Grown Up Fun in San Diego: The Lafayette Hotel
February 28, 2024
What a difference a day makes! First of all, we have to thank Kevin who has his finger on the pulse of San Diego. He has been to the Lafayette before for dinner and knew what a cool place this is. And is it cool? Yes.
The lobby and the main bar are excellent. Quirky and strange and fun.
I was assigned room 226 after only a slight delay. The hotel is “eclectic cluttered” flavor, but somehow the design sensibility works. I guess it is possible to make things hang together by building a collage of most everything.
226 is rectangular, but it doesn’t feel like a hamster cage. About the only thing that needs work is the noise level. 226 faces the street and it is a bit noisy (for non city types anyway). The hotel did manage to get super quiet for about four hours around midnight when the power was taken down for construction. The quiet woke me up.
The hotel did its homework and greeted NPS with personalized stationary, a note about birthday, and a bottle of prosecco.
The difference in level of service between this hotel and the previous destination is like night and day. Thet have the NPS demographic nailed here.
I mean, just look at this bar. Apparently there is one of these in each room.
Home negroni? Why not.
Underberg?!
And the shower? Not at all plastic.
It was time to unwind from the meetings and talks. So down to the bar to await the arrival of my dinner companions
An expert-level Negroni with clear huge ice. Yes please.
Dinner at Quixote was very interesting (and expensive but well worth the price). The restaurant is a restructured church moved up from Mexico. Really interesting. The cocktail program is top notch and willing to play. We started with a CR#2 of course and moved on to a Paloma and some fernet.
Dinner is served tapas style. The lamb belly on mole was delicious.
Stringy cheese fondue.
NPS has never had cactus before.
After a brief stop by Heaven we headed to the game room to play some games. Fooseball!
We made a relatively early night of it, stopping in at the pool bar for a Paper Plane nighcap before crashing.
And then it was morning. Enough time for a leisurely breakfast before heading to the airport and back to Virginia.
All in all, we barely scratched the surface of the Lafayette. (We did learn to avoid the road side.) And we tried out a few of the many options here for fun. Suffice it to say, we will be back. Five showerheads and a dip in the pool next time for this excellent hotel.
NY, NY Still the Best City: Bill and Lisa’s Apartment
April 17, 2022
We arrived in NY after a long tarmac delay caused by high winds at Newark. Newark was, because of the stoppage, packed to the gills with people, and the wait times for the (awful) restaurants in Terminal C were over an hour. So we did what any sensible traveller would do and took a seriously skanky NJ cab into town for Tapas at Mompou. The tapas was great, and the vibe was pure NJ.
A quick Uber into the city landed us at our home for a week, Bill and Lisa’s apartment situated on 20th Street between 7th and 8th. You gotta love friends who invite you up when they score a place for a month in the city! Lucky dogs all around.
The city at night is a welcome view. This is the first NPS visit in too many years.
Our first jaunt led us down the High Line to the Whitney.
Checking out the Whitney
See All’s Well at the Whitney Biennial for more.
The Little Island has been added to Manhattan as of late. It’s a quirky little part worth a quick visit. More about our quick visit here.
The Little Island as seen from the Whitney
Spring was everywhere on a blustery gray day.
Wait for it!
The High Line has been completed through Hudson Yards these days. This bridge over 12th (?) avenue yields an interesting and somewhat cinematic view.
Our plan was to check out the Japanese Food Festival situation on closed off 6th avenue, but the hoards of people…and we mean hoards…obviated our plan. So we stopped for ramen and sake in collectible glasses at Oramen Chelsea.
Later we took the subway down for a visit to PDT. On the way we stopped in for a fried ice cream and a cocktail. It’s not clear whether we were lured in to Little Rebel by the fried ice cream or the Bowie mug shot.
CR#2 to start the evening
What is a CR#2? Glad you asked. Click here.
Said fried ice cream
Said Bowie mug shot
Yes, Bowie was arrested in Rochester in 1976.
It rained.
Our intrepid hosts
Next up, a slice at East Village Pizza.
And then some “hot dogs” at Crif.
PDT is still rocking it. We had some special fun with the paper plane.
Naked Paper Plane
Problem corrected by the astute waiter
Finally, a late night visit to the very local Twist was in order. Fernet time!
So that was a day!
Our next adventure started at the MoMA, where in addition to lots of famous art to be shared simultaneously with hundreds of others, lunch was really good.
See more MoMA Where Did All These People Come From?
Some of us had waffles on the street.
The Macy’s Spring flower show
I suppose we are obligated to talk about the showers in the apartment since this is NPS. The shower was very nice indeed. Plenty of hot water and lots of shower nozzles, many way high up there in the stratosphere.
Sunday evening we went to see Sleep No More, which was quirky, fun, and well worth doing. NPS missed the provocative parts. Alas. Experiencing theater by being IN the set is a thing.
Then it was Monday. Breakfast at Banter south of Washington Square was great — best in the city. Then it was time to do a little shopping. Did you know that the Varvatos outlet in NY occupies the old CBGB space? Wild.
There was pastry to be had at Patisserie Claude on the way to the special Chelsea apartment.
Romey visits the shrine
An ill fated “cash only” taxi ride deposited us into midtown to buy some boots and be accosted by a crazy lady. Our walk home happened under a taxi blackout zone.
And then it was off to Chama Mama with Chalmers in tow. Turns out that Georgian food is quite delightful.
Wine from Georgia. No not that one. Yeah that one.
The last day in the city was beautiful and sunny. A perfect day to be sedate and walk the High Line again.
The walk was gorgeous.
So was the lounging.
There was patio time in the sun.
Our intended entertainment target of choice (and the planned high point of the NY run) was to see SJP and Matthew Broderick (I mean Farris Bueller) in Plaza Suite. Covid prevented that from happening when both stars were infected. We’re still planning a reprise. In the meantime we went to see The Hangman while it was still in previews. Though the acting was a bit uneven, the play was good with only a few kinks to work out. As always, Broadway staging is the bomb.
Before the show we stopped in for a cocktail and some caviar at Bar Centrale. Old school, sophisticated and a great place to unwind before a show. Or is that wind up? Martinis and negronis pair well with caviar.
The lights on Broadway were doing their thing.
All dressed up in the big city
And thus the first visit to NY in three years ended. A whirlwind and a delight. Hopefully travel has returned for good.
The Hotel Van Zandt Austin, Texas
January 19, 2022
Ah Kimpton, you’ve become so corporate. Such a great hotel chain ground down by middle management cost cutting and the boredom of crank turning. Dang. We remember the old days, yes we do. They are never coming back.
Anyway, getting to Texas on United was not so bad even in double masks. The flight was very sparsely populated, though it is a longish one. Austin is a great city to visit. Or is it a town? Kind of hard to tell. Here’s the story of our brief stay at Hotel Van Zandt.
The only pair of actual cowboy boots at the hotel when we were there happened to be ours.
First of all, IHG has forgotten everything about what NPS likes. Just for the record, we like high floors, certain kinds of pillows, and rooms with no plastic showers. We have also become accustomed to welcome notes from the GM, delicious amenities, sparkling water, and sometimes even a craft cocktail greeting us in the room from a barkeep hired by Jacques. Not this time. Even though the Kimpton twitter dwarf (they used to be fairies, but corporations) was given the heads up, not one bit of prep was done. Kind of astonishing, really.
So NPS paid a pretty penny for an excellent king spa room with a view, and was given a plastic bottle of water at checkin by the Assistant Manager who had obviously not read our secret file in preparation for our arrival. Hell, there probably isn’t a secret file anymore.
Room 701 is a great room style category. But the floor? Not a high one. The amenities and water? Nope. And the “lake view” is mostly a dusty construction site surrounded by homeless encampments. Seriously. Every city we’ve visited lately has a massive housing problem. What is wrong with this country?
The bathroom was awesome. Great tub (which we used a bunch) and a nice glass shower.
Not plastic
Tub with a view (that cuts both ways)
Sink area
The king size bed is surrounded by a bank of windows on two sides. The view will one day be better.
Given our late arrival sometime just after 8pm, we headed for a drink to Geraldine’s on the fourth floor. It was a Saturday night and the unmasked Texas crowd was dense. After ordering an outstandingly made Negroni (what ice! what ingredients!) we opted for dinner. Dinner was delicious, service was smart and snappy, and all was well with the world. There was a band. They were OK.
Negroni featuring Botanist gin and Antica Formula vermouth…a house favorite
Behind the glass
Sadly the restaurant was not open for breakfast during our stay. Instead there is a starbucks knockoff cafe on the ground floor with a microwave. Not the sign of a great hotel, guys. Frankly, the place feels more like a Marriott than a Kimpton. No human touch and no magic.
Sunday was devoted to fun without a plan. Brunch at Fixe was absolutely stellar. Great Bloody Mary’s and cinnamon roll biscuits. Fantastic food and friendly Texas service. We took our time.
Bloody Mary of the highest caliber at Fixe
Hard to describe how delicious this was
The famous deviled eggs
Shrimp and grits with some garlic kale and a poached egg
In a great mood and in weather befitting Spring (60 degrees), we headed to South Congress for some idle shopping. Our only real destination was Heritage Boot Company. Though we got no pictures, we did manage to pick up a knife for my kilt and three pairs of handmade boots. We even had a margarita of sorts with “Mr. Avocado.” Great people, great boots, and a down home Texas vibe. (Thanks Kimber.) NPS hears tell that once you buy one pair you are on a slippery slope to ten. We shall see.
View down Congress toward the state house
Coffee and people watching at Jo’s Cafe
We did manage to singlehandedly support the American economy with our credit cards. And then it was time for a margarita and some music at Half Step. The margaritas are on tap. We were served by Nick Cage himself.
Margarita @halfstepbar served by nick cage himself @LoveTequila @rivco pic.twitter.com/PYH26aasFP
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) January 16, 2022
And that band. Three blind fellows joined by two sighted musicians and a heap of funk. These were real Austin professionals.
Have a listen for yourself.
About the time we extracted we were late for our dinner reservation at Canje. Dinner was excellent. The jerk chicken was hotter than hell. The drinks were fun. The vibe was casual.
Seated at the bar (our choice)
An emergency clothespin
Jerk chicken that will blow your mouth off
Really it would be hard to ask for a better Sunday in Austin.
Monday was a work day with a working lunch at Qi. Get the soup dumplings.
Part of the late afternoon meeting happened at the Proper hotel. This place is interesting but just a little too artificial after an hour in the lobby. The music loop may kill you if the extruded ice doesn’t. Dinner was slated for upstairs at la piscina ceviches and fajitas. Our hosts are enamored with their fajitas. They were (as Sammy says) pretty not bad.
The highlight of the evening Monday night was a quick stop by the Roosevelt Room. What a place. Cavernous and somehow still intimate. Superb cocktails served with whimsy and great care. One of the top bars in the world for sure. NPS had a paper plane (with a paper plane) and a Liberal. Yup. Amer Picon in the house. We seem to have lost our party all night energy during the pandemic, especially after a full day of working in person. So we’ll have to go back. Thanks for the hospitality Justin.
The paper plane with a paper plane
Yet another emergency clothespin
The list is first class
A Liberal in Austin
Well, Austin, we will definitely be back. We’ll probably buy some more Heritage boots. We’ll definitely have a few more drinks at the Roosevelt Room. But we’ll stay at the Driskill. Three showerheads for the Hotel Van Zandt where you get what you pay for (and nothing more).
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