The Windy City

In a rare example of gamekeeper turns poacher, No Crowds' Editor offers some great tips on how to enjoy Chicago in January. 

I was back in Chicago, the birthplace of both my parents, last weekend for an important family event.  I have mixed emotions about the City:  I spent most holidays with my grandparents in the Chicago burbs in my late teens and early twenties.  My parents had left in 1946 to find fame and fortune back East and lived mostly overseas.

First, Chicago is not a city you visit in mid-January, unless you have a good reason:  your niece and nephew’s coming of age celebration or the Bears playoff game.  Chicago is a very American city: brash and smug.  It has everything:  several sports teams, multinational company HQs, a thriving restaurant culture (we tried to get into Rick Bayliss’s place, but it was booked!), world class cultural icons (the Symphony and Art Institute, although my favourite is the Science Museum where you can board a U boat captured in WWII) and lots of interesting places to live and play.   It is also the home of the Efficient Market Theory  - which is a little frayed at the edges these days!

Aside from the family celebrations, my favourite take-aways from this visit were:

A haircut at the Medinah Barber Shop.  The shop is named after the former Shriners HQs on North Michigan Avenue (now Bloomingdales) where it was once located.  I have had my hair cut at Geo F. Trumper (Prince Charles’s barber in London), but this took the biscuit.  The reading material ranged from Playboy to Charles Darwin.  Free drinks are provided as well as TV along with Chicago history (courtesy of Ronald Edwards—The Barber).  Needless to say the haircut was superb.

A deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno.  My son, Mac, who is always hungry texted his frat brother as we cabbed in from Midway to ascertain where to get the best pizza.  After checking in at the Marriott, we ambled over (despite the concierge trying to divert us to Giordano’s, a chain which also has a great reputation).  We ordered a medium Spinach pizza (as Mac says:  “I hate spinach but I ‘m told a Spinach deep dish is the best”).  It took 45 minutes to arrive (as advertised).  It was delicious and we could only eat three quarters of it.  All this for $30 bucks!!

If you go to the Windy City, enjoy the culture and sports, but don’t forget to get a haircut and have a deep dish pizza.  The Marriott is in a great location, minutes away on foot from the Art Institute, Uno’s, shopping on the Magnificent Mile and Medinah’s.

Medinah Barber Shop—3 East Huron (hours 7am to 6pm—closed Wednesday & Sunday)

 Tel 312 844 1549

Pizzeria Uno—29 East Ohio (open daily 11 to 11)  Tel 312 321 1000

Marriott Chicago Downtown—540 North Michigan.  Tel 312 836 6139

Photo Credit: www.chicagomag.com

Gravetye Manor - Where Luxury Meets Value for Lunch

I have been sitting at my desk, staring at the bill for lunch at Gravetye Manor and trying to decide what to say about our experience there last Saturday. I could say that the stone mansion, built in 1598 is lovely, that the gardens, created by one of the greatest gardeners of all times are even lovelier. I could say that once you drive up the mile long driveway the concerns of modern life seem far away and all of this would be true. But the most memorable thing about our recent lunch at Gravetye Manor was that we left thinking it was a great experience and a good deal. At a one star Michelin restaurant in a Relais and Chateaux property, in a place where we least expected to find value, we had a wonderful lunch, arguably a perfect lunch, for a fair price. In the twelve years that I have lived in Britain, I’ve never said that before.

So what made this lunch perfect and why do I consider £81.56 to be great value? For American readers, I know, I know, £81.56 represents $163.12 which is a monstrous amount of money to spend for lunch but you’re just going to have to go to your exchange rate “happy place” and take my word for it that this is a good deal.

As for Gravetye, lets begin with the setting. In the pantheon of English gardeners, William Robinson (1838 – 1935) looms large as the pioneer of the natural English garden movement. Gravetye was Robinson’s home for more than 50 years and as the Gravetye marketing bumf correctly states, “the variety and charm of the arrangements of trees and shrubs, the landscaping and the layout of the different types of garden at Gravetye is still his creation and memorial.” There are few settings for any hotel or restaurant that are quite as lovely as this one.

Moving on to the service, it was both expert and attentive. After suffering for so long from the well meaning but untrained army of young Eastern Europeans who are the engine of London’s hospitality juggernaut, it was blissful to slip back into the hands of proud, skilful professionals who take their direction from Mark Raffan, the Chef de Cuisine and Director, who trained at both Gravetye and with the Roux brothers at Le Gavroche and who was once the personal chef of the late King Hussein of Jordan.

As for the food, it was creative without being fussy, beautifully presented and delicious but what made it great value was this: the 3-course Table d’Hotel lunch for £23 which we both chose. To accompany our three courses, the highlight of which was an excellent English iteration of a bouillabaisse with a variety of fish from the south coast, we chose a reasonable £23 Chateau Hourbanon 1997 Medoc. After lunch, we had coffee in one of the oak panelled sitting rooms, followed by a walk in the justifiably famous gardens.

According to Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report which gave Gravetye a lifetime achievement award in 2006, “this timeless Elizabethan stone manse was Britain’s first luxury country house hotel, and nearly 50 years later, it still ranks among the very best of its genre.” Bearing in mind that you can spend much, much more at Gravetye than we did, I really appreciated the fact that we were able to have a fabulous experience at one of Europe’s premier hotels without breaking the bank and without being made to feel that we were anything less than very important guests. We’ll be back.

Gravetye Manor
Near East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 4LJ
England
Tel: 44 (0)1342 810567
Fax: 44(0)1342 810080
Email:info@gravetyemanor.co.uk

The Ultimate Burns Supper

Heavy rains and high winds may have cancelled Hogmanay (New Years) celebrations across Scotland, but here is an idea about how to participate in Scotland’s greatest celebration that is guaranteed to happen no matter what the weather or where in the world you are.

Forget virtual travel experiences (they don’t serve whiskey in cyberspace), what you really need if you want to feel as if you have taken a trip to Scotland is a good Burns Night Supper. These suppers have been in existence for over 200 years and Scots and anyone who has a fondness for Scotland, poetry and partying on or about January 25, gather across the globe to celebrate the life, the works and the philosophy of Robert Burns.

Until now, unless you were a Scot (or a client or close friend of one), the idea of sourcing a haggis and addressing it seemed totally daunting. But that was before Clark McGinn solved the problem for the rest of us with his definitive work, The Ultimate Burns Supper Book. This wonderful little book tells you everything you need to know to get in on the action whether you are a guest, a host or even just a couple enjoying a Burns Night Supper a deux.

Clark’s advice is so comprehensive, practical and fun, that there is no longer any excuse for missing out on the festivities. No matter where in the world you are, you can be an honorary Scot for the night. Having lived in the US for a period, Clark even knows which American butchers can get you a proper haggis (his favourite comes from Oregon). From invitations to recitation, it’s all in the Ultimate Burns Supper Book. So go ahead, buy the book and give it a go. Why? Because, in the words of Mr. McGinn, “A good Burns Supper creates a community amongst those present, based in equal parts on the conviviality of good company, the joy of fine Scottish food and drink, and the insight into our essential humanity captured by the songs and poems of one of the greatest Bards of any time in any language.”

Photo of Clark McGinn and haggis courtesy of http://www.seriousburns.com/