In honor of the 100th birthday of the Plaza Hotel, which is now being converted into one of the most expensive condo properties ever, I found this old post about my last tea at the Plaza in 2005. A smaller, boutique Plaza Hotel will be opening soon.
One Saturday in 2005, Diaper Diva, OSFO, and I attended a tea at the Plaza. We
were invited to join DD’s friend and thirty of her closest
friends: a power lunch for creative interesting women of all ages. Even
her gynecologist was there giving out business cards. And when she ran out, she
wrote her name down on small scraps of paper.
I was very pleased to be included as I was dying for one last trip
to the Plaza before it closes. I’d never met DD’s friend before,
a tall, attractive television art director, with a warm personality and
a penchant for bringing people together. She looked absolutely
Plaza-ish in a vintage cloche hat with a tall feather and her
grandmother’s old-fashioned gloves. She welcomed everyone personally
and gave each of us Plaza candy bars, postcards, and unlimited amounts
of champagne.
I sat at a table with an assortment of well-traveled, accomplished
women. One, a filmmaker of Persian descent, is on her way to Baghdad
next month for the second time as part of a humanitarian group made up
of Quakers and Mennonite Christians; she’s making a film about her
experiences there.
OSFO is a great afficianado of the Eloise books so a trip to
the Plaza to see the portrait of Eloise is always a treat. She is aware
that the Plaza is closing and has decided that Eloise is moving to
Paris, along with Skipperdee and Weannie, to be with her mother.
OSFO is, however, concerned about where Nanny and Mr. Salamone will
relocate. In an Eloise sort of way, my daughter spent much of the tea
collecting white plastic Plaza Hotel tea sandwich tooth picks (see
photograph, above left).
When we arrived at the hotel, I asked one of the doormen if he’d
seen Eloise. "I think she’s around here somewhere," he said cheerfully.
He then turned to another doorman and asked, "Have you seen Eloise?"
His willingness to go along with the game was very endearing. We
then asked a managerial looking person if he knew where to find the
hotel manager, Mr. Salomone. He looked at us like we were crazy and
said he didn’t know anyone by that name.
If you asked the concierge if Eloise was around he’d show you Eloise’s red shoes as “proof” she was in residence…but just couldn’t be found. You can see a picture of the shoes here. http://www.remembertheplaza.com/eloise.htm The website also sell lots of neat things, including those white plastic Plaza Hotel tea sandwich tooth picks your daughter collected. (Just in case she didn’t get enough!)
Yesterday was a very sad day for New York. I stayed at the Plaza my very first trip to New York in 1985. I’ll never be able to take my little 6 year old niece from Atlanta there to meet Eloise for tea. Elad properties aided by the worthless Landmarks Commission has destroyed one of New York’s treasures. The upper floors were gutted, very little remains of the original Plaza in the zillion $ condo’s or the few remaing hotel rooms. 4 stories topped with neon were approved and added so Elad would have even more condo’s to sell. An esclator in the middle of the lobby will take you down to the new shopping mall, complete with a Starbucks, I have no doubt!