Home -
Austria -
Benelux -
Channel Islands -
France & Monaco -
Germany -
Italy -
Poland -
Russia -
Spain -
Sweden -
Switzerland -
Turkey -
United Kingdom
Back to reviews in United States
It came as a real surprise. I had found a bargain on Nob Hill. Nob Hill is famous for various things: for providing spiritual enlightenment at Grace Cathedral, for dazzling the world with the ultimate in exclusivity at the Pacific Union Club and for providing us with a short word for the very rich (‘nobs’). It is not, however, famous for bargains. But my true bargain was in another of its legendary features – the Fairmont Hotel, a place of history. At the end of the Second World War, a conference was held in San Francisco to invent an organisation which would promote world peace, and it was in the Garden Room of the Fairmont Hotel that the Charter of the United Nations was signed. That is why the national flags of the original signatories still fly above the porte-cochère at the main entrance. And – a fact even more exciting for this visitor – it was here, in the hotel’s Venetian Room, that Tony Bennett first sang the song, ‘I left my heart in San Francisco’. The Fairmont has seen some wonders.
If, like me, you have loved those old Hollywood films in which the drama begins in a hotel lobby of vast proportions, you will have a feeling of déjà vu when you first enter the Fairmont. For here is that space with which you are familiar on celluloid: a huge hall of marble columns, gilt carving and potted palms, abuzz with the comings and goings of important people. One has the sense that the place has been busy for a hundred years, and one is right. The hotel had only just been built, when it was burnt down in the fire which followed the 1906 earthquake. Twelve months later it was open again, with its splendour restored. At the opening banquet, 13,000 oysters were consumed, and thereafter the likes of President Theodore Roosevelt and Rudolph Valentino crowded its sumptuous apartments on Nob Hill. Now it was my turn. And thus I found my bargain.
I went up to the first floor (what our American friends call the second floor) and was shown into room 262, the Oxford Suite. At $350-$500 a night for two, according to season, breakfast extra, this must surely be the hotel bargain of San Francisco. To have so much elegant space in so good a location for such a sum seemed near-miraculous.
For this was a proper suite, with a handsome bedroom in pale yellow and blue and a huge sitting room (pictured), which I paced out at 16 feet by 27 feet. In the former were two easy chairs and a bed which had been made wonderfully soft for me. In the latter were a three-seater sofa and two easy chairs, a five-leaf screen in gold and green and pieces of reproduction furniture in mahogany, including a sideboard and a dining table. Both rooms had large windows. The wireless had already been tuned to the local Classical music station (102·1 FM), so Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart provided the background music as I surveyed the view.
San Francisco offers many wonderful panoramas. Here was one of the most prestigious. As you will see from the photograph, I looked upon both the brown stone of the Pacific Union Club and the grey granite of Grace Cathedral. I could happily have looked through the plate glass until night fell. But the pre-prandial ablutions called, so I toddled off to the bathroom (the only part of the suite which was of modest size) for a shave and a soak. I knew that dining at The Fairmont was done either in the Tonga Room (for Asian cuisine) or at the Laurel Court, off the lobby (for Californian fare). I, of course, had chosen the latter, and I wanted to look my best.
I always try to dress well for dinner, but I had already had a look at the Laurel Court (pictured) and I knew that its grandeur demanded high sartorial standards. I was glad I had made the effort, as I was led across the red and gold carpet, through the columns and under the ceiling domes, to my table. Here I found good white napery. On the tablecloth stood a single silver candelabrum with a shade.
I had stumbled across a moment when the kitchen was being renovated. In these difficult circumstances, Chef jW Foster (pictured) had been forced to abandon his usual menu. Instead he laid on a buffet (for $42), which I must say I rather enjoyed. From the salad bar I took tuna, tomatoes, beans, broccoli, carrots, peppers and onion – all of which were full of taste. Then my kindly waiter, Jonathan, secured for me many slices of the warm roast pork which was being carved at the buffet table. This was both plentiful and delicious, so I tucked in and forsook the pudding.
The wine list has 300+ entries, and the prices are reasonable. Twenty wines are offered by the glass (like 2007 Chalk Hill, Sonoma, sauvignon blanc at $14) and two dozen by the half bottle (like Jaffurs syrah from Santa Barbara at $47). There are lots of good bottles from both the New and Old worlds. My eye was caught by the following: 2002 Cristal champagne ($406), 1998 Chevalier Montrachet, Jadot ($447), 2003 Opus One ($344), 1988 Latour ($880) and 2002 Screaming Eagle ($2,000). For my own drinking, I went to the Napa Valley. The Schramsberg 2006 sparkling blanc de blanc was nutty and bright with hints of cream, and the Stag’s Leap 2005 merlot, once its stern tannins had subsided, was round, soft and full of ripe blackcurrants.
I returned to the Laurel Court for breakfast ($30). Here each day I tucked in with gusto to the onion omelettes, freshly cooked at the ‘egg station’, and the various delights to be had from the buffet, including porridge, bacon, Corn Flakes, pineapple and melon. One should always start the day as one means to go on, and this was a grand way to start the day.
Indeed, ‘grand’ is a word which suits The Fairmont. In its architecture, its location and its atmosphere, it is truly a grand hotel of the traditional sort. It is the kind of hotel which plays host to history. Here statesmen sign important documents and crooners sing words which melt our hearts. And here I found my bargain on Nob Hill.
950 Mason Street, San Francisco, California 94108, U.S.A.
Telephone +1 415 772 5000
Fax +1 415 772 5013
Email: sanfrancisco@fairmont.com
www.fairmont.com
Double rooms from $200-$350, according to season, breakfast extra
Ask about special offers
