Lobby at the St. Regis restored to original

I recently had the great pleasure of staying at the St.Regis Hotel in New York.  What an experience! The Beaux Arts beauty of the hotel was only rivaled by the over-the-top service provided by the staff, particularly our Butler clad in Morning Dress. I felt like I was taken back in time to the aristocratic age of Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Rockefeller.

The St. Regis opened in 1904 and was the creation of Col. John Jacob Astor IV (who went down with the Titanic).  The Colonel’s vision was to create  “a hotel where gentlemen and their families could feel as comfortable as they would as guests in a private home.”

In 1906,  Astor commissioned the painter Maxfield Parrish to paint a mural for his Knickerbocker Hotel on 42^nd street.  The Mural, entitled “Old King Cole,” was installed in the Knickerbocker, but the hotel closed shortly thereafter.  The Mural bounced around the city before being installed at the St. Regis in 1932.  In 1948, the King Cole Bar opened with the Mural as the centerpiece.  Under the watchful eye of Old King Cole, people like Salvatore Dali, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, John Lennon and, least notably me, enjoyed classic cocktails.

The King Cole Bar

Sitting at the beautiful wooden bar (always sit at the bar where you can’t see the sneaker wearing tourons), staring at the Mural, enjoying a drink is a wonderful experience.  The bartenders offer understated exceptional service and the drinks are expertly prepared. The people I meet there are always worldly, interesting and appreciative of the classic surroundings.  On this recent visit,  a financier from Singapore and an 80 year old Park Avenue attorney who was a regular, they were perfect characters for this setting.

The drinks are expensive, but to spend an hour in another age, appreciating the mural in the same way countless others have before me, is completely worth it.