Welcome to: Where I Spent My Week Off —by a NYC Restaurant "Insider"
So, what do you do in the industry?
i’ve done a lot of things in the industry over the years— waitress, cocktail waitress, bartender, floor manager, GM, and maitre d’. right now i do… other things in the industry.
And you have how many weeks off a year, generally?
pretty much as many as i please, bitches.
What made you choose Miami Beach for this vacation?
technically it wasn’t a full vacation, as i did have some work to do there. but i took most of the days off this stay.
And where did you stay?
the ShoreClub. it wasn’t my first choice. i’ve stayed at almost every miami beach hotel there is worth staying, so this time i wanted to try out theW hotel. but during the time span i wanted to book, there were no availabilities on my first day, and i didn’t want to have to go through the inconvenience of moving out of my hotel once i was already settled in. so i chose the ShoreClub because i’d never tried that one either (although i have experienced theDelano and theMondrian).
so far, theSetai is still my new favorite (theRaleigh is my former favorite).
How was the ambience/service/amenities etc?
eh. not bad. they could really use some sprucing up. the service is okay; what can i say— it’s a schrager. theSetai kicks their asses left, right, and sideways, but it also costs more so there is that to consider.
Any major glitches and/or disappointments?
they must have some kind of serious theft issue or something, because they get reeeally pissy if you go to them and ask that your room key be re-magnetized because it suddenly mysteriously no longer works through no fault of your own. god forbid you don’t have "a photo i.d." tucked away somewheres in your swimsuit; you just may be shit outta luck (always carry TWO room keys with you. just sayin). i mean, never mind neither the room key nor the "amenities card" intentionally (correct?) has no room number on it, but you have all the ‘check in’ information— they just assume you must be a very adept grifter or maybe you’re psychic. alls i can assume is a lot of the regular ShoreClub guests have friends/acquaintances who are scumbags, forever trying to sneak into their rooms and rob them blind.
also, theW is completely asinine in that although they employ a specific person (as opposed to using a lock-key system) to control the gate at the beachside entry, they still insist you walk all the way around to the street entrance if you’d like to have lunch there. pardon me, but doesn’t the advantage of having a salaried human standing there not include the ability for him to insure if you are a "visitor" entering from the beach, you will indeed go straight to lunch and not abruptly decide to frolic in their precious pool or disturb all their rockstar guests or whatever?
i really wonder how many lunches they lose to theSetai and theRitz over this type of ridiculous nonsense.
Any great standout experiences?
breakfast at theSetai is awesome. yah okay it’s $36/person every day, but uh yah— it’s pretty awesome.
How much did you blow all week?
the ShoreClub is $495/night + tax yada yada. meals/drinks for two: about $400 to $500 per day including gratuity.
Tags: HOTELS, MIAMI BEACH, MY DAY OFF, MY WEEK OFF, OTHER NYC BOROUGHS, THE RALEIGH
= "personne extraordinaire"
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:35 PM
It’s 80 degrees today, you should have stayed…….
February 25th, 2010 at 11:54 AM
wait, you just asked them to fix the key card, not replace it??? & they had an attitude over that??? that’s kind of dumb of them…. :/ :P