Michael Nassar

The doppelganger of Philip Johnson’s coolly understated Pool Room at The Four Seasons, Brasserie might be one of New York’s legendary restaurants, in one of the world’s most distinguished modernist buildings, but it has always been a bit of the boozy mistress, furtively tucked into the 53rd Street side of Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building while the power-lunch set openly dines in the full light of 52nd Street.

You don’t just take a table at Brasserie, you glide while resisting the urge to do a cakewalk.  The descent below street level and into the main dining room is as close as mere mortals will ever get to performing the title number in Hello, Dolly!.  Like the main feature in the eponymous Pool Room, the centerstage glass staircase is the real celebrity here, prolonging the descent of everyone who enters and putting them on display.

And that goes a long way towards explaining why Brasserie reached its apotheosis in the days of Studio 54; not only could you not hide, you often arrived intending to make a statement, like entering with one partner and leaving with another.  It was a place where uptown met downtown and high and low cultures mingled into the wee hours – in subterranean Midtown for crissakes! – choking back fluffy omelets and béarnaise frites in a smoky room that made everyone look good, almost.

I’ll even go so far as to date myself by confessing that a handful of my favorite early memories of NYC involved nights at Area, near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, followed by moule frites at Brasserie

So where did it all go wrong?  A not-so-late-night visit this week had me waiting at the check in desk for a good five minutes while a flummoxed coat check girl filled in for the host. After my party of two was plunked at a four top in the half-empty middle of the main floor, we had to negotiate our way into a booth.  And the lighting!  Holy mother of God, if there’s one way to suck the life out of a restaurant it’s to light the place like an Automat and make it safe for tourists.  At least the omelet – studded with wild mushrooms and vidalia onions – was as serene as I remembered (clarified butter is the trick, I’m told) and my companion’s rare burger looked rare without being raw.  The rest of the menu, too, remains chockablock with French standards like fruit de mer, a salad of frisee with lardons, and cassoulet.

But something essential was missing:  some spirit to the whole enterprise.  Restaurants come and go in this city.  And a lot of really great spots have packed up while the going was still good – Lutece, La Côte Basque, and La Caravelle come to mind – because their time had passed and nobody could put their heart into it anymore.  That’s what it feels like at Brasserie as it continues loping into the night.  Is it too strong to die or is someone just too weak to kill it?

The statistics are astonishing:  Nearly 70 million Americans suffer from a chronic sleep disorder and an estimated 30 percent are losing sleep over the state of the economy.

(You guessed it – this week is National Sleep Awareness Week, timed to coincide with Sunday’s transition to Daylight Savings Time)

In the heart of noisy midtown Manhattan, however, The Benjamin hotel, has two novel solutions: Anya Orlanska, full-time Sleep Concierge, and a Perfect Night’s Sleep guarantee.  Orlanska offers advice on pillow selection  – choose from 12 different kinds – and other sleep-related issues. “We’re not doctors.  We don’t cure sleep disorders,” says Orlanska.  “But we’ll do everything we can to make sure you get the rest for the next New York day.”  And that includes arranging a relaxing massage at the hotel’s Wellness Spa; delivering a bedtime snack of warm milk and cookies; or loaning out a bedside white noise machine, so you can drift off to the sounds of the ocean surf.

The Benjamin’s sleep guarantee ensures that everyone who stays at the hotel walks away well rested or gets a free night’s stay. Aside from the pillow menu, there’s also The Benjamin Bed, a Serta mattress created exclusively for the hotel, with specially engineered convoluted foam cushioning and layers of fibers quilted to the mattress. The custom-designed bed is covered with Egyptian cotton 400-plus thread count sheets by Anichini and a down-filled comforter. Elemis aromatherapy bath products were chosen to help you relax and prepare for bed.  And in case you’re worried about the noise, the windows are double-glazed with argon gas between the panes to help keep rooms nice and quiet.

Launching during National Sleep Awareness Week, natch, The Benjamin’s two-night “The Art of Sleep” package, starts at $289 per night and is valid through the end of the year.  It features suite accommodations; a consultation with the Sleep Concierge; a nightly bedtime snack of PB&J finger sandwiches; 20 percent off a sleep inducing spa treatment at the Benjamin’s Wellness Spa; and late 2 p.m. checkout. In addition, you’ll get  The National Sleep Foundation’s “Guide to Sleeping Well” kit featuring an eye mask, lavender bath salts, a soothing CD and copy of A Good Night’s Sleep.  Be on the lookout for the randomly placed Benjamin Dream Journals, too. Placed in various guestrooms and suites, the leather bound journals are for anyone wishing to share their dreams.  But beware:  depending on the psychosis of previous night’s residents this might either send you to bed or keep you up all night.

I’m eternally behind in my magazine reading, so I’ve only just come upon this interesting piece by Clive Thompson from February’s WIRED.  It goes a long way towards explaining a hunch I’ve long held:  social networking is optimal among small to medium-sized clusters of friends or acquaintances.  Grow a network large enough – marketing gurus and pr mavens take heed – to remove the perception of (real or imagined) intimacy and all that perceived value turns to noise.

“When it comes to your social network, bigger is better. Or so we’re told. The more followers and friends you have, the more awesome and important you are. That’s why you see so much oohing and aahing over people with a million Twitter followers. But lately I’ve been thinking about the downside of having a huge online audience. When you go from having a few hundred Twitter followers to ten thousand, something unexpected happens: Social networking starts to break down.”

Read the rest of the story HERE.

“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time. “

→ Paul Fussell

It’s one thing to go surfing online and drool over a travel fantasy or two; it’s quite another to log on and have a shot at fulfilling them.  Visit www.virtuoso.com, and complete the 4^th Annual Virtuoso Life Travel Dreams survey by the March 31^st deadline, and you just might get both.

Virtuoso, one of the industry’s leading luxury travel networks, launched a sweepstakes-based survey last month, and the prizes are three once-in-a-lifetime dream vacations: five nights at the new One&Only Cape Town, with airfare to South Africa aboard Virgin Atlantic Airways; 10 days sailing around the Galapagos Islands on the National Geographic Endeavour with Lindblad Expeditions; and a 12-day Bangkok to Shanghai cruise aboard the Seabourn Pride from The Yachts of Seabourn.

Not too shabby for just filling out a 10 – 15 minute survey.  And honestly, whether you’re an armchair traveler or a dedicated road warrior, the survey will get you thinking … about journeys of discovery, exotic destinations, and life-changing experiences.  For a few blissful minutes today I actually spent some quality time dreaming about possibilities.

Cultural offerings and – to a certain extent – life-enriching local experiences are showing up as standard attractions more and more now that hotels are desperately competing for the attention of recession-savvy travelers.  Yet a trio of Fairmont hotels are taking art appreciation to new heights with the introduction of art-inspired features and hotel galleries.  At The Fairmont Dallas, the hotel recently teamed up with local artist Bryan Embry to debut the Ross Akard Gallery at The Fairmont Dallas, the first art gallery to open in the city’s famed Arts District in three decades. At Boston’s Fairmont Battery Wharf, hotel guests can tour the on-property Battery Wharf Maritime Museum, a 1,000 square foot museum, free to the public, featuring exhibits about the maritime history of the area  and of Boston. In Vancouver, art plays a leading role at the recently opened Fairmont Pacific Rim, starting with the exterior of the building and carrying through the lobby, public spaces and guestrooms. Of particular note is the exterior installation by UK artist Liam Gillick: a running line of repeated Helvetica text which wraps around half of the building’s facade; while the other side of the building glistens silver in the sun and teases with an image that only comes into view from a distance.

I’m not a big fan of slavishly following the trends but it’s hard not to notice the sudden ubiquity of mini spa services turning up like tapas on so many menus these days. With 46 percent of International Spa Association member spas seeing an increase in shorter (30 minutes or less) treatment bookings, and 86 percent offering shorter treatments, it looks like we’re officially knee deep into a major trend.

And it’s hard to argue with the practicality of smaller bites, as it were.   For the neophyte, it provides excellent value at lower price points and is a great way to pick and choose something new from a variety of treatments.  For the spa veteran, multiple appetizer-sized spa treatments are now an affordable indulgence, even during the recession.

Here are just a few places where you can go sampling:

The Stillwater Spa at Hyatt Regency Newport recently transformed itself after a resort-wide $35 million renovation and offers treatments designed with innovative, marine-based products in harmony with five key elements – plant, water, stone, salt and air – and focused on achieving four states of well being – physical, spiritual, emotional, and social.  For anyone looking to experience the elements without spending all their time doing that math in their heads, the spa has affordable 25-minute installments, like Tapas Soles Foot Massage, Color Shot Tasting, Tapas Soles Foot Massage and Tapas Facial.   Spa tapas are available Sunday through Thursday between the hours of 3-7 pm – kind of like a spa Happy Hour.  Order one for $50, order two for $95, order three for $145, or order four for $195.

With a lush, welcoming design and a host of innovative treatments,  Seagate Spa is a select serenity stop for hotel guests and local clientele.  Located within Delray Beach’s newly opened The Seagate Hotel, the spa offers several mini spa treatments, each under $65, including a sea salt body polish, reflexology, the express facial and a relaxing massage. The spa also features seven treatment rooms, a full wet room with Vichy shower, two large steam rooms, a Bikram yoga studio and a manicure/ pedicure suite.

The Yachts of Seabourn’s Spa Villas offer express spa services where guest receive the utmost in pampering on the outdoor spa deck.  Services range from mini-hot stone massages, facials and acupuncture to manicures, pedicures and paraffin treatments.  With the waves serving as the backdrop, these mini-treatments are available aboard all Seabourn yachts, including Seabourn Sojourn, which will be unveiled in June 2010.  Prices start at $15.

It’s only now that the Vancouver Olympics have ended that I happened to notice this interesting bit of video from the NY Times:  designer Steven Heller looks at how the pictograms used to identify individual sports have changed over the years.

(And since I haven’t even bothered to mention any of the drama coming down from Canada over the past two weeks, I guess this will also have to suffice as my version of an Olympics post-mortem, too: Meh. It seemed a little too white-bread for my tastes. A little too placid. Bring on Sochi 2014, where I bet that even the very air will taste of constant controversy.)

I got a long overdue birthday package yesterday courtesy of the Royal Mail.  Nothing quite matches the excitement inherent in unraveling a parcel that’s been copiously taped and bundled and shows all the wear and tear of traveling across an ocean.  This particular box did not fail in igniting my imagination:  dented, partially crushed, not only was it pock-marked with random stab wounds,  but the postal tape indicated it was mailed almost eight weeks ago.  No bother, since A: I wasn’t expecting anything fragile; and B: the distressed look only added to the romance and mystery of it all.

I noticed from the outset an Edinburgh return address, which immediately set my expectations high.  So imagine my grin when peeling back the lid I found a pair of brown knee-hi boots and a thick pair of proper kilt socks to go along with them!  A big shout out and thanks to Howie Nicholsby, the creative life force behind 21st Century Kilts, as well as the man who taught me everything I needed to know about kilts.  I’ve already written a bit about Howie and my minor kilt obsession.  In fact, Howie was my first posting on this website and only recently I decided that a return to Edinburgh for a new kilt should be in the cards this year.  It’s killing me that this snowy winter weather is delaying the return of spring, daffodils, and my exposed legs.  Could it be that good things really do come to those who wait?