It was a perfect weekend in Virginia (if not hot). Lots of time in the river. An evening playing live music for friends. So how do ease back into work mode? Why with the help of the Donovan hotel of course. My home away from home in DC is particularly welcoming this visit!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is the shower pod
You see, my friend Steph Vogel has been holding out on me. But no more! Now we’ve been in 1110. YES!
Welcome
Thanks steph @Kimpton @stephaski pic.twitter.com/eYKhgbU6Ew
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) July 25, 2016
We will pretend that this is a flight of Pappy van Winkle bourbon.
Living room overlooking the circle
Night @kimpton donovan hotel pic.twitter.com/FATC36Q1kK
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) July 25, 2016
This suite is huge.
Bedroom
But the shower is what stands out. A nautilus design with a spiral. Very cool.
The nautilus shower is NPS approved
Without setting foot in an airplane, we’re somehow still pampered beyond belief. Five showerheads for the Donovan. Thanks for ending the weekend on a high note!
Planes, Trains and ULTRA-CRAPPY Automobiles
March 11, 2016
Four cities in two days will do that to you.
Upgraded on one hop to Pittsburgh on United!!
Mesa operated @united express upgrade to 4D. Woo hoo. pic.twitter.com/v9jqfAqK7C
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 9, 2016
Then a tiny ancient United puddle hopper to NYC (Mesa needs more new planes).
So sad. No upgrades even possible on a tiny embrear 145. @united contractors have an aging fleet. pic.twitter.com/zhYvoSm0ub
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 9, 2016
New York was gorgeous
View from NY @thatmcgraw @philvenables pic.twitter.com/I5DKKPXQ16
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 9, 2016
Train to Connecticut from Penn Station bright and early
Now leaving NY
Then it was on to the worst Hertz rental car of all time. Dirty, over milage, driven hard, shimmy. Just crap. You can really suck Hertz!
This Hertz car sucks
That’s How! Palomar DC
March 8, 2016
When Kimpton does it right, it knocks it out of the park. A quick visit to DC to see the astoundingly great Eighth Blackbird at the Kennedy Center was a perfect time to cash in a free reward night at the Palomar in DC. What a treat. More about the performance on apothecaryshed.
Not only were we greeted by the front desk staff and the valet guys who recognized us, we were upgraded to a killer room: 1024.
https://twitter.com/noplasticshower/status/706954693864497155
The new look in 1024 is bright and spacious. Excellent design.
1024 sitting room
And yes, there was sparkling water.
Hey look guys, the palomar has sparkling water! @kimpton karma. pic.twitter.com/eCkyitcmER
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 7, 2016
We had a cocktail and some oysters with our friend Steph Vogel who ran this hotel for a few years. Steph specializes in lifting a property to its potential, and his touch can still be seen here at the Palomar.
1024 lounge
The window treatments are SO much better!
Natural light on a bright spring-like day
1024 bedroom
What geometry
And yes, the bathroom is huge, with a great glass cube.
The NPS fantasy shower
A private reception at A Bar + Kitchen after the performance was very nice. Meeting the members of Eighth Blackbird was the highlight of course! The mac and cheese was also delish.
Bartender Alexandria Bianco mixed a mean cocktail or two, including the Potomac Bourbon
1.5 Bourbon
.75 St Germaine
.5 Lemon
.5 Honey/sage simple syrup
Blend in champagne flute. Top with prosecco.
As expected @eighthblackbird @kencen was out of this world. Thanks you guys. pic.twitter.com/bkK5NUXB9S
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 8, 2016
When it comes to hotels, management makes all the difference. Five plus mega showerheads for the Kimpton DC.
Brick and Mortar in Washington DC
December 31, 2015
After an exciting and very fun evening with the Neo-Futurists at the Woolly Mammoth watching (and participating in) “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” we headed out for an after theater cocktail or two.
Souvenir
Our attempt to drop in at barmini was thwarted by their pretentious attitude. Fuck that place.
Fortunately, that meant we ended up at Brick and Mortar for a stellar post show time. We were served (mostly) by Marvin Zaldana who made some classics, played around with a drink or two of ours, and made two cocktails of particular note.
Fall Manhattan
2 oz Rye (Rittenhouse 100)
.5 oz dry port wine
several dashes of angostura
some drops of fresh lemon juice
Modern Vespa
1 oz vodka (pittsburgh’s Boyd and Blair)
1 oz dry gin (london style)
.5 oz cocchi americano
3 drops orange bitters
splash of fresh ginger beer (fever tree)
As you can see, Brick and Mortar has strong roots in great cocktails from the old days with interesting little twists. Delightful.
We were joined by two living neo-futurists.
Can you spot the actors?
Back at The Donovan D.C.
December 9, 2015
No fly nöel is not all it’s cracked up to be this year. No airplanes is nice, but local meetings fill the agenda. After one whole week, we’re back in DC, this time at the Donovan. The Donovan is a Kimpton property run by GM Steph Vogel.
1010 at Night
View from the Donovan
No time this trip meant showing up at midnight. Dang. After dinner at Tabard Inn and a nightcap of Japanese Hirsch 16 bourbon at Jack Rose, the water was pretty much essential.
Thank goodness for sparkling water
Some of our favorite Kimpton things (thanks Steph): a glass shower, water, and power by the bed.
Five showerheads for the Donovan and a wish that this trip to DC were not quite so rushed.
The Carlyle in DC
November 23, 2015
We’re back at a Kimpton, and you know how you can tell? Warm greetings by super friendly front desk staff on a cold day, an amenity that includes a cocktail and some charcuterie, and personal notes. All is well in Karma-land. (It does help to have Steph pulling strings and Thomas Fraher on the case.)
Amenity with a manhatten from the Riggsby
We were psyched to try the Carlyle, one of the newest additions to the Kimpton in DC family. DC is a big city and the Kimpton properties reflect that from the upscale George and Palomar, to the more modest Donovan and Carlyle with the quirky Helix somewhere in between. The Carlyle has the added benefit of being close to Dupont Circle.
We’re way spoiled, so you know which end of the food chain we like. But we also like trying new things! We especially like to try new things when we’re one smidgen from our inner circle status. The plan is for this visit to eek us over the finish line.
722
We’re in room 722 which is one of the King rooms with a hilarious little kitchenette. We won’t be boiling any hot dogs this trip, but you never know. DC has a fine restaurant scene these days.
Will we be cooking in DC? Hells no.
722 desk and glass door to the bathroom
Lil blue couch
Open the bathroom door
The diminutive bathroom has a glass shower, so that’s good
Anyway, this is a nice little pod for a quick business trip into the city. For a weekend away, I would move up the Kimpton foodchain to something more fancy pants.
Speaking of food, Fiola Mare on the Potomac less than two miles from the Carlyle is very good indeed. Italian seafood with excellent old school cuisine and a great atmosphere. Our table with a view was very nice indeed as was the Napolitano waiter. Salute!
Prego @FiolaMareDC. Salute! pic.twitter.com/F7GcCyOHIi
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) November 24, 2015
We started and ended the evening at the Riggsby. Devilled eggs and jalapeño tots with a Vieux Carré were a perfect beginning. Returning after dinner we had some hot tea and a Fernet or two.
Tea and fernet with Kevin @theriggsby. Great time with @AmyBarley pic.twitter.com/MA8PS1KMlu
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) November 24, 2015
All around, an excellent evening. Now if only that overzealous housekeeper did not try to clean the room at 9am!
We rate the Carlyle four out of five showerheads. Above average and well worth a visit.
1 of 11: The Donovan in Washington, DC
September 15, 2015
General Thomas
Located on Thomas Circle in NW Washington, The Donovan is a Kimpton property in the midst of transformation. Apparently, General Thomas was a Union general.
View from 1010
A warm Kimpton greeting was in store (Steph Vogel runs a tight ship). Room 1010 is very nice.
Have a seat in 1010
Sitting room with a view
Bedroom 1010
View from the glass shower
Not plastic
The rooftop bar has real potential. Ditch the pool and improve the bar selection a notch and this place could cook.
Big plans (spun by Derek himself) to visit Southern Efficiency were thwarted by Monday. What? Eat the Rich was also closed. Because the Derek buildings are all situated next door to each other, Mockingbird Hill became the destination.
The Derek Complex in Shaw
Ultimately, it was nice to ride the sherry bandwagon for a short hitch. Barman Phil made a delicious Old Fashioned with PX that carried chocolate overtones and reminded us of the Old 48. The pork was delicious.
Our next ill-fated Monday night move was to shlep over to Hank’s Oyster Bar for a bite to eat. Maybe it was an off night, but Hank’s was awful. Service was bad. Food was tasteless. Wine was unavailable. Even the oyster order was flubbed by the waiter (who frankly has no business working the front of the house). The storied bar upstairs was improperly staffed. Done with Hank’s. Cross it off the list.
The night ended on a great note thanks to Jack Rose. Fantastic selection of bourbon. Brittney Roberson was an excellent host.
Perhaps some bourbon. @JackRoseinDC pic.twitter.com/7UeMo2xH7M
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) September 15, 2015
Quill at the Jefferson Hotel Washington DC
June 12, 2015
In DC for a quick hit with no overnight, there was time between meetings to hit Quill with a friend. Quill has it going on in cocktail land.
First there was the obligatory DC Rickey for a DC denizen who had never had one. Quill thinks it is made with bourbon? Um, nope. But they corrected the error automagically, resulting in two Rickey’s, the proper one with gin.
Gin Rickey (a la DC) and bourbon (??) Rickey
The calamity comfort cocktail by Sophie Szych is a very interesting cocktail indeed:
1.5 oz rye
1.5 oz coffee calamity mix
.25 oz cynar
2 dash bitter cure blackstrap bitters
stir down. serve on a big rock with smoked ginger and orange peel
coffee calamity mix
1 quart coffee
2 double shots espresso
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
4 cloves
4 oz molasses
1 orange peel (no pith)
1 vanilla bean
create toasty crush. add liquid. simmer 20 minutes.
Calamity Comfort cocktail
Hotel Monaco in Old Town Alexandria
September 10, 2014
Trouble in paradise this visit which started out about as chunky as possible—no reservation. I always rely on my travel people to get things squared away (thanks edie!) and they are great. This time I let an outside firm work travel. Yes, I did already know not to do that! When I tried to tack a day on to this trip, everything went south fast.
Having arrived in the nick of time to drop stuff off and head to DC for a business dinner, I was confronted with a problem. No reservation and no available rooms in the hotel. While very courteous, the front desk clerk Damien was ultimately not very helpful at all, and he did not escalate to more senior management. My inner circle Kimpton status did not seem to make much difference either. I was in a bind.
Fortunately, Stephan Vogel (GM at the George) had my back and started an email thread to find me a room on DC including the new GM of the DC Palomar Josh Lustig. (FWIW, Josh just took over from Abe Liao.) While they were solving the problem, I finally got a message back from the people who had messed up the reservation in the first place. They convinced the Monaco to give me a room. So that’s good…
But it was room 315, which if I were you I would avoid. It faces the street and is very noisy in the morning starting around 6:30am. It is also a handicap accessible room with a shower over tub design. Not my style.
Of course, not knowing I was staying the night made it hard for the Monaco to do anything to greet me or personalize my stay. Apparently they don’t monitor the twitter feed very closely. If they did, the problem would have been discovered way before my arrival.
I was told that I can get a different (better) room for the second night. Hopefully that is the case.
Room 315
Bathroom in 315
Shower over tub full of handrails. The curtain blows in the wind.
I rushed off to a fantastic business dinner at Le Diplomate (highly recommended, especially the world class bread). Larry secured us a VIP table. After dinner it was off on a bourbon search, first to bourbon (booked for a private event) and then to Jack Rose (also booked for a private event, but by friends as it turned out). Jack Rose has a fantastic bourbon selection that included Pappy 23, Pappy 20, and two varieties (US and Japanese) of Hirsch 16.
Two kinds of Hirsch 16
When I returned to 315 at midnight, I was greeted with a belated welcome note and a shot or two of bourbon (!!) from Pete and Jess, who turned out to be people from the organization hosting the meeting. Somebody is paying attention, but are any Kimpton people paying attention?! For the record I did have to go find a paper in the morning.
Welcome back to 315 after midnight
After a long day of meetings and presentations I returned briefly to the Monaco and switched to room 503. 503 is an excellent room and I appreciate the move, but strangely nobody mentioned the mixup, the bind, the switch. It’s as if “these are not the droids you’re looking for” applies.
There’s nothing to see here. All is well.
Cheese plate and San Pellegrino. So they do know I am here! Awesome. But no note, so “they” remain unknown.
Welcome to 503. Kimpton Karma.
503 suite is sweet
Lots of light and no noise in the living room
The shower in 503 is fantastic. Great water pressure and plenty of glass-defined space. As usual, there is a huge (unused) tub in this room as well.
No plastic shower in 503
More data from Alexandria, the Landini Brothers restaurant has workaday Italian with a weird but decent wine list and food served by Spanish-speaking waiters. The PX Lounge is so full of itself that though they might make a decent cocktail, it is ultimately skippable. The greeter/waitress/busybody calls herself a “den mother” which pretty much says it all. If you’re not a cub scout, ignore the reviews by foodies with no cocktail clue (sietsema) and go somewhere else. Yes, PX some of us know more about mixing drinks than you do.
Hotel Monaco is a great place to stay. Some more attention to personal service seems to be warranted. A low four showerheads for this visit. I’m sure I will be back and I will make sure to make my own reservation!
Why Air Travel on United is Just Awful: Check In
August 29, 2014
You know what’s sad? I just looked on my United app and I have at least 5 trips queued up to go. See, here in NPS-land, we’re stuck at a United hub. That is a total bummer.
Regular readers know that I have flown over 1.5 MILLION miles on United in a very loyal decade. But I am done with that. I decided this year to show United as much loyalty as they show me—none. Zippo. Zilch.
So we’ll fly most anybody as long as the timing works. Sadly, that keeps me on United more than I would like.
Lets dig into the checkin process at SFO as an example of why flying on United is painful. Here are a series of Vine/Tweets from this morning’s chaotic check in. This is the reality of what air travel has become.
the real @united "gold" checkin experience. this sucks. more like aluminum foil. https://t.co/WMWVlWhnw2
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 29, 2014
here is the tsapre line with a premier traffic jam. @united cannot run a line. real checkin process. https://t.co/kMCpQeYoj8
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 29, 2014
At least the United Club was a temporary respite.
finally some peace. the @united club in the 60-69 gate annex is more like it. real checkin process. https://t.co/a9o3glCsUY
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 29, 2014
But then it was cattle call boarding time. Upgrade for all that loyalty over the years? Are you kidding me??!
Great to be number 21 on the upgrade list when the cabin is checked full! @united rewards you for 1.5 million miles. NOT. This sucks smisek.
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 29, 2014
Hey @united, boarding group 2 not ok with me after a decade of loyal flying. Real checkin process.
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 29, 2014
Once we were finally on board (after starting 11 minutes late), we were informed that there was a baggage problem.
Baggage count problem. Now 30 minutes late and counting. Baggage guys recounting by hand for weight. Not good.
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 29, 2014
Ultimately, that delayed up 30 minutes.
But there is some good news. This 737-900 is a nice new plane and it is equipped with wifi. So I can make this posting. And there is an extra 30 minutes to do it in too!
My advice to you flyers out there. United is not a good airline, so try another. Any other. (And Jeff Smisek still needs to be fired.)
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