A Tale of Two Rooms: Buchanan San Francisco
December 8, 2017
Back at the Buchanan, this time for “mandatory corporate fun,” and all is well.
Sadly, when we booked, our favorite room was already slated for some other obviously undeserving guest and the Tetris game of chance did not work out in our favor. So what ya gonna do?
Start out in 216 and move up as soon as possible! 216 is a ADA room, which is not that big a problem, but its shower is wimpy and sucky, and it is too close to the street and thus a bit noisy. Oh well, one night won’t kill us.
We were greeted with a much-needed amenity which we scarfed down like the hungry dogs we are.
And then, since it was pretty late, it was straight to bed.

This shower is not plastic, but it needs a better shower head and better water pressure.
Fortunately, the room switcheroobie was smooth. So one night late, we moved up to 416. That’s better. Maybe next time the dice will roll in our favor!

View from 416

Hmm, that design looks familiar.

The MUCH better shower. All praise the shower goddess.

Bathroom with stuff: still life
The Buchanan lobby is interesting too, but not as interesting as GM E mily Gick who we finally connected with this visit. Thanks for the hospitality Emily.

Buchanan lobby

Art out of focus
Either four or five showerheads for the Buchanan. See you again soon!
In other San Francisco news, Zasie is a very trendy and great place for brunch. Cocktails at Blackbird do not suck.
Hinodeya ramen just across the street from the Buchanan is very good indeed and entirely authentic.
Cocktails at P.C.H in popup xmas mode is highly recommended. After that you must close down The Irish Bank. Spent some quality time with Jacques Bezuidenhout. What a blast!
Hotel Kabuki San Francisco: So Close and Yet So Far Away
February 15, 2018
If anything is true, this is: NPS votes with its money. Sure, we pile on the praise (and the snark) as necessary. We even take on hotel chains that think they have us irreversibly trapped in their loyalty program. (See, for example, this fun entry out of Los Angeles.) Well, the time has come to do some fund re-allocation.
You see, the Buchanan Hotel in San Francisco (a Kimpton) has been our San Francisco home for a couple of years. Sadly, due to too much demand, we are unable to get the room we want when we stay there. So how do we solve that problem? We remove demand. Last time we were in San Francisco we walked across the street to the Hotel Kabuki to check it out. As a result, we’re staying at Kabuki this time.
The lobby, common areas, and bar are all very upscale, nicely designed, and worth a visit. On our arrival, we dropped off the bag upstairs and headed straight to the bar. Sazarac? Yes please (with a little help from our friends).
We requested and were happy to occupy a corner room up high. Room 1402 is most likely indicative of the best room category on the property.

design sensibility 1402
The bedroom sector is the most up to date, with interesting design.

bedroom sector 1402
1402 offers a very good view of Japantown and even the Golden Gate in the distance. Two banks of windows provide a very wide view. Mornings were beautiful this week.
Luggage pod is exposed in the hallway to the door.

Luggage and refrigerator
An amenity (!!) on our first stay was very much welcome. Thanks Kabuki!! Champagne and fruit is very nice indeed.

wow, a welcome amenity and they barely know us

the window bank
Then there is the bathroom. Number one, the open design is a bit chilly. A door instead of a doorway would help. That bank of windows in 1402 (including two sliding doors installed in the ’70s) can keep things pretty chilly in February, even with two sets of curtains. Updating the glass would probably help too.

bathroom sector 1402
The shower area is huge. Too huge, as it turns out, mostly because the glass door (approved) does not shut tight and chilly air comes in to make a great shower less than great. Looks like nobody actually took a shower to test this design before implementing it.

glass shower…huge
The shower has both a drench head and a handheld shower head. But that cold air.

shower head 2
So, all is not yet well at the Hotel Kabuki, where some attention to detail is in order.
Did housekeeping remove your not quite empty bottle of sparkling water? Try calling down to get some more. No dice. And no creativity from the front desk. High end hotels solve problems.
Want espresso for breakfast in the morning? Nope.
Want to adjust the temperature? Good luck figuring out how the thermostat works (it appears not to do anything at all).
Did you open the sliding glass door to access the balcony? Getting it closed again may be an issue.
On the positive side again, Japantown is a great base of operations in San Francisco. There are exceptional restaurants and cocktail locations within striking distance, and the Filmore corridor up the hill is hopping.
We schlepped out to Haight-Ashbury for dinner at Black Sand. This local bistrot has great food and good cocktails.
We taught the bartenders how to make Bill’s Big Birthday Beverage:
1 oz Ancho Reyes
1 oz cardamaro
1 oz fresh orange juice
.25 oz hot pepper infusion (in this case, house made)
Shake. Strain. Serve up.
Anyway, with more attention to the details above, Hotel Kabuki will displace the Buchanan as San Francisco’s default location for NPS. Four showerheads for the Hotel Kabuki. Rise to the occasion please!
Noooooo! Plastic Showers at the Georgian Hotel: Santa Monica
January 24, 2017
Maybe you get a pass on the plastic shower thing if you are an historical property and you have peepholes like this??

Peep hole in 504
Of course, we’ve been here before, so we know which end is up and exactly why this property rocks. This time we made double sure to get the right room with an incredible (yuge?) view of the Pacific—especially after our Kimpton debacle last week). 504 is sweet!

The view on arrival
And it is on the proper side of the building as well.

504 side windows see this
So what to expect? A very spacious suite with reasonable furnishings only slightly dated. Plenty of room to work (and to entertain, as it turns out). A large bathroom with the exact wrong kind of shower. Creaky net. Busted speakers. Buy your own flowers. But the view. And the location. And the view.

Flowers. Buy self.

Of course it does actually rain sometimes. All day. For three days!

Entrance hallway 504

504 sitting room

504 sitting room

View into the bedroom

504 bedroom

This is actually from my brother’s inlaws house, so ignore it

Bathroom

Nooooo! A plastic shower. Eat crow and stay here anyway.

Enough room even for certain travelling companions
Anyway, did we have fun in Santa Monica? Sure. We started off in LA at the wine thing.
Breakfast crepe was delicious.
Then we visited McCabe’s Guitar Shop (owned by our very own peeps). if you are a music person, just visit, play, hang out, learn. There are ghosts.

McCabe’s Guitar Shop
Which made us want stuff like this beauty of a guitar. Hurry up and buy it, or I will.

Want
And we had a delicious dinner up the canyon at the very old school and very very good Saddle Peak Lodge. The highlight of the night was talking to Bob while eating elk. Bob is just bob. Maybe one day we’ll tell you. Or maybe not. Talk to Bob you lucky bastard.
Anyway, fütbol in the room on the rainiest Sunday in maybe 8 years in Santa Monica. Mud slides, rocks that closed roads, leaky roofs that (who knew) are supposed to keep water out?! And all of the fütbol teams that we liked were beat. Kind of like the election. At least there was beer and a smidge of bourbon.
Followed by Bourne on OK glass with super bad speakers. Dear hotels, why is it that home cinema situations even among those who mostly don’t give a shit are 10 years ahead of you? No, really. Why? One decade ahead.
Which catches us on up to Monday. Work and LACMA.

LACMA

LACMA
About which more here.
Then dinner at the very not bad Manchego, where they have yet to discover both Priorat and twitter.
Four showerheads and a wish for glass showers and speakers that are not blown.