My best friend and I wanted to celebrate Valentines with her 95 year old dad and his partner who is 94. The hotel has so many memories for this family: wedddings, confirmations and so much more. For me it has been the bastion of beauty and incredible memories spanning 30 years. It had even been the site of a wedding proposal.
So we arrived on Valentines and the hotel looks splendid. The valets were perky and mindful.
Then although we had a reservation we had to wait to be seated. We had asked to be near the swans who have been at the hotel for more than 40 years.
We were not seated near the swans and had to move when we complained to our server.
The food (I adore Wolfgang Pick and had a birthday party rentiing out Chinois on main many years ago) but the food was simply uninspired, tepid and had no penache.
The service was abysmal and finally I asked the manager over and recited the list of indignities. He was efficacious and immediately indicated that the meal would be compliments of him.He handed me his card and asked us back to try the hotle again under his supervision.
How sad though for my friend's 95 year old dad. How many good memories were to contaminated by this Valentines Day 2012.
The adage of making a first impression is paradoxical here since how many times is a 95 year old man going back to the Bel Air. After a lifetime of the Bel Air Hotel we all left a bit sad that this memory would stand out.
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