Trip Report: Loew's Regency New York

[rocketriter]

We used surplus points to travel to Manhattan for a wedding last weekend, booking 3 nights at the Loew's Regency at 61st and Park Avenue. We took an "executive suite" with two rooms and two baths. One room had a king bed. The other had a sofa bed that we never opened, since the room was large and the staff suggested we use 2 very comfortable rollaways for the kids (DD12, DS15) instead. The accommodations were luxurious (TVs in each bathroom, generous closet and drawers built into the woodwork, wildly overpriced minibar, handsome sliding doors between rooms etc), although the room number--911--did seem a bit ominous. The clientele was verrrry Park Avenue and the service was discreet and very supportive.

Park, Lexington and Madison are all very ritzy at this level of Manhattan, so we felt comfortable walking around day or night and enjoyed the window shopping (somehow turning down the opportunity to buy a $500 blouse or a $2500 pair of cufflinks!). We took the kids to the fabulous American Museum of Natural History and to the Guggenheim, which always makes me woozy.

We had tickets to the much heralded revival of South Pacific. My wife and I loved it (all 3 hours of it, in the original orchestrations and without a word or note cut). But the show did not work for our kids. They thought Nelly Forbush was stupid to be mad a Emile just because he'd once been married to a "colored" Polynesian woman. In fact, at the Act One intermission we actually had to explain the problem to DD12, who didn't understand what the characters were arguing about at all. How far our society has come!

Our concierge directed us to Telepan, a post-nouvelle-experimental restaurant where we ordered the tasting menu. It was expensive, every bite strange and wonderful. The kids liked the food as much as we did (and now, sadly, my daughter knows that she likes soft-shell crab and will start trying to get me to pay for it at home).

All in all a great trip. The Loew's Regency is a magnificent hotel in the upper east side tradition of wealth understated.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

We used surplus points to travel to Manhattan for a wedding last weekend, booking 3 nights at the Loew's Regency at 61st and Park Avenue. We took an "executive suite" with two rooms and two baths. One room had a king bed. The other had a sofa bed that we never opened, since the room was large and the staff suggested we use 2 very comfortable rollaways for the kids (DD12, DS15) instead. The accommodations were luxurious (TVs in each bathroom, generous closet and drawers built into the woodwork, wildly overpriced minibar, handsome sliding doors between rooms etc), although the room number--911--did seem a bit ominous. The clientele was verrrry Park Avenue and the service was discreet and very supportive.

Park, Lexington and Madison are all very ritzy at this level of Manhattan, so we felt comfortable walking around day or night and enjoyed the window shopping (somehow turning down the opportunity to buy a $500 blouse or a $2500 pair of cufflinks!). We took the kids to the fabulous American Museum of Natural History and to the Guggenheim, which always makes me woozy.

We had tickets to the much heralded revival of South Pacific. My wife and I loved it (all 3 hours of it, in the original orchestrations and without a word or note cut). But the show did not work for our kids. They thought Nelly Forbush was stupid to be mad a Emile just because he'd once been married to a "colored" Polynesian woman. In fact, at the Act One intermission we actually had to explain the problem to DD12, who didn't understand what the characters were arguing about at all. How far our society has come!

Our concierge directed us to Telepan, a post-nouvelle-experimental restaurant where we ordered the tasting menu. It was expensive, every bite strange and wonderful. The kids liked the food as much as we did (and now, sadly, my daughter knows that she likes soft-shell crab and will start trying to get me to pay for it at home).

All in all a great trip. The Loew's Regency is a magnificent hotel in the upper east side tradition of wealth understated.

Thanks for your trip report! I have been tryng to find comments about this hotel. I want to stay 3 nights, although I won't have enough pts. for your same accommodations! None the less, I'm glad to hear it lived up to its "concierge" status. I will definitely use pts. to try this out.....love Manhattan!

 

[dcfromva]

rocketriter,
It sounds wonderful! How tough was it to get ressies at Telepan? I would love to go there. Bill Telepan was one of the chefs featured at the Food and Wine festival last year. DH and I really enjoyed his demonstration/food tasting.

 

[Debbie H]

How many points did it take?

 

[rocketriter]

Answering a couple of questions: we got a Thursday night reservation at Telepan for 5:30 (off day, early hour) on only a few hours notice. But I'd plan a few weeks ahead for weekends or prime time. Again, we loved the meal. I was astounded that Telepan's clever concoctions also worked for our notional teenagers. Bill Telepan's experiments were certainly original, but not as off-the-wall as, say, Grant Achatz (who once made my wife and me a fabulous but astonishingly priced $700 anniversary dinner, omigod).

Because we took a suite rather than a room at Loew's, we spent about 275 points. The suite books at just under $1,000/night in June (before New York's stiff hotel taxes, which our arrangement dodged), so three nights came out OK compared to renting the points at, say $10/point. Of course there are less expensive ways to visit New York. But we wanted the upper east side location and had the points available.