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The Zetter Townhouse, situated just behind the Zetter Hotel and home to one of the best cocktail bars in London, was the base of operations for some business and a nice pile of art.  NPS was put into room 6.

Art included, the Tate, some theater, and a concert.

The shower is not plastic, though climbing in and out of the enormous tub is a thing,  Perhaps some short stairs should be installed.

Room 6 could use a better wardrobe, and some updated less shabby furniture.  But all in all it is a nice place to spend a few days.

On our way to the Tate, we stopped by Ibérica Farringdon for a bite.

Our visit to the Tate Modern is documented here.

Of course a cocktail at the Zetter Townhouse rounded out the Thursday plan.  We keep reminding them what a Liberal is.

Then some business which included two very nice meals, one at Bocca di Lupo and an incredible lunch at Inko Nito.

A French dinner at Le Café du Marché was very good for London but would never fly in Paris.

Saturday afternoon was meant to start with ramen, but Mohonon was closed (fortunately that was remedied Sunday evening.  Suffice it to say that Bone Daddy just does not stack up.

Waiting on line might require a beer.

Some shopping at Varvatos cost everyone a pretty penny, but was surprisingly not awful.

We just had time for a brown meal at Hawksmoor before the theater.  Then it was off to see Lyonesse which was enhanced by some sugarless French 75s.

The play was quite good, a medical emergency nothwithstanding.

The next day included a run back to Soho to visit Etro.  And then some incredible classical music at the barbican.

Followed by real Ramen.  Mohonos is just so good…equal to Japan.

A nightcap at Boccas was not terrible.  But no Fernet in an Argentinean bar?!  What?!  A Pisco Sour (Peru?) would have to do.

All in all, four showerheads and a quick furnishings update required for the Zetter Townhouse.

 

 

The beautiful and funky Christiania Teater has experienced a face lift.  Even room 620 (a long time NPS favorite) has been updated.

The Fly2Get train in from the airport is a snap.  The upgraded decor a welcome change.

 

Funky art in the hallway.

The orange juice machine remains the best in the world.  In fact the entire breakfast situation is top notch.

Cafe Skansen is well worth a visit.  Great place for a business dinner.

Fireside chat?  In Oslo it is the real thing.

Engage.

The Munch museum (iteration three) is well worth a visit.

Himkok seems to have jumped the shark.  Good luck edging in past the masses!  We tried the Swan instead.  Which was OK.

On the other hand, Indian food at Mantra was excellent.  Great decor and the best indian so far in Oslo.  And Dinner is a good place for dinner, though the food is much better than that work-a-day service.

 

Then it was off to Tyinkrysett.

 

Five showerheads for the Christiania Teater hotel.  We will most likely return sooner than we think.

 

In the still active quest to find a NY hotel to use as home base, we present the (nope) Intercontinental Barclays hotel.  This was a quick, trip up for business and pleasure.

The Barclays is old school.  Well, old.  Definitely old.  Try as they might to upgrade to “hip” or “relevant,” there is too much inertia for the sluggish IHG chain to overcome.

Our arrival was very corporate and our room was nice but hamster cage.  All vestiges of Kimpton privilege have been assimilated.  And there is only so much that you can do to drag a mid-century hotel into the new millennium.  Frankly, I don’t even remember what our room number was or even what floor it was on.

The shower was fine.

A comfortable generic bed.  Design by somebody’s grandmother.

Oh, here it is, room 939 on the not at all memorable 9th floor.  This is a concierge floor which means only you can share an OK breakfast with other people who think that concierge service is good.

But it was NYC!  BTW, the Fasano is a great place for a ridiculously expensive business dinner.  Great food and a relaxed atmosphere conducive to conversation.

Also, as always the tucked away Oyster bar in Grand Central is a fun place for a snack.  We tried out the back room (new to me).  The front is more NY, FWIW.

Meanwhile, the bar back at the Barclays has a reputation far beyond its ’70s reality.  Great cocktails served by cynical old school NY barkeeps with a hotel lobby feel that can’t be overcome.  Skip it.

The great news is that the trip’s most memorable experience was a great one.  The MOMA’s Karl Lagerfeld exhibit was not to be missed.  See more here.

Before whizzing back across town and under the river to Newark, we had a great lunch at Blue Willow somewhat on a whim.  Outstanding.

All in all, three showerheads and a continued search for a NY home for the Barclays Intercontinental.  Too much corporate genericism for us.

As you know if you read this blog religiously (you do, right?!), back in the old days NPS favored the Kimpton hotel chain.  Once IHG bought Kimpton, the vibe transformed itself over a number of years from design-forward, hipster-esque to corporate hamsters from Kansas.  So we’re done with Kimpton.

That puts a small damper on problems like where to stay in NYC.  The prosthetic memory is no longer valid in a bunch of towns.  So what do we do?  We strike out on our own again and try new things.  1Hotel is one of these new things.

What’s the verdict?  Well, 1Hotel is certainly trying hard to be cool.  Kind of like that kid in high school who would sneakily tag along, hoping to be invited to the keg party.

For one night it will do.  And it’s in an interesting place (just south of the Park, near the Moma, and for our purposes this time, very close to the CORE Club.

We’re spoiled.  Yeah, we admit it.  So when we uber in from EWR to check in at 11, we kind of expect a room to be ready.  Like, the hotel has a computer, right?  But no.  No personal note.  Just friendly staff who will text you during your business lunch meeting to inform you that, yes, 90 minutes later your room is ready.  Whatever, dude.

So you can wait here in the lobby with the Spaniards.  Or you can get an espresso in the restaurant.  But freshen up in your room and unpack your set of stuff?  Nope.

We were eventually in room 904 (a Park view King on the corner of the building, but nowhere near high enough.  Ask explicitly for a high floor.

After lunch at Hatsuhana (great sushi) and some excellent street coffee, we did finally check in around 2:30.  There was time for a quick visit to the MoMA.


A corner room is nice, but this one is too low to really see the park.

The actual view.

This window box is a nice, if not a bit chilly, place to delete email.

Interesting but very small bathroom with a glass shower.  The shower is NPS approved.

The event, at CORE Club was very nice.  This is a great location for a private event.  We comfortably hosted about 60 people, though only 40 of them were served dinner.  The food was pretty not bad and the cocktail bar downstairs was quite good.

Real plants.

 

All in all the 1Hotel seems a bit overpriced for what it offers.  but it is NY and the room had enough space to actually exist once we got into it.

Four showerheads for 1Hotel by Central Park.

 

 

Our first foray into the city was not that long ago, but was directly impacted by COVID when both stars of Plaza Suite were infected.  We went to see Hangman instead, an OK play, but not really all that.  And then it was back in Virginia for the advent of the Spring green.  Were some of us disappointed?  Why yes we were.

So, soon enough we were back in the city to take another crack at Plaza Suite do some business on the side.  The original plan was to fly in Saturday evening, so we booked a room at the Muse, one of the Kimptons of yore.  Bottom line: the IHG takeover of Kimpton is complete.  These days, the lobby of the Muse seems to be filled with aging midwesterners who have accumulated enough IHG points by staying at many Holiday Inns that they are splurging on a trip to Broadway and the big city.  Kimpton is hip no more.

Times Square remains a Disneyfied tourist attraction and a traffic snarl.  That’s nothing new.

The Muse does retain much of its old staff, and that is nice.  But its computers are corporate and the wiggle room is gone.  So our request of room 1703 was ignominiously ignored due to the fact that we expanded our stay to two nights instead of one (really with plenty of time for the hotel to adjust) and didn’t feel up to switching rooms halfway through our stay.  That leaves us surly and disappointed.

Somehow I think we ended up accumulating lots of IHG points due to all of this.  But guess what?  NPS does not give one shit about IHG points.  None.  We just want really great rooms for our cash money.

Plus it rained the whole time, so 1506 was not all that it’s cracked up to be what with a soggy balcony.

It was great to see Madou.

The rain made business in Brooklyn interesting too.  Traffic was a thing.  Our visit to One World Observatory for dinner was hilarious with zero visibility.  LOL.

Finally we ditched the tail and ended up at Katana Kitten for some real fun (thanks to Jacques for the pointer).  I mean, check out this before and after!

Before Katana Kitten

 

After Katana Kitten

Things were blurry.

Thankfully the canary extracted us before the blurry things got much farther out of hand.  They did get far enough though, and Saturday morning was hard.

Returning to 1506 after a night on the town?  Nah.  The Muse days are over.

At least the shower is NPS approved.  A very nice one.

After recovery, we visited the Guggenheim for a Kandinsky fix.  Ahhh.  That and ramen will do it every time.  It was a glorious afternoon.

There are times when ramen can save your life

After a nap that stretched on just a little too long, it was dinner at Junoon.  Highly recommended.

Breakfast at Banter (the original one south of Washington Square) is fantastic.  The mushrooms are worth talking about.

All dressed up and ready for Plaza Suite

Now it’s time to see the play and then scoot to EWR for a quick hop home.

Four showerheads and a demotion for the Muse.  We miss our Kimpton.

 

 

 

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.

 

What a difference a pandemic makes.  Having been to Bergen many many times (13??), NPS was pretty skeptical about the hotel situation.  But lo and behold, while we were trapped in the United States, a new hotel opened up and not only is it a good one, but it also houses the first Michelin star restaurant in Bergen.  A great combination!

We stayed in room 440 which was a “loft suite.”  I think in the future we would choose another type of suite, but we were in the hotel for just a few days before joining our friends at their house for the weekend.

Hotel Bergen Børs from the street

The hotel is situated in an ideal location in town.  Close to the touristy old town, a few hundred steps from the funicular, 8 minutes from the train station, and close to the museums.

Bed in the loft

The electricity situation in 440 is confusing (at best) and difficult to use.  Took me 2 days to figure it out.  This makes waking up to head down the steep stairs to the bathroom a challenge if you don’t want to awaken your partner.

The very steep stairs

 

Sitting area

The sitting area is interrupted by beams from the ceiling, which is kinda cool and kinda a pain in the ass.  Fortunately, we didn’t really spend all that much time in the hotel.

The bathroom is on the small side, but it has a great shower.

Glass, good pressure, and plenty of hot water. Just what NPS ordered.

 

All in all, the decor and the flooring is on the cheap side (a real problem in Bergen).  Still looking for a hotel with well-appointed design executed without a mind to expense.  This is not it.  I guess, like the stock exchange, it’s all ups and downs.

Breakfast was superb.  We enjoyed chatting with Delia each morning.  The breakfast area also serves as the Bare restaurant.

A visit to Bare took some doing as they are typically booked out many months.  NPS was able to secure a table with some persuasion.  The dinner was world class.  Read about the meal here.

Dinner at Bare is well worth the expense

We did Norway in a Nutshell on our first day in town.  See the entry here.  The weather was perfect and so was the timing.  Just wow.

Norway in a nutshell

We also visited KoreSee this entry about that.

Munch of course

Make sure to have a coffee and some cake at Det Lille Kaffe Kompaniet.  Really great.

Success cake

Since the funicular was closed for renovation, we walked up to the top insteadMore about that here.  Sadly, No Stress bar is no longer as cool as it once was.  But they still serve a mean Negroni.

On the last day in town, we took the new gondola up to the top of the TV mountain.  Gorgeous.  More about that trip here.

 

All in all, this visit to Bergen was tops.  Thanks to our good friends Gøran and Anne for hosting our last couple of nights.

Bergen is wonderful and the Børs hotel (the best yet) earns a high four showerheads.

 

Then again, maybe it wasn’t bergen?

Sadly when you have to give a keynote talk at a conference there is often a conference hotel.  These are great if you like hamster cage rooms, overcrowded breakfast room scrums (during a pandemic), watery espresso from machines with only one button, and that sort of corporate stuff.

Oslo is ready for xmas

At least they let us check in to 2622 early.  But for the sake of all gods, don’t stay here unless you must.

Hamster cage with bed (you can’t really see the water bottle drip mechanism thingy, but it is there)

 

Euro-shower was not plastic, so there’s that

 

But it is over a tub and crammed into the rectangle rather uncomfortably

 

This view kind of says it all.  Yes there is Fjord out there somewhere.  Past the industrial haze.

 

The (apparently coveted fjord view)

 

But it was free!  And we got to do the big show.

And the Top Floor bar makes very good cocktails if you stick to the script.  The view from up there at night is nice.  (Oslo is not Tokyo.)

 

When in Oslo, try to see some art.  If you want to add to your collection, go to purenkel.

Art

Or walk the streets.

We stayed in and had a very nice meal at the hotel on Thursday night (the restaurant seems to be called Gaio).  The wait staff is enthusiastic.  The cooking is old school but quite good.  NPS had some reindeer and a very nice Barolo.

Friday night dinner was excellent.  Definitely get to Arakatata.  Wow.  (Ask for the wine list).

The best dish this trip. Homemade spaghetti with caviar. The sauce was incredible.

Can’t wait to see you again, Oslo.  But we will award the Raddison Blu Plaza a measly three showerheads (up from two since the restaurant and bar are ok).  Nopey nope.

oslo lights

 

On only the third airplane ride post Covid vaccination, it was across the country to Portland in two hops.

Queen Tibia presided at home in our absence.

Dulles was mostly empty on a Friday late morning.

The purple chair

An uneventful set of flights (through Denver) was marred only by the masks everyone must wear. We can’t wait for a vaccine mandate for air travel. It’s coming! HUGE KUDOS to united airlines for requiring all of their employees to be vaccinated. Smart.

In fact, Portland is a bit of a study in what is to come in the rest of the country. Vaccination proof is required in bars and restaurants. Even seedy little dive bars like the Jack London Review where we had an excellent time seeing mononeon. But I am getting ahead of myself.

First it was a quick run by Hertz to pick up a crappy rental car and head to the Kimpton Riverside. Well, it used to be a Kimpton. Now it is an IHG thing. We knew from last time to book room 325.

325 at the Riverside Portland has a fireplace

 

The living room

 

The bedroom with a view of the river and the park

The riverside has only two rooms with glass showers. We did not secure either. So we got this…

Horror of horrors! A shower curtain. We’ll give them a pass since it was fabric and not plastic.

 

Lauren Groff’s excellent new book The Matrix was apparently designed for this table

We had a negroni. We devoured some oysters. We saw old friends and their spunky ultra-intelligent progeny. We ended up at mononeon where we watched a show that seemed like a Prince show from the early ’90s. Less charisma, but just as much crazy energy and a collection of interesting cats including:

  • A black female goddess drummer with the biggest afro ever (she was the real band leader and a great singer)
  • Two white guys who played OK leads while hiding behind a pole
  • A DJ who started things off
  • Two rappers, one of whom was utterly obsessed with getting everyones’ hands in the air
  • A sporadically present trumpet player
  • A 20 year old lanky stripper who was having trouble fending off the lesbians in the front
  • A token white girl who came on late with a guitar she halfheartedly strummed while she sang (her hair was up in that Prince entourage kind of way and she must have been wearing lingerie)
  • Oh yeah, and mononeon himself who apparently convened this group and then got so high he forgot it was his show

Mononeon in his chair

The music was great, the dancing was contagious, and the most fun thing was watching the young one dance uninhibitedly.

 

That lasted until 3am EST which was way past everyone’s bedtime.  Super fun.

Then it was Saturday morning and time for a great breakfast at Cheryl’s.  The beignet alone was worth the wait.  We bought a Patagonia jacket while waiting because we heard that you can’t really leave Portland unless you buy one.

Then the highlight of the trip!  Three hours in Powells.  We bought 30 books, some bags to carry them on the plane in, and a shirt.  World’s best bookstore hands down.  MUST RETURN.

Every time

We love Powell’s so much.  Everyone in all of the other towns is very jealous of your book thing Portland.

24 (of 30) books

After a brief respite on the courtyard terrace, there was time left for the Saturday market (always worth a visit if your tie dye supply is low or you need a crystal).

Contemplating Portland traffic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for dinner.  We chose Normandie, which was a bit green but good.  Hip and relaxed, this place needs to get its A game on.  Before dinner cocktails at Hey Love were better than dinner.  We both enjoyed a Loprinzi’s Mule:

  • .5 cynar
  • .5 amaro cio ciaro
  • 2 oz don q añejo
  • ginger syrup
  • tarmarivel syrup (tanarind paste, cinnamon, grapefruit rind, sugar)
  • soda in a collins on the rocks

    Loprinzi’s Mule at Hey Love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of a sudden it was Sunday.  We started out late with a brunch at Olympia Provisions.  My vegetarian companion was not amused, but I was.  So we headed out to get some juice and ended up buying cabinet pulls for The Stick instead.

Portland has a huge homeless population, and it is evident all over the city.  Beater campers, tents with patches and multiple tarps, lots of garbage.  The United States has fallen short of many of its citizens, and you can see that in Portland first hand.  Late stage capitalism on the streets.

Don’t tell Romey, but these were actually really damn good

Next it was off to the Portland Art Museum, which frankly you can skip. Mediocre at best.  Plan to spend less time than you think.

Some shopping at Wildfang got us moving toward Japanese Gardens which were so crowded we bailed and drove straight to the Kennedy School to check in.  Room 113 is great.

Of course as hip and fun as it is, the Kennedy School still feels like 1997 in the rooms.  Time to update!  Especially please replace the beds.

ALERT: THIS SHOWER IS PLASTIC

We had a drink in the courtyard while working on our dinner plans.  Portland decided that two days without rain was anathema.  The rain came.  And it wasn’t kidding.  But we borrowed some umbrellas and headed back to town.

A visit to the Teardrop Lounge was fabulous as always.  (You don’t need a reservation, but you do need a great attitude.). A Raffles Singapore Sling was in the cards.

Then a fantastic dinner at Takibi.  Delicious, modern, and very Japanese.

Takibi

 

A superb drinks menu

It was still raining on Monday morning when we got up early to prep for a business meeting.  It must be the rain that caused us to eat such a huge breakfast at the Kennedy School.  Surely.

After a rainy morning talking about ML and security, we enjoyed lunch at Southpark Seafood with some new friends who turned us on to Betsy and Iya, a fantastic boutique jeweler and clothier.  Hard not to get some stuff there!

Then the Japanese Garden in the pouring rain.  A magical place and far less crowded once the witches all melted down.

Finally it was back to the Kennedy School to catch Pig in one of the coolest places to see a movie anywhere.  We had burgers and watched the show.

Negroni in the hall

 

Our seats for the show

 

One more gigantic breakfast (yes it was still raining) and it was off to the airport for our quick flight to Dulles.

A fantastic visit to Portland.  Almost like the before times.

Four showerheads is the max for both Riverside Portland and the Kennedy School.  Does Portland even have glass showers anywhere?

Ah the Lorien, it has been a while! Since NPS last visited, IHG has done all it can to change the Kimpton chain it acquired into something we don’t recognize. The good news is that many excellent people remain, like Steph Vogel who we count as a friend.

We were assigned little nicely renovated rooms without plastic showers. Just right for this one night extravaganza. NPS was in 414.

arty bed

The shower is OK, not plastic, but who picked out that shower head?!

Thanks for the Negroni Steph!

Negroni with Watershed by Catoctin Creek

Chef prepared us dinner (we didn’t order, just reveled in what arrived). Delicious.

Must say that all of the cocktails are too sweet at the Lorien now.

We called in the usual set of favors to get the booth at the Colimbia Room. Perfect evening for talking, drinking and figuring out life.

Columbia Room menu

Breakfast the next morning was the highlight of the visit! Great to see Steph and catch up.

Then it was off to a day of art at the Hirshhorn, the Phillips, and the Renwick…oh yeah and Richard’;s house too! Just look.

Make sure to go back to the Hirshhorn. It is vastly improved

Lunch at Bistrôt du coin. Always French as all getout.

The Phillips is a favorite most anytime

Dinner with Richard was followed by an evening of conversation. Anytime.

All in all, an incredible visit. Life affirming on all counts.

Four showerheads for the Lorien. This IHG thing. Harumph.