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!
Buchanan Gets it Right in San Francisco
February 12, 2017
Want to be near the Pacific in a terrific city? San Francisco can do that for you.
This visit included a bug free stay at the Buchanan Hotel in Japantown where Emily G and her excellent co-workers made us feel especially welcome. Here’s how.
First, the giant tetris game that is specific hotel room request came out in our favor and we secured 416 (the best room in the property with lots of windows and a great bathroom).
Yellow roses
Second, yellow roses!
Third, a mystery gift…
What’s in the bag?
Sleepytime tea, honey, and some pottery mugs. Just like home.
Arrival was delightful.
416 and roses
Notes, sparking water, cheese and fruit. All good. Plus tea!
416 has a spacious bathroom with a glass shower. No plastic showers!!
The glass shower cube
A little rain never hurt anything. Especially in drought stricken California. The fact that the weather was perfect for the weekend was, well, perfect.
Rainy day Japantown
With the expert help of Jacob, Saturday’s itenerary was outstanding.
Brunch at Foreign Cinema was first. We used the show up at 10:45 and walk right in at 11 hack.
Foreign Cinema brunch
Followed by a quick last minute stint at the Farmer’s Market
Saturday morning market
And a trip to Lands End.
Land’s End
Who’s that?
Cocktail hour was spent at the always fantastic Smuggler’s Cove for tiki, rum, and conversation. A meeting of the secret book club was held.
Smuggler’s Cove is one of the best bars in the world
Dinner was at The Progress. Super fantastic, rollicking fun time. And the food was good too!
Sunday should start with a great brunch, say at the Hillside Supper Club.
And then a trip to Napa on a gorgeous day! Domaine Carneros is a great target, especially if you have club privileges.
One of my favorite wines in the world is Old Hill from Ravenswood.
Pizza evening (due to a 2 hour wait at the sushi place we targetted) was followed by a visit to the delightful Churchhill bar. This is a low key almost dive like neighborhood place with an outstanding collection of serious booze.
In other San Francisco fun NPS gladly notes the following establishments:
lunch (every day) at cafe claude
ramen in Japantown at Waraku
fun and games with superb cocktails at Forgery
world class brunch at Plow
jacques incredible cocktails in a relaxed and gorgeous room at Wildhawk
outstanding food at rich table
About which these twitterz:
Thursday madness was particularly fun this iteration.
Five showerheads with a wink and a nod for the Buchanan where everything went as planned.
Setbacks and Settlements in San Francisco: The Buchanan
January 21, 2017
OK, strap in for some first world problems and whining. We’ll try to get it over with quick.
NPS exists because, well, no plastic showers. Kimpton usually fulfills that mission admirably and is NPS’s hotel group of choice by a country mile. But San Francisco suffered a massive property meltdown during the IHG acquisition, and its impact can be felt all the way to today. Bill Kimpton would not likely be pleased.
After a very long day of flying across the country and working into the evening on a challenging task, a nice dinner at Slanted Door followed by drinks at Hard Water was just what the doctor ordered on a rainy rainy night. Which means we arrived way late at the Buchanan (after midnight). More about that is a sec.
Hard Water was a blast. If you like bourbon and rye, you need to go there.
We concentrated on Rye, doing a Handy Rye comparison experiment with a Sazarac chaser. Awesome.
On arrival at the Buchanan, things started off OK. We were assigned a room, but it was not the one we explicitly requested. So we proceeded on up.
Which meant, a room with a plastic shower. What happened? Did the system fail? Did nobody bother to work this through? Yes.
811
After a brief and very disappointing entry into 811 we went down to see what could be done about it. That is when the Demarco demerits set in, about which we’ll write only that the situation later required management intervention. Someone needs some more training.
A crappy plastic shower in 811
811 is just fine by Marriott standards, but it is not a room to shlep all the way to Japantown for. The shower is the worst kind of plastic shower. Shower curtains are our bane.
There was a nice amenity, sparkling water, an interesting view, and a note from GM Emily Glick. They knew we were coming, kinda. You see, it turns out that nobody put two and two together about NPS and this mystery inner circle member of 14 years. Dang. We appreciate the perqs, kimpton but all we really want is NO PLASTIC SHOWERS.
The shower was plastic.
And it got worse. Very early in the morning when it came time to use the crappy plastic shower, the shower curtain was filthy. Just gross.
The nuclear option was pursued, and everything was discussed if not resolved. Thanks to the social media team, mike d, and email for making all of that possible. The room we wanted was (miraculously) free the next day, but there was no time to move stuff on this quick hop. And no we were not expecting any kind of upgrade. We’re happy to pay retail when on business. Flowers were involved, which was a very nice touch.
Thanks for the flowers. Lets get this right next time.
Anyway, we can’t exactly cross the Buchanan off the list, because it is the best remaining Kimpton option in San Francisco. We’ll be back soon hoping that things run more smoothly.
Two showerheads, seven demarco demerits, and a trip to detention for the Buchanan. Thanks for working things out Emily, but lets just have nothing to work out next go ’round please.
A Visit to Japantown San Francisco: The Buchanan
September 29, 2016
Visiting a new Kimpton property is always fun. We’re happy to say that due to the highly-interconnected nature of the Kimpton GM network, our reputation at NPS proceeds us. LOL. Hopefully that’s not too bad a thing.
Japanese Peace Garden
So we met GM Emily Glick on the net well before even landing in San Francisco. She is awesome.
The flight out to San Francisco was very nice on Virgin America. So much better than United! But in the air, an email arrived with the title “Small snag – Buchanan Hotel.” Gotta hate that! Turns out that the evil person occupying the room I was supposed to be in failed to depart! That meant a different room, and frankly one with a few bugs.
The main problem with 216 is that it is too low and close to street noise. As a country boy, city noises are disconcerting and make sleeping a challenge. Also the hotel net has been super flaky this visit with big lags, dropped packets, DNS issues. Say it ain’t so in 2016!
216 spartan
216
216 has a glass shower but is set up for handicap access
216
216 in daylight, the window pop outs are cool
Desk popout
Thanks to the staff of the Buchanan for the amenity. Sparkling water comes in handy.
Snacks!
Switching rooms became an option after the evil occupy 416 person departed. 416 is much better that 216 for reasons that are hard to describe. Better lines. Sleeker. Cleaner. Better view. All around much more Kimpton-like.
416
hallway lines 416
Shower cube 416
View from the glass cube
Japantown at night
The family run restaurant at the Buchanan (mums) is cute and very Japanese. At breakfast I heard French, Russian, and of course English. Sadly, they have no espresso. But three minutes away in the Japantown Mall is the Andersen bakery. They can be taught how to make a doppio macchiato
Espresso can be found at Andersen bakery
It remains to be seen whether any non-meeting time will remain this trip. Too busy for San Francisco makes gem a dull boy.
Four showerheads and a room switcherooby for the Buchanan. Nice property a bit off the beaten path with a few snags.
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