Plaza Bill: The Tip Time

If you attended the cocktail party at The Plaza on Thursday, and were at the DPSNY table, read the bill. We had close to 30 people turn out on a bitterly cold night.

But that didn't stop us from consuming gin, vodka, rum, wine and beer. Some of us really put a lot of booze down. But when the cheque came...

Your President, while good at heart, was left holding the cheque. And the gratuity, which came to $85.00. So if you don't think you left enough and didn't factor in the tax and tip, perhaps not realizing the true cost of drinking copious amounts of alcohol at the soon-to-be-closed Oak Bar, then please pony up.

Thank you for anything you can kick in, even $5 is appreciated. Every little bit helps...

The rest of you, have a good chuckle at how much some of us drank. This was only one of four bar tabs that night!

Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

The Plaza Hotel Is Doomed

It is a good thing we had our party at The Plaza last week, because as suspected, the place is doomed. In the Times today:

Confirming rumors that had swirled in real estate circles for months, the real estate developer who bought the Plaza last fall said yesterday that the 805-room hotel would be turned into a multipurpose building.

April 30 is the closing date; they say it will be 18 months until it opens again as both condos and a mini-mall. The Times also reports that the Oak Bar, Oak Room, and Palm Court will be saved. The Palm Court was where Dorothy Parker was fired from Vanity Fair in 1920.

The developer, Miki Naftali, president and chief executive of Elad Properties, said he was planning 200 one- to four-bedroom condos, mainly on the Plaza's upper floors, facing Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. He said that a hotel with 150 rooms, just under a fifth the number the Plaza has now, would occupy much of the 58th Street side of the building.

The developer is ripping out the ballroom (where Truman Capote held his Black and White Ball in 1966), Terrace Room and Oyster Bar.

Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on at 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

Message Boards Down

The message boards have been hacked. We suspect fans of Lillian Hellman or Ernest Hemingway did it. Sorry, stay tuned for when the boards will be back up.

Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Friday, January 21, 2005 at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments