HotelChatter

Tags: Hotel Staff / Manhattan Hotels / The Plaza Hotel / → All Tags

After 40 Years, the Plaza's Longest-Serving Doorman Retires

Where: 768 Fifth Avenue [map], New York, NY, United States, 10019

If you've been a guest or resident at the iconic Plaza Hotel any time since 1963, you've surely encountered Ed Trinka, the gentleman who's spent the last 4 decades as the Plaza's Fifth Avenue doorman. Today, we bid farewell to him: today is his last day of work (on his 65th birthday) and, unlike any other hotel worker ever, he says, "I never had a bad day in all the years."

Per CNN:

He spent 40 years at the fabled lodging's Fifth Avenue entrance, relocating to its doorway facing Central Park South during the property's renovation and partial conversion to condominiums.

Years ago, the hotel gave him a nametag that mistakenly read Edward, even though his full name is Edwin. He came to embrace the errant nametag, neglecting to correct people when they called him Edward and even naming his own son Edward.

Aw; we know, right? The hotel will say a proper goodbye to Trinka this afternoon: a champagne send-off in the Oak Room, where he'll be presented with a free stay at the hotel he's worked as since he was a teenager.

[Photo: Jason Kessler/CNN]