The Rosewood São Paulo: Excellence and the Disney Effect
September 23, 2025
First of all, the Rosewood is a gorgeous facility, centrally located in São Paulo and yet somehow an oasis of sorts. Two blocks from the main drag (Av. Paulista), as soon as you enter the driveway you enter a different world, lush and green like the jungle. Having an oasis to retreat to from the chaotic third world aspects of São Paulo is a necessity when you are old and spoiled.
344 is a luxury king category that is almost sufficient for several days. The best aspect is a balcony that overlooks the real street. In case you wonder whether you are actually in a big city, a look out the window banks makes that clear. Fortunately the room is seriously soundproofed.
The bathroom is awesome with nary a plastic shower in sight. In fact, the shower controls are complex enough to require a manual.
The bar and coffee center went unused.
We spent some time at the pool, meeting people sadly from Florida (or as from Florida as you can get when you are a french boat designer with a Russian designer wife
The only issue that needs attention at the Rosewood may, ironically, be that the staff is a bit too well trained. Lots of them are Disney alums, and it shows in the way they execute the script. Less script and more human would fit the vibe of Brazil better.
We experienced our first Brazilian live music at Cabo de Galo, a supposedly “secret” mixology speakeasy directly in the middle of the breakfast restaurant. Part of the Disneyesque script is to insert an unnecessary delay in all productions in order to give the illusion of exclusivity; like waiting for an open table to be open; or waiting to be seated at breakfast when open tables are all over the place. That stitch can be dropped.
Hell? Maybe.
We enjoyed some cashaça. (Throughout Brazil, the argument WRT whose cashaça is best continues apace even 20 years after my first visit.)
And a Brazilian cocktail involving not enough Fernet called macunaíma.
Greater São Paulo outside the Rosewood oasis has plenty to offer. Some things we saw before our arrival at the Rosewood, like the Jardim Botânico and Esperanza Spalding.
Our post-business side quests included some time in Liberdade at the open market (pretty down scale to be honest).
Av. Paulista. is close by and on Sunday the road is closed to traffic. The MASP (day one) (and MASP (day two)) are very close by indeed. Pinacoteca de São Paulo is a quick car ride away in the rain, and it is open on Monday.
We experienced an incredible dinner (among the best in the world) at DOM.
All in all, five showerheads for the Rosewood. An excellent, though slightly too Disney, experience. We will return.
Marriott Does Corporate: Alida Hotel Savannah
February 15, 2025
We’re in town for a TAB meeting attended by nobody even remotely from Georgia. So we all arrived from everywhere and convened at the Alida. The tribute portfolio properties by Marriott are designed to attract middle management and they execute their mission to a T. They try so hard to be hip that they miss by a mile—like coming to a chess game with a bag of checkers.
NPS was assigned a long skinny room on the ground floor (102) with a window bank overlooking the pool. You might thing that sounds fun, but in their quest to “be young,” the Alida pipes crappy music of no discernible genre into the pool area 24/7. At 4am, that sucks. Hazy bass thomp and ever repeating generic rhythms are so much worse than NY city noise or even, say, silence deep in the night.
As you can see by the pictures, what we have here is standard hamster cage. Who even uses two king beds in one room?!
The bathroom shower situation seems to be becoming common now. The shower features a glass door (nice) but the shower stall is hollow plastic simulated tile. Cheap. We’re trying to decide whether that constitutes the new “plastic shower” of which we want none.
But we are in Savannah and we’re not here to sleep. Perhaps a Negroni will help?
I mean there is one of those fireplace things that runs on gas (also near the pool). We wonder if it burns all night as the music thomps to itself.
The meeting was excellent, though the room down by the restaurant in the basement is cold. The A/V system down there is ungovernable by usual algorithms it seems.
We had some time in the morning to see the trees and walk up to Forsyth after breakfast at the ’80s themed Traylor Park. The newish southern chain is fun, but the trees are magical. And the trees in the morning fog are otherworldly.
Tea at Gryphon (worth a visit).
Lunch at Wright Square Bistro was excellent. Coffee at the Coffee Fox. Later, dinner at Husk was really fun but not really up to Savannah standards it turns out.
Late night cocktails and planning at Congress Street Up were outstanding. (We did not attempt the museum nonsense.) As we discussed how AI is taking over software development, Regan Cannon made us a Good Advice:
1 oz Hayman’s Old Tom
.5 oz Plymouth Navy Strength
.5 oz CioCiaro
.75 oz Ciocci Bianco
2 dashes orange bitters (unspecified)
2 dashes cardamom bitters (Boizers)
absynthe spray
Orange and lemon peel expressed and dropped in.
All told we were here for work, and work was excellent.
Three showerheads and an off switch for the all night music for the Alida. Too corporate for Savannah. But we were not done with Savannah…it was off to the Brice!
Mandeville Hotel London: NOPE
October 6, 2024
The Mandeville Hotel is worth not visiting. Just don’t go. And whatever you do, do not ignore all the red flags on your way to not staying there. Like say, the inability to book a room category in a reasonable process. Or emails that take three days to answer. Or a room that not only is not ready when you arrive for five nights, but isn’t even worth the wait. Those kinds of red flag.
Billing itself as a “boutique hotel,” everything about the hotel itself is a stretch. What the Mandeville turns out to be, is a business hotel gussied up in an ill-fitting hand-me-down suit with a very wide tie that doesn’t match. But his sister is nice. Some people may be fooled. We are not.
We arrived from an excellent flight across the pond in United Polaris kind of wanting a good espresso and a shower (not necessarily in that order). We did end up getting a nice breakfast on a brilliant bright morning at the Ivy about a block from the hotel. You see, the one very good thing about the Mandeville is its location smack dab in the middle of Marylebone. You may recall from previous entries here in this spectacular blog that the Ivy is a top notch brunch chain (see Manchester and London entries).
In any case, our executive suite (so to speak) was ready when brunch was over. But what a disappointment room 105 was. Don’t stay in this room: weird bank of windows directly over the noisy-at-night restaurant, overlooking an alley of sorts, decor from that decade where polyesther was a good thing, uncomfortable couches. Just all around terrible. This room should be demoted to a much lesser category…like “very large broom closet” or “place to store old wallpaper swatches. We only stayed in this room one night because the other three rooms in our reserved category were not available. Right.
But judge for yourself! I mean look at that wallpaper. And the way the bathroom opens directly to the bed.
The shower was not plastic. Instead it was dangerous. Fortunately nobody broke a leg during our one night in this room. The shower was very nice, danger aside.
When you’re in Marylebone, retail therapy is in order. We spent time wandering the shops, hitting up me+em, theory, selfridges, varvatos, and more. Too much money was spent, but when you are a country mouse like we are, all of the city things are so shiny!
On our first day in London we found Scales bar which is well worth a revisit. Excellent cocktails (limited but creative and nicely concocted).
Fortunately, we were able to switch rooms to Executive Suite 216 after our first night (which was ridiculously overpriced for what it was). 216 was much better situated in the new purple part of the hotel. But the suite itself was still small and very poorly laid out. We’re sorry, but a bathroom opening directly on the bed is just not classy in the least.
The bathroom was much better. So what made us dislike this hotel so much? Well on our last night in London (a Wednesday night no less), a private party rented out the restaurant and bar and proceeded to put on a loud, obnoxious disco starting around 9pm and stretching nicely to 1am. Since we were to be up at 5:00am to fly to Dublin this was not a good thing. Complaints to management on checkout were ignored (so far anyway). We do plan to ride this one down to completion.
In the meantime, by no means stay at the Mandeville. Stay anywhere else.
Of course, London is a fantastic place to visit, and we had some very good experiences this round…
We spent some time at Hyde park checking out the icebergs.
We spent some time conducting business (which by the way will bring us to London regularly, but not again to the Mandeville).
We spent some time at both Tate galleries (Tate Modern and Tate Collection) and on a boat between. If you like the Kandinsky below, check out the others.
And we hit a number of excellent restaurants, including Roka, Carlotta, Tamarind, Chez Roux.
You will find stunning art at Henson’s Bar (in Mimi’s hotel). Apparently Mimi was a collector. We had excellent drinks surrounded by even better art. Need a cult classic like a Paper Plane or a Industry Sour? Of course you do.
Closing out our stay at the Mandeville was the coup de grace. The staff in the morning had no power to make us whole, and the manager who was instructed to get in touch never did. One showerhead for the Mandeville, we will not return.
Secret Mission to the Monaco Pittsburgh
July 13, 2024
We’re on a secret mission; our second, actually. And we’re having a great time while we’re at it. There was baseball, there was jazz, there was art. We’ve been to the Monaco before and it is with a wistful feeling that we experience the last of remaining Kimpton spirit on the planet. Keep the spark, Rob Mallinger!
When in Pittsburgh, see the Pirates.
As has become habit, we stayed in 835, a one room suite. This room is about the opposite of a hamster cage, and we like it. We blew by on our way to the game, but were not able to check in early.
There were furries from the convention all over town.
It was a beautiful day, and we walked to and from the Pirates Stadium.
After the game, we were greeted with a drink in our room. Somehow the hotel overlooked that there are two of us here, not just one. Gotta fix that!
The cocktail featured local falernum rum which is very good indeed.
We leaned up in the way non-plastic shower (even using the soaking tub) and headed to Con Alma for some dinner and jazz.
A nightcap in the Commoner was fun. We almost started to experiment, but then hit the wall. Long day in the sun! We do need to try swapping cointreau for luxardo in a Last Word. Sounds great.
About the only disappointing surprise at the Monaco was the room service breakfast experience. We should have gone downstairs instead of hoping to have a nice breakfast together in the room. Time to get past COVID!
We had some very good meetings about our top secret mission, and then headed (slightly late and confused by the GPS) over to the Warhol. The staff was excellent and helpful with our departure, loading the car and having everything ready. They even snuck in some gift Maggie’s Farm falernum which was extremely thoughtful. We found an ABC store and stocked up.
Five showerheads for the Monaco. Hopefully our plan will come together (just like on the A Team).
NYE in Rio de Janeiro: Janeiro Hotel
January 16, 2024
The Janeiro Hotel in Rio is one of the best hotels in the city. Directly on (well, across the street from) the Leblon beach, the Janeiro is beautifully located to walk to Ipanema (that is, if you even feel like leaving Leblon). The beach is typical Rio, less crowded in the early morning and then a mob scene from 11am on.
We were on the 8th floor in the suite (maybe 851). The idea was this: Our friends D&C were getting married on the 6th, so we decided to head down early for NYE in Rio and some time on the beach. It was a great plan.
Dave points out that the wedding is that way.
The trip to Rio is long (18 hours for us over two flights, the longest one being almost 11 hours). We reserved our room the night before arrival for easy check in. Car service from the airport was provided by the hotel.
The hotel itself is modern, clean, and well-designed. Our shower was top notch (built into the room with two showerheads, lots of room, and a view of the beach).
Non-traditional layout avoids the hamster-cage problem with panache.
We were greeted with a personal note and a NYE welcome kit, including some great stuff from local designer Osklen and a bottle of Mumms.
The staff at the hotel is highly professional and world-class without being stuffy or stuck up. And the hotel itself is an easy place to hang out. So we did.
Our haunt at the top of the hotel included a great bar with yummy snacks.
Christ the redeemer was obscured by clouds. Fitting.
Of course we had a bazillion caipirinhas while in Brazil.
Breakfast was available in the room…
Or in the dining room on the second floor…
The (tiny but nice) pool was also at the top of the hotel.
We had ramen in town at Pabu Izakaya and an excellent dinner at Teva (a vegan restaurant). Don’t get pizza from Fratelli (you have been warned).
On NYE we visited the happy couple and met some of the crazy Australians in Ipanema. NYE Dinner at the Janeiro (a special occasion) was only so-so. This was kind of a surprise given the high quality of the hotel’s food otherwise. Cooking for a large crowd is a thing. We skipped the big party in our zombie-jet-lagged state and watched the fireworks from our picture windows. It was a nice evening.
BTW, Brazilians wear white on NYE. We had no idea. Next time we’ll be better prepared.
The holy trinity: espresso, fernet branca, and the Redeemer on the mountain.
And yes, lots of time at the beach. Alto risco!
Our New Year’s Day Blade Runner tradition was upheld with a bottle of champagne.
We did some shopping while in Leblon, picking up some great clothing at Osklen and some special wedding shoes.
All in all our first few days in Rio were outstanding. We had some fun with our friends, spent some quality time on the beach, and decompressed by the pool during the New Years festivities. We even upheld the Blade Runner tradition.
Five showerheads and a tip of the NYE hat to the Janeiro.
RSS - Posts