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.
NPS at Sheraton? São Paulo Business
September 18, 2025
So what is NPS to do when the official conference hotel is a Sheraton? Why, try things on for size again and realize that the hamster cage persists. The São Paulo Sheraton WTC is a standard issue mid-level business hotel straight out of Marriott central casting. Not our thing here at this blog. Luxury it is not.
What does that really mean? Well, imagine a mall. Then imagine a set of beige rectangular boxes stacked up over the mall. That’s pretty much it. The elevators do a weird jerky thing on arrival at a floor. The lobby is brown leather with little middle management desks set around featuring monitors you can’t see through or around. Breakfast is pretty not bad. The staff is friendly and sticks to the script. Getting out past the mall is a challenge and you have to set out to do it.
We are in 605. There’s sadly not much interesting to say. We have two comfortable double beds. The broken blow dryer was quickly replaced with an ancient stone age hairdryer of yore that worked. The analog phone is attached to the wall with wires and apparently does not actually work. The TV plays a central role.
And that’s good because we had to watch Sneakers on the first night to reminisce about Robert Redford. FWIW, we are still not sure why Dan Ackroyd’s handle was “mother.”
There’s excellent net (with a unify hotspot in the room).
But mostly things are just short of actually comfortable here in Sheraton-land. And they mostly work. Unless you would like a hot shower at 8am, then forget it. The early birds got the hot water. Staying overnight is like having McDonalds fries. You know what you’re getting and you also know that trans fat is bad for you.
Does the fluorescent lighting bring to mind Blade Runner and that famous Harrison Ford’s flick of the fingers? It should.
The shower is not plastic. And the fake marble veneer is so beige.
Look how comfortable the sitting area is. No, nevermind. Don’t.
But the room is free since we are keynoting the conference. Kinda. And the hotel is in São Paulo. So here we are in a great city! Woo hoo.
Late lunch at biO2 LAB Brooklin is quirky and just what the doctor ordered. Pato Rei Berrini serves a great coffee and the people are nice.
If you are stuck in the mall, try Nagairô Sushi D&D which is passable. The sushi does look great though.
Excellent amazonian food can be found at both Mamute and Banzeiro, but watch out for ants in your food and be forewarned that the fish is huge.
The Jardim Botânico is worth a visit.
Anyway, we are here for the show. First the little show at the University (USP).
And then the big trade show keynote.
Three showerheads and a yawn for the Sheraton. We already knew this.
Boston for Lunch
December 20, 2024
This has happened before: you get to the end of the year of travel and you remain just on the wrong side of the 100k finish line. Alas. The only solution is to fly to Boston for lunch. Of course things never work out as planned, with the chances of travel SNAFU during the return trip are 100%! LOL.
We did eventually get home, but were not credited with our (expensive) travel PQP and remained trapped on the wrong side of the finish line. Fortunately, a quick call to United fixed the whole thing and we’ve secured our 100k status for next year. (Surprise! United was great.)
The airports were a zoo.
Lunch with Spool was great.
The fifth anniversary present was procured.
But on the return to Logan, the EWR drip delay began. Ultimately we flew straight back to Dulles. Too much time was spent drinking bad negronis at the Red Carpet Club.
Maybe does not care.
Tyinkrysset Beckons, or Maybe it’s Randonee
May 2, 2024
After time in Stockholm and Oslo, the cabin was a welcome respite. We scooped Anne at the central station, and started our journey on the bluff above Oslo at the “Rose Castle.” The side trip was extra special because after 22 years I finally met Gøran’s mom. We all missed Romey.
Then it was a long drive through beautiful country to the cabin. There was still plenty of snow.
.
We used the cabin as a base of operations for two trips up even higher into the mountains. The first was to Tyinstølsnøse (1386 m) on Saturday. Just amazing.
UP
DOWN
In between we ate delicious fish, drank negronis in tiny mugs, slept not quite enough, and cooked over the fire outside.
Sunday morning the weather was perfect, so we had to don our skis and do it again. This time we skied straight up behind the cabin through the woods. The snow was so perfect that alpine back down through the woods was easy enough.
This is how I really felt.
The time was way too short, but my body was ready to rest. After our Sunday ski, we loaded up the car and headed to Bergen for another talk, some Norwegian “tacos” and a fancy dinner out.
The tacos (and the boys, who are quickly becoming young men).
The talk…
The present.
The cocktails at No Stress.
The dinner at Chérie.
A short but fantastic visit to Tyinkrysset.
An Absolute Gem in Stockholm: Ett Hem
April 23, 2024
Though NPS has been to Sweden a handful of times, this was our first trip to Stockholm, and it probably won’t be the last.
Ett Hem is a tiny luxury hotel that does every single thing right. The staff is so professional that they feel like really particularly helpful friends, the food is absolutely world class, and the grounds (two buildings with a few rooms in each) are gorgeous. Needless to say, the showers are not plastic.
After a delayed arrival (on Swiss Air, whose business class equipment and service did not match United’s standards(!!)), we all met in the second floor common room in the building with the restaurant (that is, the building that includes its own bakery where they mill flour). We had a Negroni from the honor bar and caught up after some years. It’s always fun to introduce good friends who have yet to meet, in this case a Finn and a Norwegian.
Of course there was a mandatory hot shower and checkin in to the rather small but well appointed room 29.
The shower was most excellent.
The fact that the bedroom is small is made up for by the extensive common rooms (like the one where we met) and run of the entire well-groomed property.
We snagged a dinner reservation at Matbaren Mathias Dhalgren, the kind of resraurant designed and executed for foodies. Dinner was excellent and service was just as fun as our furnishings were quirky.
Then we had a nightcap at the Grand Hôtel bar. The cocktails were good but not fantastic, and the vibe of the space is pretty much what you would expect from such an old school hotel. Ironically, my two friends decided to get another drink and I left the scene early since my reason for being in town was a breakfast seminar a couple of days later at the ungodly hour of 8am. I guess that’s one way to avoid jetlag…just blow right through it!
After sampling the outstanding Ett Hem breakfast we made a quick visit to the photography museum.
Then we shot some video of our own, but with more clothes. And played some team building company trivia games. After which dinner at Soho House was an excellent experience. Always fun to hit it off with friends of friends. It was taco Tuesday in Sweden, and, well, Swedish tacos are hilarious.
On our way to A Bar Called Gemma we stopped in at Grodan for a cocktail or two.
Gemma was a much better craft cocktail mixology joint than Grodan, but it was also slightly slouchier and grimy.
Then it was up way early to give the talk. We decided to try out the restaurant at Ett Hem for lunch. Outstanding.
Ett Hem is worth a visit to stockholm for all by itself. Magical. Fiver showerheads with no reservations at all.
The Catamaran: The Tired Part of San Diego
February 27, 2024
Back in the mid-’90s we spent a bunch of time in San Diego. One of the first annual trips was a visit to NDSS, a geeky conference always held at the Catamaran hotel. That must have lasted a decade or more. A return in 2024 (some 15 odd years since visiting the Catamaran) shows the toll that time has taken.
You see, the Catamaran has spent more on the common areas (which are very pretty but also just a bit wrong…like, say, a pool area where you are required to wear a wrist band as if you are an untrusted 20 year old) than they have on the rooms. Nobody seems to have considered fixing up the rooms since maybe 1982. Or maybe they spent all of their budget on marketing drones?
So you go from this:
To this:
Hamster cage with no design sensibility and indestructible furnishings. But wait, there’s less. How about the Holiday Inn bathroom console (featuring communal soap)? With a vinyl floor?
But you are here for the shower. Here is a prime example of the worst kind of plastic shower. Oh let us count the ways: lilliputian tub only a foot deep and made of plastic, obesity bar, plastic shower curtain (with a see thru plastic window portal design), and a shower head that does nothing to improve the flaccid water pressure. A big nope.
Here, watch the plastic shower in all of its glorious action…
There are good things about the Catamaran, like friendly staff, a good restaurant, and an espresso bar that knows how to make a real macchiato. And it’s right on the Pacific! But we’re not surfer dudes.
There’s an excellent coffee bar nearby too—pump coffee.
A visit to Ken Sushi Workshop is a great idea. Excellent.
Ultimately, room 218 is so dissatisfying that it was time just to jettison the plan, pack up early (after the morning meeting), and switch hotels. A lowly one showerhead and no more chances for the old Catamaran. It has sprung a fatal leak.
From Tyinkrysset to Bergen: Norway Tunnel Extravaganza
November 1, 2023
We returned to the Hytte in Tyinkrysset, sadly without Anne this time for a quick hit of winter after some business in Oslo. It is always magical to visit the hytte.
We did some day hiking this time, but no major adventures. It was just nice to cook, talk, and drink a negroni or two.
On the first day hike, we went down into the valley (and then back up). We discovered a body in the woods.
But Gøran was not phased.
She was quickly revived.
A second hike the next day was more wintery. What we thought was a light dusting was actually 6 or 7 inches of snow.
I guess that was really an adventure!
After warming back up at the cabin, the boys headed to up the hill.
The hytte can actually be seen in this picture just over the snow bush.
A hike into town yielded a delicious risotto.
And then it was off to Bergen through 51 tunnels (we kept meticulous count).
A ride up to the top at sunset was absolutely magical.
The Rock Band
The Dupont Circle Hotel: Washington DC
October 22, 2023
Generally speaking, we don’t frequent too many DC hotels since DC is so close to home. But sometimes timing is such that a night in a hotel is in order. The Dupont Circle Hotel is centrally located and not an unreasonable place to stay. Nothing to write home about, but good meeting facilities and proximity to plenty of good things to do.
The outside patio is a nice place for a Negroni on a fall evening. Do note that the bar closes down rather early.
A corporate dinner event at the Lafayette (in the Hay-Adams) was very nice but exceptionally old school even by DC standards.
We were assigned hamster cube 804. The view of the construction site (where jackhammers fired up at 7am) was unobstructed.
Though by no means plastic, the shower was still slightly wrong.
Jackhammer guys.
Excellent meeting facilities.
Four showerheads and some more imaginitive fun and games for the Dupont Circle Hotel. We didn’t get that room on the roof from the website. LOL.
NYC: Intercontinental NY Barclay
August 27, 2023
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.
Denver Renaissance
February 23, 2023
We didn’t really have our hopes set high enough, it seems. Because business trip, travel set by others, Marriott property, etc. But here we are at a very nice Renaissance Hotel in Denver. And everything is fine.
Getting here was a thing because a huge winter storm had travel all in a bind. Something like 1200 flights were cancelled. Mine was not, but it did take an extra 40 minutes because the headwinds were so strong.
The snowy drive from the airport was actually hazardous due to Americans in SUVs.
We were assigned an excellent suite (550) with lots of windows and, most important of all, glass showers. The room design is dated, but passable. Some refurbishment would be a good thing.
We were greeted with a personal note and a bottle of bubbly (which sadly will remain behind).
Glass shower for the win. The rest of the bathroom is pure Marriott.
A fun little chair.
The lobby bar is very good with clear ice, and proper Negroni capability. Seriously.
Entertainment for the evening included bowling (?1) and tequila shots. yeah no.
A late evening visit with Gino to Lady Jane (who made an absolutely excellent El Diablo with house hot ginger syrup) killed some time before we headed over to Williams and Graham (special shouts to Jacques and Sean Kenyon). Though W&G remains a top notch bar, it somehow seems to be overrun by non-bar people from conferences. Enthusiastic and stupid. Our bartender from NC was a hot and cold mess (and being a southern gentleman myself, I can assure you he is not very legit NC). Thing is, there was no green chartreuse. But instead of saying so, NC boy swapped to something not at all the same without saying a word. Not a fan of that kind of nonsense. We did have some excellent snacks and some great drinks in the end before we were summarily dismissed. Fernet for all.
Nephew Gino.
Sam’s number 3 is a great place for breakfast, even when it is 4 degrees outside.
All told, four showerheads and a great deal of surprise for the Renaissance. You go Marriott.
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