Pasadena Travel Guide
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The Dining Room at the Langham Wins Prestigious 'Food Club' Award
Attention Hotel Chefs: there is a new distinguished food award going around that you must take notice of.
Comedian Aziz Ansari and his prestigious Food Club have awarded its second plaque of 2010 to Michael Voltaggio, the Top Chef finalist, for his "remarkable meal" at The Dining Room at the Langham Pasadena. A bit more on the Food Club:
Food Club is one of the most prestigious and respected dining associations in the world. Founded in late 2009 by Captains Aziz Ansari, Eric Wareheim, and Jason Woliner, the club has dined at some of the finest establishments in Los Angeles and the world and presented their esteemed Food Club plaques to several world class chefs, most recently Chef David Myers of Sona.
Tags: Top Chef / Michael Voltaggio / Hotel Restaurants / Langham Hotels / Pasadena Hotels / → All Tags
What's Gonna Happen With Michael Voltaggio's Restaurant at the Langham Pasadena?
When we wrote about The Dining Room restaurant at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena in September, we thought because Top Chef contestant Michael Voltaggio had been announced as the chef de cuisine that there was no way he could be the winner of the cooking competition, since most winners take the prize money to open a restaurant themselves.
Well, we're eating our words right now for breakfast. With some tabasco sauce and tempura hash browns. But we then wondered, how much longer will he be at the hotel?
A rep for the Langham told us that Chef Voltaggio is still going to be cooking at the hotel Tuesday-Saturday nights. There are no further changes expected at The Dining Room until sometime in the second quarter of the year when they begin a renovation.
But for now, Voltaggio is all yours and word is he changes the menu daily. Room rates at the Langham for tomorrow night, when Voltaggio will be cooking, start at $229 for a deluxe king room stay.
Tags: Top Chef / Michael Voltaggio / Hotel Restaurants / Langham Hotels / Pasadena Hotels / → All Tags
Top Chef's Michael V. Rocking It at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena
We love the newest season of Top Chef for many reasons but namely because it takes place in Vegas and our baby sibling, VegasChatter gets tickled to see Vegas restaurants and chefs featured each week.
But we also love it because several of the chefs are working at hotel restaurants including one talented punk rocker chef, Michael Voltaggio, who is now the chef de cuisine at Dining Room at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. He's also one of the fiercely competitive brothers on the show. Did you see the daggers he gave his older bro after Bryan won the last challenge? Oooweee.
From the hotel's website:
Chef de Cuisine Michael Voltaggio’s celebrated style is described as new American cuisine using classic discipline and modern trends, and he delights in utilizing the bounty of seasonal produce that California offers while showcasing the best quality ingredients from around the globe.
Tags: Hotel Deals / College Football Hotels / Pasadena Hotels / Los Angeles Hotels / Sheraton Hotels / Hotels.com / → All Tags
College Football Hotels :: Sheraton Pasadena for USC vs. UCLA
College football season is in full force already, and any legit NCAA Division I sports fan (or alumnus of either institution) will be pumped for the December 6th crosstown showdown between USC and UCLA.
Even if you're not a big football person, the week leading up to the game is going to be insane for partying (what? We like beer, whatchya gonna do about it?), so hitting up the LA area for a full weekend will likely prove to be a kickass time, providing you don't provoke any bar fights with rival fans.
Hotels.com's Interests Page pointed us to a killer hotel deal at the Sheraton Pasadena. Located super close to the Rose Bowl, the hotel is offering up rooms at $129 per night for December 5th and 6th so you can go cheer on your Bruins or Trojans at the big game.
And you'll have money left over to buy beer. Or to buy some crap to throw into the rival marching band's tubas. Whatever you want, really.
Tags: Langham Hotels / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Employees / → All Tags
Ritz-Carlton Huntington To Become a Langham Hotel
In the new year, the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa will get a new name and new owners. Starting January 8th, the hotel will be referred to as the Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa.
The Pasadena hotel will become part of Langham Hotels International, a luxury hotel group owned by Hong Kong-based Great Eagle Holdings, a Ritz-Carlton spokesman said today.
Staff members of the 392-room hotel were meeting today to discuss the transition, which is expected to have minimal immediate effect on guests, said Vivian Deuschl, vice president of public relations for Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.
Indeed Langham Hotels, while a smaller chain (only 8 properties), has a few luxury properties under its belt, namely the Hong Kong hotel with its sushi turndown.
This hotel used to be owned by the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Assn. but when staffers complained of working them too hard, we guess they dumped the property. Let's hope Langham treats the staffers with more respect.
Related Stories:
· Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel to get new name [LA Times]
· Ritz-Carlton Pasadena Accused of Working Staffers Too Hard [HotelChatter]
Tags: Ritz-Carlton Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Staff / → All Tags
Ritz-Carlton Pasadena Accused of Working Staffers Too Hard
The Ritz-Carlton Huntington in Pasadena, Calif. is the subject of a lawsuit today after two employees accused the hotel of forcing them to work through their breaks and stiffing them of overtime pay.
"They treat us like slaves," said housekeeper Elvia Alonso, 44, who has worked at the hotel for six years and is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "They say, 'If you don't like it, you go home.'"
What's also interesting is that the hotel is owned by the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Assn., (LACERA) which manages the $38-billion pension fund of retired police officers, firefighters and other county workers who of course, are union members themselves. This makes for a sticky situation. Even more so when LACERA is looking to sell the place with a gain of more than a $100 million.
A list of some of the alleged bad treatment of staffers:
· A housekeeper repeatedly asked management to fix the broken wheels on her cart but they refused. The cart later toppled on the housekeeper, causing injury to her shoulder which later required surgery.
· The same housekeeper was denied a job in the call center because of her Spanish accent.
· Cooks said managers made derogatory comments about their ethnic backgrounds.
· Workers throughout the hotel were not allowed to take breaks.
A spokesperson for the hotel would not comment on the lawsuit but said they "all of these things seriously."
Tags: Hotel Weddings / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / → All Tags
Hotel Wedding Crashers: The Me-Me-Me Consultant at the Ritz-Carlton
Listen up Brides-to-Be and Invited Guests: Throughout the summer, we will be featuring all types of hotel wedding stories from packages to honeymoon suites to hotel wedding heaven and hell.
Whether you are getting married, planning your wedding, or just taking advantage of someone's open bar reception, we want to hear your hotel wedding tips/stories/frustrations. Send your hotel wedding stories and questions here.
Caveat nuptialists! Dispatches from the wedding-industrial complex confirm that finding the right wedding planner involves serious vetting and careful consideration. An article in yesterday's Sunday Styles section of The New York Times recounts several very close calls wedding-planning couples had with consultants and hotels.
Tags: New Year's Eve Hotels / Hotel Parties / Pasadena Hotels / Holiday Hotels / → All Tags
HotelChatter's Rocking New Year's Eve: The Rose Bowl
If you're sick of watching the Rose Bowl on TV or want to get upclose to the Tournament of Roses parade to sniff those thousands offlowers in person, there's still time to book a Rose Bowl hotel and ticket package.
The Official Tournament of Roses website is offering several different types of packages, all of which offering five days/four nights in a Pasadena hotel, behind-the-scenes visit at Float Decorating Sites, a New Year’s Eve Celebration featuring dinner, dancing and champagne toast, a Tournament of Roses reserved Rose Parade grandstand seat and a confirmed Corner End Zone Rose Bowl Game Ticket on Jan 1, among other perks.
For you readers who aren't up on college ball, The Tournament of Roses is a long-running New Year's tradition. It begins with a flowery romp down the main promenade in Pasadena with floats dotted with a billion blooms, followed by a championship kick-off. This has been going for nearly 100 years and it's about as nationally famous as the OSU-Michigan rivalry-- right up there with Harvard v. Yale and Army v. Navy.
Prices start as low as $1,125 per person (at the Sheraton Pasadena) to as high as $3,175 for a solo traveler at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington. And you can add on optional tours to tickle every fancy, from Universal Studios to the J. Paul Getty Museum.
[Photo: Mister Goleta]
Related Stories:
· Official Tour [Tournament of Roses]
Tags: Michelle Higgins / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / Pasadena Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
Ritz-Carlton Pasadena Can't Satisfy NYT Reporter's Munchie Cravings
It's not quite clear how to take Michelle Higgins' recent New York Times review of the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena. Though she does make one point clear, the Ritz is actively making attempts to keep up with the hip boutique hotel scene. Along with its classy rep and digs, this Ritz locale which dates back to 1907 has added little trendy updates but still falls short in places, namely: service.
An internet station in the business center will soon come with a charge since it's been poorly manned and thus caused some serious lines. And that's just the beginning of the service problems during Higgins' short stay.
When we got the munchies around midnight, however, our chicken quesadilla never arrived. When we called room service, about 45 minutes later, to check on it, an employee apologized and said they had sent it to the wrong room. By that time we were too tired to eat and so declined the offer of a new order.
Yet Higgins' finishes her review by stating that "the high-quality Ritz service is still largely intact." The question is then, where? There certainly aren't any examples of this tip-top service in the review.
For a room starting at $399 and a name like Ritz, we'd expect more in the service department. Let's hope they don't think this is the new cool boutique attitude they're looking to adopt along with their more modern style.
Related Stories:
· Check In Check Out [New York Times]
· Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Penguin Gate / → All Tags
TV Critics Pool Party with Penguins at Ritz Carlton
We never would have thought that Hallmark Channel, the creator of all things warm and fuzzy and starring Kellie Martin, would be responsible for breathing new life into Penguin Gate.
The first Penguin Gate happened back in 2005 when P.Diddy and the folks at Hotel Victor in South Beach decided having a couple of scared-looking penguins stand in the middle of a hotel party would be cool, much to the dismay of PETA.
This time, Hallmark Channel brought some penguins from either Sea World or the San Diego Zoo to hang around their pool party at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena, as part of the Television Critics Association Press Tour.
A TV critic for the SF Chronicle had this to say about the penguins:
What I did find out was that THE PENGUINS HAD A ROOM ACROSS THE HALL FROM ME. Damn dirty penguins. I knew it...They were the stars of the party. They came down a blue carpet. Yes, they really did. I was late, so I don't know if Morgan Freeman actually introduced them as planned.
Later I met the penguins. There were only two of them. They were cute, and small - surprisingly small, as if you could club the life out of them with a Wiffle bat. Not that I would even think of such a thing, but they were definitely small. Like actors. They certainly looked bigger up on the screen when I slept through "March of the Penguins." But my point is this - I tracked them down and I asked the keeper a question: "Did these penguins have a room at the hotel?" She looked stunned. "Uh, yes." I stared back. "What number?" She looked blank. "First floor, 100s maybe?" I asked. Then she lit up. "Yes, room 110." Ha! J'accuse!
We knew Ritz Carlton had a pet-friendly policy but apparently this now includes penguins. Putting penguins up at the Ritz might cause PETA to look the other way on this one but the only thing the Hallmark Channel forgot was to pay Tara Reid a couple grand to show up and throw up.
Related Stories:
· Penguins in the hotel [Tim Goodman, Bastard Machine]
· P.Diddy's Penguin Party Piques PETA [HotelChatter]
· Ritz Carlton Pasadena reviews [TripAdvisor]
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