GRAND STAND
Grand Stand - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Grand Stand | |||||
| By: Megan Singleton, Issue 28 – Spring 2006 | |||||
| (Waldorf-Astoria – New York, United States of America) | |||||
| The yellow cab screeches to a halt on Park Avenue outside the grand dame of all hotels, the Waldorf Astoria. A white-gloved concierge opens the car door and holds out an umbrella as rain and wind sweep me through the revolving doors into the lobby, a vast marble atrium filled to the brim with ballrooms, bars and meeting rooms branching off on all sides. Dressed from head-to-toe in mandatory evening-black, I follow the crowd towards a vase the size of a small car bursting with freshly arranged flowers. Beyond is the three metre tall clock where I am to meet my dinner companions. This impressive timepiece (from the 1893 Chicago World Fair) weighs over 1800 kilograms and is engraved on its eight sides with the faces of presidents and Queen Victoria. Meeting at the clock is a very Waldorf thing to do. Because of the gridlock outside, I am more than fashionably late and everyone is already seated in prime people watching position, a cocktail ahead of me, in Peacock Alley. This newly refurbished bar and restaurant hub pays homage to the original Art Deco hot spot named for the socialites strutting in their finery back in the 30s. I order the specialty cocktail, Strawberry Fields, to pay homage to Paul McCartney’s recent marital woes. The easily drinkable drop features Hendrick’s Gin, strawberry puree, sugar, mint, basil and orange juice, and I’m sure Sir Paul wishes he was drowning his sorrows the same way. The Waldorf is no stranger to celebrity. The Beatles had their portraits painted here in 1964 by artist Nicholas Volpe, and today the shrewd owner from California is making them available for a cool US$1 million. Every president since Herbert Hoover has dined, danced and discussed world events here and some have taken up permanent residence after retiring from office. The Waldorf hotel actually first evolved a few years earlier in 1893 when William Waldorf Astor opened a 13- storey hotel on the site of his former mansion. Four years later his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV (who later died on the Titanic), opened a 17-storey hotel on an adjacent site, and a 90-metre mirrored corridor that became known as the hyphen connected the two. In 1931 the hotels were razed to make way for the Empire State Building and the newly combined Waldorf Astoria and Towers became the world’s first skyscraper, built on Park Avenue and 50th Street. The 42-storey Waldorf Towers house 180 individually decorated suites. It has its own private entrance, elevators and lobby and boasts of being able to cater for the wishes of the most demanding guest. Many of the one- to four bedroom suites come with a kitchen, dining room and maid’s quarters. Butler service can also be arranged on request, plus 24-hour room service. Overall, there are over 1200 guest rooms in the entire property, and no two are decorated the same, but each have a marble bath and art deco motifs. The Presidential Suite is the only suite in town to lay genuine claim to the name. Every President since 1931 has stayed here. The State Department has first call for visiting dignitaries no matter who else may be reclining in the rocking chair donated by John F Kennedy or working at the desk donated by General Douglas MacArthur. Recently part of a $12 million refurbishment, its colonial style furnishings are designed to resemble the White House where the eagle features strongly by way of the gold mirror from Ronald Reagan hanging over an eagle-base table, an eagle desk given by Jimmy Carter and eagle wall sconces which were a gift from Lyndon B. Johnson. If walls could talk in the Cole Porter Suite, they would gossip about the piano duelling sessions between the composer and his band of musical friends including Frank Sinatra. Porter wrote many of his lyrics while resident here for 25 years, and the hotel presented him with a Steinway grand piano. He used to arrange two of them curve to curve in his suite for evening jam sessions. These days the floral print piano resides in the Cocktail Terrace where it is still played each night. The Waldorf Astoria is the proud holder of many firsts: the first hotel to star in a feature film when Ginger Rogers appeared in Weekend at the Waldorf, the first hotel to abolish the obligatory ‘Ladies entrance’, and the first to introduce room service. Apart from the Waldorf Salad, Eggs Benedict was also first whipped up here. As the story goes, in 1894 Wall Street broker Lemuel Benedict ordered a hangover cure of ‘buttered toast, crisp bacon, two poached eggs, and a hooker of hollandaise sauce’. The Waldorf’s then legendary chef, Oscar Tschirky, was so impressed that after substituting Canadian bacon for crisp bacon and a toasted English muffin for toasted bread he put the dish on his breakfast and luncheon menus, where it remains today. While celebrities and world leaders still draw the paparazzi and society page editors to the Waldorf, this Conrad Hotel is the cream of the Hilton group and has earned a reputation for exceptional style, elegance and service among both business and leisure travellers. Every guest is treated like a visiting dignitary, and a permanent record kept of regular guests’ likes and dislikes – even down to a particular brand of bubblegum for the wife of a visiting prime minister. So after catching up on the cocktails, and listening to stories (if only the walls could talk) of romantic trysts, of presidents and royals, of starlets and CEOs, chef and restaurant manager Cedric Tovar joins us to discuss his French-influenced menu. With so many choices I am grateful that he decides to ‘take us on a journey’. For the next three hours he proceeds to deliver an eight-course tasting menu with matching wines, and we clink our glasses to the Waldorf Astoria’s 75th birthday this October. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
| Waldorf Astoria: www.waldorfastoria.com | |||||
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