When chef Tom Colicchio’s long-awaited Topping Rose House restaurant opened its doors last September, it became the most buzzed-about spot on the East End. Now, the 19th-century Bridgehampton mansion is experiencing a second wave, with 22 rooms and cottages set to debut this month. Fellow Top Chef judge Gail Simmons sat down with the restaurateur turned innkeeper to discuss the opening, the menu, and his newfound interest in the hotel world.
Simmons: Why did you decide to get into the hotel business? Colicchio: When Topping Rose House’s owners, Bill Campbell and Simon Critchell, approached me about two years ago to do a restaurant, I thought it would be too difficult with such a small property to have someone running the restaurant and someone else taking care of the rooms. We felt that we understood what needed to happen from a hospitality standpoint. We just needed to hire someone who had the experience to take care of the day-to-day. The idea was that this business would ultimately provide a springboard to do other hotels.
Celebrated Italian restaurateur Sirio Maccioni (the man behind New York's Le Cirque and a handful of other restaurants across Las Vegas and now New Delhi) returns to The Pierre with Sirio Ristorante, forty years after serving as maître d' at the same hotel's venerable La Forêt supper club kickstarted his illustrious career.
The chances of running into the likes of New York City resident Hugh Jackman or Sarah Jessica Parker in one’s lifetime are—let’s face it—slim to Fat Chance. Getting to strike up an illuminating conversation with them about Gotham's charms over a cappuccino? Fuggeddaboutit.
Oh, the dreams of knowing our stars’ favorite city haunts. If not just to up the odds on a little celeb sighting, at least so we, the humble many, can discover the side of New York loved by the famous few.
Luckily, Jeryl Brunner has done the work for us. The author had the pleasure of discussing with some of New York's most beloved residents exactly what it is they adore about their home city—all their wonderful secrets are amassed in the recently launched book My City, My New York.
Requesting vacation time is not for the faint of heart. Just ask the 57% of working Americans who, according to a recent study, have opted to labor through nearly two weeks’ worth of paid vacation days this year.
Excuses run aplenty, but “being too afraid to ask the boss” takes the cake. In all honesty, how long does it take you to muster up the courage to ask for a week, an extended weekend, an hour away from your desk? (Case in point? It took me a full two months to muster up the courage to request time off, and I work at magazine that encourages travel!) Luckily, JetBlue sympathizes with this very plight.
This season, they’ve developed a fun, creative, interactive, amusing Facebook app that allows employees to pop the question without ever having to step up a meeting. Simply choose the month and amount of days you’d like to request, fill in a few names, decide between four funky themes, and voilà: a mini tailor-made movie that croons your workplace superior until their heart melts and your getaway is as good as on the calendar. (That is, of course, if you’ve the courage to hit “Send.”)
After shunning the play for its portrayal of Austria's great support of
the Third Reich during WWII, Salzburg is finally shelving its past. On October 23, theSalzburger Landestheater will debut The Sound of Music, the
beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical-turned-blockbuster film, for the first time in the city's history. Dutch actress Wietske
van Tongeren leads in the role of Maria while German music star Uwe Kröger woos as Captain von Trapp.
Yes, I'll confess. I'd never had a macaron until last night, when I braved the line, and the rain, for my first-ever taste of those light and lovely (and unequivocally French) treats by luxury Parisian patisserie Ladurée. No, I wasn't in the City of Love (though in love I fell…and hard). The brand’s newest outpost finally opened its doors to New York City, and America, last Tuesday, just in time for Fashion Week. And if that line, seemingly unabated since the opening, is any indication, this Upper East Side pastel-colored jewel is shaping up to be Manhattan’s next macaron mecca. (Move over, Bouchon Bakery!)
How do you fit the scope of the world into 60 seconds? Filmmaker Rick Mereki knows, and the wanderlusting Internet world has fallen head over heels in love with his vagabond film adventures.
A few years back, when I called South Kensington home, I distinctly recall trundling through London's Underground knowing, even with map in hand, that I had been misled. Eyeballing the official Tube map insinuated that Heathrow was the same distance west of South Ken as Tower Hill was to the east. So you can imagine my surprise when we rolled past Monument station towards Tower Hill 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
True—one should never assume subway diagrams bear any resemblance to street level. But admit it: we all do. An NYU study in 2011 found that passengers put their faith in transit maps far more than they do in their own travel experience. But shouldn’t we? Shouldn’t our maps clearly illustrate that the amount of time it takes to walk from Queensway to Bayswater beats switching lines by almost six minutes?
It's one thing to watch a herd of wildebeest thundering across an obscenely large, 3D flat screen dangling precariously from your living room wall. It is quite another to witness the Great Migrations in the flesh, accompanied by the sweet smell of your morning coffee swirling with the kicked-up dust from the Serengeti plains as the high-pitched trumpets of young elephant calves (or grunts from those numberless gnu) waft into your bedroom.
Toss away that remote. Two new properties, new to Tanzania and Kenya, obliterate the "Channel" and key in on the "Discovery" of the African wild.
Is your Bucket List in need of a little inspiration?
UNESCO to the rescue! Last week, its World Heritage Committee officially inscribed 25 new World Heritage Sites, bringing the swelling number to a whopping 936 worldwide.
Joining the ranks of recognized world wonders like Stonehenge, the Statue of Liberty, and Ayers Rock are the Longobards in Italy (above), seven buildings built by the Scandi-Germanic Lombard tribe who, during their powerful 6th- to 8th-century reign, established a distinct culture and architectural style that began Europe’s evolution from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
