Blood Orange Marmalade
The background for this blog is that, as some of you already know, I've been traveling to Los Angeles for work pretty often. This fall alone, I was in LA four times in a two month span. I decided rather than to just blindly take people's recommendations, I would try out all the different hotel options myself. So every time I've been to LA for work over the past year, I've stayed at a different hotel. The Argyle, The Hollywood Roosevelt, Casa Del Mar, Chateau Marmont, The Four Seasons, and the Viceroy - that's my list so far. I have one more that I want to try - Raffles L'Ermitage - it comes highly recommended and I get a kick out of the name. All of these hotels were very nice, but the Four Seasons is just at another level. In addition to the beautiful rooms and facilities (the gym is outdoors!), the service at the Four Seasons cannot be beat. They do not know the word "no" there - whatever you need, whenever you need it, they will be provide it. If you call down to the Concierge and tell them you need an 8-ball of coke, some college-ruled loose leaf paper, a toothpick made of ivory, and a spicy tuna roll - it'll be brought up to your room before you know it. Okay, that might be somewhat of an exaggeration, but you get my drift.
The barometer I use to judge these hotels is not, however, the extent to which they can provide a bunch of miscellaneous items ASAP; I have a much more logical and mature way to judge them - by whether or not they can and will make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to take on the flight home. I say "can" because the Chateau Marmont claimed to not have the ingredients on site, which I actually believe to be the truth, but is somewhat preposterous given that it has a full restaurant. The Chateau Marmont is too cool for PB & J I suppose. I am, on the other hand, clearly not. Anyways, the Four Seasons passed the PB & J test with flying colors - they made me a delicious sandwich and cut it into four triangles (sandwiches just taste better in triangles, you know you agree) and wrapped it in aluminum foil and put it in a to-go box. This blog is not about PB & J though, it's about blood orange marmalade, and how it has had a significant impact on the course of my life - or at least, the course of my life as it pertains to Los Angeles hotels.
As you can imagine, the food at the Four Seasons is divine. They have anything and everything and given that I was denied room service for the first 24 years of my life, you can bet I take full advantage. One night during my stay, I ordered a banana split and ate it on my bed while watching Grey's Anatomy. I felt like I was 12 years old and in the movie Home Alone - it was awesome. Anyways, with breakfast, they bring you the usual medley of mini preserves and one of the 3 is blood orange marmalade. My Dad is a big fan of blood orange marmalade (I'm sure the Lower East Sider in him finds this hilarious) so I decided to keep all the little blood orange marmalades and bring them back to him in New York as a small token of my affection. This adorable plan went awry however, for I didn't realize that these little unopened jars constituted a "liquid or jelly" and thus were seized at airport security. I had put them in my food bag rather than in my checked baggage because I was worried the glass would break and they seemed more at home in my food bag with their distant cousin jelly of the beautifully wrapped peanut butter & jelly sandwich. It was sad to see them taken from me and thrown into the garbage and I called my Dad from the airport to tell him what had happened. He got a laugh out of the whole thing and I thought that would be that. Never underestimate Michael Goldberg.
Turns out, my father decided to call the Four Seasons Concierge and tell them what had happened. And being the Four Seasons, rather than say something like "why are you telling me this" or "your daughter is a thief," they immediately sent my Dad TEN tiny jars of blood orange marmalade!!! My Dad generously gave me a couple of the jars and I have to report, it is quite tasty - the perfect combination of sweet and bitter. My Dad and I both separately called the Concierge lady who had sent the marmalade, let's call her Dorothy, to thank her and I guess during the course of his conversation with her, my Dad being the mensch that he is, offered to get her Lakers or Clippers tickets if she ever wanted them. In addition, he sent a thank you note and some cool NBA swag. Well Dorothy, she took my Dad up on his offer and requested Lakers tickets for her husband's birthday. On my next trip to LA (in mid-November, in which I stayed at the Viceroy because my boss was staying there and I was moonlighting as his chauffeur), I went to the Four Seasons for a massage (don't think I'm so fancy, it was only the 3rd massage I've gotten in my life, and 'twas because my back was in severe spasm) and I stopped by the Concierge to introduce myself to Dorothy. We laughed about the whole blood orange marmalade incident and I thanked her and told her my Dad was working on securing the Lakers tickets for the night of her husband's birthday. That's when Dorothy asked me if I'd be coming back to LA anytime soon and as she posed this question, a 75-watt lightbulb went off in my head.
Why yes Dorothy, I am planning to come back to Los Angeles in January, for our Television Critics Association panel, but it's on the Friday before the Golden Globes and I'm sure you guys are already all booked up.
Let me check for you. Well, it shows we have availability for that Wednesday through Saturday but you're right, we are all booked that weekend.
Oh ok, well, thank you for checking.
No, let me see what I can do. Give me all your information and I'll look into it.
Really? That'd be so great, I really appreciate it.
Okay, I'll stop with the reenactment and fastforward a couple weeks. Dorothy and her husband had a fantastic time at the Lakers game and as for lil Sue, well, I'll be staying at the Four Seasons for the duration of my stay in January, including the weekend before and the day of the Golden Globes. This is quite a feat - to put it in context - all nice LA hotels are BOOKED SOLID during awards season, specifically and especially on the days preceding and up to the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. I had called Raffles L'Ermitage to check availability before I knew I'd be hooked up at the Four Seasons and they literally laughed at me when I gave the dates of my trip. But Dorothy came through, with a little help from Mario in reservations, and a couple of days ago, they called to tell me I was IN. SCORE!
Here's the thing, in the course of the rest of my life, who knows how often I'll be traveling to LA for work (AKA having my hotel stays paid for, i.e. having the opportunity to stay at the posh Four Seasons Hotel) but I am just really excited about having a connection at the Four Seasons. I figure it can't hurt, it can only be awesome. I am slightly worried that we've entered into a never-ending favor-pact with Dorothy (who casually mentioned she has a son who is also a Lakers fan) but I just really marvel at the whole thing. I give a little of the credit to myself for the nice gesture, some credit to airport security for seizing the gelatinous gift, major shout outs to Dorothy and Mario, but of course, most of the credit goes to my Dad who is charming and generous and a genius. I had no idea that those little blood orange marmalade jars would have such an impact and I am both amused and grateful. And I hope the Four Seasons room service is still serving them - we've polished off the original batch that was sent across the country and we're ready for more.
The barometer I use to judge these hotels is not, however, the extent to which they can provide a bunch of miscellaneous items ASAP; I have a much more logical and mature way to judge them - by whether or not they can and will make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to take on the flight home. I say "can" because the Chateau Marmont claimed to not have the ingredients on site, which I actually believe to be the truth, but is somewhat preposterous given that it has a full restaurant. The Chateau Marmont is too cool for PB & J I suppose. I am, on the other hand, clearly not. Anyways, the Four Seasons passed the PB & J test with flying colors - they made me a delicious sandwich and cut it into four triangles (sandwiches just taste better in triangles, you know you agree) and wrapped it in aluminum foil and put it in a to-go box. This blog is not about PB & J though, it's about blood orange marmalade, and how it has had a significant impact on the course of my life - or at least, the course of my life as it pertains to Los Angeles hotels.
As you can imagine, the food at the Four Seasons is divine. They have anything and everything and given that I was denied room service for the first 24 years of my life, you can bet I take full advantage. One night during my stay, I ordered a banana split and ate it on my bed while watching Grey's Anatomy. I felt like I was 12 years old and in the movie Home Alone - it was awesome. Anyways, with breakfast, they bring you the usual medley of mini preserves and one of the 3 is blood orange marmalade. My Dad is a big fan of blood orange marmalade (I'm sure the Lower East Sider in him finds this hilarious) so I decided to keep all the little blood orange marmalades and bring them back to him in New York as a small token of my affection. This adorable plan went awry however, for I didn't realize that these little unopened jars constituted a "liquid or jelly" and thus were seized at airport security. I had put them in my food bag rather than in my checked baggage because I was worried the glass would break and they seemed more at home in my food bag with their distant cousin jelly of the beautifully wrapped peanut butter & jelly sandwich. It was sad to see them taken from me and thrown into the garbage and I called my Dad from the airport to tell him what had happened. He got a laugh out of the whole thing and I thought that would be that. Never underestimate Michael Goldberg.
Turns out, my father decided to call the Four Seasons Concierge and tell them what had happened. And being the Four Seasons, rather than say something like "why are you telling me this" or "your daughter is a thief," they immediately sent my Dad TEN tiny jars of blood orange marmalade!!! My Dad generously gave me a couple of the jars and I have to report, it is quite tasty - the perfect combination of sweet and bitter. My Dad and I both separately called the Concierge lady who had sent the marmalade, let's call her Dorothy, to thank her and I guess during the course of his conversation with her, my Dad being the mensch that he is, offered to get her Lakers or Clippers tickets if she ever wanted them. In addition, he sent a thank you note and some cool NBA swag. Well Dorothy, she took my Dad up on his offer and requested Lakers tickets for her husband's birthday. On my next trip to LA (in mid-November, in which I stayed at the Viceroy because my boss was staying there and I was moonlighting as his chauffeur), I went to the Four Seasons for a massage (don't think I'm so fancy, it was only the 3rd massage I've gotten in my life, and 'twas because my back was in severe spasm) and I stopped by the Concierge to introduce myself to Dorothy. We laughed about the whole blood orange marmalade incident and I thanked her and told her my Dad was working on securing the Lakers tickets for the night of her husband's birthday. That's when Dorothy asked me if I'd be coming back to LA anytime soon and as she posed this question, a 75-watt lightbulb went off in my head.
Why yes Dorothy, I am planning to come back to Los Angeles in January, for our Television Critics Association panel, but it's on the Friday before the Golden Globes and I'm sure you guys are already all booked up.
Let me check for you. Well, it shows we have availability for that Wednesday through Saturday but you're right, we are all booked that weekend.
Oh ok, well, thank you for checking.
No, let me see what I can do. Give me all your information and I'll look into it.
Really? That'd be so great, I really appreciate it.
Okay, I'll stop with the reenactment and fastforward a couple weeks. Dorothy and her husband had a fantastic time at the Lakers game and as for lil Sue, well, I'll be staying at the Four Seasons for the duration of my stay in January, including the weekend before and the day of the Golden Globes. This is quite a feat - to put it in context - all nice LA hotels are BOOKED SOLID during awards season, specifically and especially on the days preceding and up to the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. I had called Raffles L'Ermitage to check availability before I knew I'd be hooked up at the Four Seasons and they literally laughed at me when I gave the dates of my trip. But Dorothy came through, with a little help from Mario in reservations, and a couple of days ago, they called to tell me I was IN. SCORE!
Here's the thing, in the course of the rest of my life, who knows how often I'll be traveling to LA for work (AKA having my hotel stays paid for, i.e. having the opportunity to stay at the posh Four Seasons Hotel) but I am just really excited about having a connection at the Four Seasons. I figure it can't hurt, it can only be awesome. I am slightly worried that we've entered into a never-ending favor-pact with Dorothy (who casually mentioned she has a son who is also a Lakers fan) but I just really marvel at the whole thing. I give a little of the credit to myself for the nice gesture, some credit to airport security for seizing the gelatinous gift, major shout outs to Dorothy and Mario, but of course, most of the credit goes to my Dad who is charming and generous and a genius. I had no idea that those little blood orange marmalade jars would have such an impact and I am both amused and grateful. And I hope the Four Seasons room service is still serving them - we've polished off the original batch that was sent across the country and we're ready for more.
posted by Susan Goldberg at 4:19 PM
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