The ambitious new Palacio Nazarenas was finally unveiled last week after four years of intensive excavation in the ancient Peruvian city of Cuzco. Housed in a former 16th century Carmelite convent, the all-suite property with whitewashed adobe walls and hand-carved timber balconies occupies a small cobblestone plaza near Plaza de Armas and the San Blas quarter. The exhaustive process produced a profusion of artifacts and historic finds, part of the reason archeologists were brought on board to assist with the project. The hotel is festooned in unearthed discoveries like original Incan sandals, an 18th century antique statue of Archangel Gabriel, and Spanish colonial murals and friezes restored to their original forms using flour dough.
As a Kabuki-dressed opera singer was convoyed atop a platform through the crowd wailing in an ear-piercing pitch, a packed Hammerstein Ballroom wrestled in anticipation. The mezzo-soprano’s Italian lyrics serenaded the audience over an original Stephan Moore composition before slipping into a familiar tune.
In my mind, in my head, this is where we all came from The dreams we had, the love we shared, this is what we’re waiting for
New York City and Frank Gehry’s mutual love affair continues to evolve at a dynamic pace. With this month's opening of Signature Theatre’s new Gehry-designed Pershing Square Signature Center in midtown Manhattan, Gehry adds another piece to his rapidly expanding Empire State catalog. His first residential project 8 Spruce Street, a 76-story skyscraper glazed with his signature curvaceous indents crawling up the stainless steel façade, made a dramatic debut on the downtown skyline in 2011. He’s also been tapped for the forthcoming preforming arts center at the new World Trade Center. And then there’s his iconic cloudy white, cold-warped glass IAC HQ building that hugs the West Side Highway in Chelsea. Sticking to his recent ambition for firsts, the unveiling of the $66-million Signature Center marks Gehry’s initial contribution to the city’s cultural landscape.
As a professed snow snob I scoffed when a group of friends
recently proposed a ski weekend in Killington, Vermont. It’s hard to get
excited about mountains that look more like the hills I used to sled down as a
kid in Salt Lake City than the exhilarating, death-defying declines that tattoo
the Rocky Mountains. When you grow up within an hour of seven world-class ski
resorts you tend to develop a cavalier attitude about the prospects of cleaving
down a worn, icy tilt and paying good money for it. So I opted to head for this
quaint northeastern burg sans my snowboard. Half the fun of a ski vacation
anyway is exploring the town, enjoying the fresh air, eating at great
restaurants, and plunging into the après ski scene.
The grapes of Napa often grab the headlines coming out of California wine country but the discerning vino cognoscenti knows that the Golden State harbors some of the best wineries in the world along its central coast. In the thick of it is Paso Robles, a vast countryside of rolling vineyards where vintners sport rustic spurs on their cowboy boots and the pace of life is calm. The annual Harvest Wine Weekend kicks off today, Friday, and promises to be the most robust yet. Over 150 wineries will host grape stomps, tours, tastings, dinners, and pairings (wine and bacon anyone?). One oenophile who will be traipsing around Harvest is Paso Wine Man (above)—the unabashed, vivacious Paso wine country cheerleader whose verve for the region’s splendors knows no bounds.
T+L caught up with the wine man before the big weekend to uncover his wines of choice; find out what makes “Tuscany with cowboys” so special; and why Paso Robles's brand of reds can’t be made anywhere else.
It’s either unchecked hedonism or outright
denial that led me to New York’s Fire Island the weekend
after summer’s unofficial demise. While most
vacationers packed up their share-houses and kissed farewell to the spit of
sand off Long Island’s south coast over Labor Day, I
was still dreaming of bike rides, summer ales, and one last coat of sun.
It doesn’t hurt that hotel prices fall off a cliff once
beachgoers pack up their white (I paid $225 per night at Clegg's Hotel, while
rates during summer’s apex can be double that). So I
found myself at the Island Mermaid pulling on a straw filled with its signature
Rocket Fuel (a dark rum piña colada with a Cruzan 151 “sinker” at the bottom and a pond of Amaretto floating on top) and stretching summer out
as long as possible before the looming cold throws its death grip around New
York City. I wasn’t ready for fall, not yet.
If you follow the dusty, pebble-scattered dirt road to Playa
Langosta from Tamarindo on Costa Rica’s dense Pacific coast, you’ll
observe a small stop sign jutting from tropical foliage, demanding you to halt—for
tacos. The sign serves equal parts recommendation and warning, as it’s
the last place to catch a bite before Tamarindo’s ubiquitous eateries
give way to Langosta’s private beach estates.
Perennially recognized as the gold standard of gastronomy,
Spain’s Michelin three-star El Bulli will shutter its doors on
July 30th and prepare for its transformation into a culinary research
foundation and think tank (at least until 2014). For the mass of foodies never
fortunate enough to take in chef Ferran Adrià’smastery of molecular gastronomy—only a few thousand palates are so lucky
every year—a peek into his world of foams, mousses and nouveau hybrid dishes
can still be had via the silver screen.
El
Bulli: Cooking in Progress debuts at New York's Film Forum tonight, the kickoff of a 10-city tour. The film pulls back the curtain and invites viewers along for
Adrià’s journey from his experimentation
lab in Barcelona—El Bulli closes for six months every autumn so its chefs can
invent the following year’s menu—to the launch of a new season at the world’s
most renowned restaurant on the Costa Brava. Adrià’s imaginative methods are on full display as he deploys
thermo-mixing, vacuumizing, de-juicing, blanching and a vast range of other cooking
techniques en route to a nightly 30-course-plus dinner menu. For many, it will be the first and last opportunity at a glimpse inside an eatery that's stamp on modern cuisine will never fade.
Click
here for a full list of tour dates and cities.
Nate Storey is a research assistant at Travel + Leisure
This evening Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson will pay homage to Red Rooster’s namesake, a speakeasy jazz legend Nat King Cole and author/civil rights activist James Baldwin used to tip back at, with an event during dinner service at his American joint dubbed “Chicken & Champagne.” Gourmands in the NYC area with a hankering for comfort food and bubbly should locate themselves to Harlem from 6 to 10:30 p.m. for chicken and waffle bites, deviled eggs, and curried chitlins ($4). Paul Goerg Champagne will be on pour ($10), along with a variety of champagne libations ($12). Tonight's tribute honors Chitlins' & Champagne Tuesdays, a weekly tradition held at the Great-Depression-era watering hole (210 Lennox Ave; 212-792-9001). We're not sure why Samuelsson planned a Monday event for a Tuesday tradition, but frankly we don't care—we'll take his cooking any day of the week.
Nate Storey is a Research Assistant at Travel + Leisure.
Photos courtesy of Beth Garrabrant, Photo Assistant to Special Projects at T&L
The newest addition to Vikram Chatwal's Dream hotel line may be his trippiest yet. The aquatic Dream Downtown opens this week on the brim of NYC's Meatpacking District to much chatter. A converted structure that once housed the city’s homeless is now home to the notably hyped Romera New York, where the pre-fixe will set guests back a cool $245.
