammed to the gills this week. Hotel availability and prices reflected that. In fact, when I was setting this trip up I was shocked by the prices. Kimpton to the rescue. A quick note to the esteemed Linda Chin (GM at the Onyx) helped me reserve a room.

BTW, Linda’s staff is still top notch. Responsive. Nice. Helpful. Quick to solve a problem. The Onyx staff is among the best in the business. Thanks to Lauren Weir for reaching out before I arrived. Sadly, Joe the bartender did not remember me at all on Tuesday, nor has he become a mixologist in his spare time.

My arrival was complicated by showing up way early. The staff very graciously worked with me to get a room set up. After 30 minutes dinking around on the net in the lobby, everything was ready to go. This time, I was in room 909. (I think I was slated for 1007, but engineering was somehow involved…so something must have been busted.)

Not surprisingly, the rooms at the Onyx have not grown any bigger since I was last here—nicely appointed, but a bit cramped. My camera is still AWOL after my Watermellon Park Fest gig, so once again I have to use a canned picture from the hotel website. Maybe I need to buy a new camera.

See how great these pictures are when the hotels take them? The fisheye lens makes things seem bigger than they really are.

After all day in Boston, I returned to the room to find a personal note from Linda and the makings of a vodka beverage (horrors!!). This was all very nice, of course. I guess Lauren did not get the memo about vodka being verboten among those in the know. We’ll just pretend it never happened.

I’ll also have to pretend that the showers at the Onyx are glass and that they have sufficient shower pressure. They’re not and they really don’t. Dang. See the previous entry on the Onyx for some pictures.

In any case, I will keep Onyx at the five showerheads rating level. Excellent staff trumps ignorable showers this week.

Some good news to end the posting. Mixology in Boston is strong and appears to be spreading. I had no time to go to drink (trip to NY intervened and wrecked my big plans). Bravo at the Museum of Fine Arts offered up an acceptable beverage whose name escapes me now. (I am guessing at the ratios here.)
1.5 oz bombay sapphire gin
.5 chartreuse
.5 sweet vermouth (they used gallo almost for sure)
dash bitters (fee brothers generic)

And my favorite Boston restaurant the Blue Room served up a wonderfully complex drink called the smoke monster (I am guessing at ratios again):
1 oz cuervo silver
1 oz chichicapa mezcal
1 oz grapefruit
teaspoon honey syrup
dash bitters (probably angustora)

Almost forgot the irony bit. Guess where I am headed tonight…back to the Eventi in NY. What a ridiculous circumstance. Hey Linda, call ahead for me please!