Where to stay when you leave.
Cheesecake $17. Pancakes $26. Tea for Two $173. A Meal at the Plaza? Pricey
3/20/2008 at 2:00 PM
Tags: Hotel Restaurants, High Tea Hotels, Hotel Bars, Luxury Hotels, Manhattan Hotels
We just finished reading about the lavish new Palm Court Restaurant and Champagne Bar at the Plaza Hotel, wherein the Bloomberg review by critic Ryan Sutton left us gasping for some free-er air.
Having completed the $1 billion re-do of the 1907 landmark hotel, the folks at Fairmont decided to drop another $400 million to open the new restaurant and bar. While Plaza condo residents including the likes of a Kuwaiti billionaire and Faberge Egg-toting realtor may well afford these menus, Manhatten travelers opting to dine better be packing fat wallets.
So thank goodness Mr. Sutton taste-tested the pricey Palm Court waters for us commoners. Under the direction of Chef Didier Virot, late of the now-closed Aix, with a luscious assist by Nicole Kaplan, former Del Posto pastry queen, the Palm Court menus are as luxe as the décor, which features soaring columns, a stained glass ceiling and flourishing palm-trees.
Cost for the restaurant's afternoon tea: $60 per person. Geesh! We can get a cup of Jasmine or Darjeeling for a buck in Chinatown. But wait, there's more. For an additional $40 per person you can add some egg roe, er, caviar.
His dinner of rare lamb loin accompanied by gluey goat-cheese ravioli set the Bloomberg expense account back $270 or so. And a jaunt to the Champagne Bar for two glasses of the bubbly and a few small plates, another $100. Our question is does Mayor Mike know?
No matter. While Wall Street tanks, Plaza condo residents and hotel guests can enjoy a rich (pun intended) breakfast of $26 hotel-style and served pancakes or $17 slice of cheesecake for afternoon lunch and more. All of which makes a hunger for the good life cost a fortune. Sigh.
[Photo: Ryan Charles]
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The Plaza Hotel Coverage
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