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| New
York - USA |
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Extraordinary - Society
June - 2010 |
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5
Stars & 6 Stripes
Overall - 'Hotel & Service' |
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The
Ultimate Award:
Seven Stars and
Stripes® |
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| The Garden City Hotel opened in 1874 to rave reviews;
and was rebuilt in 1901. In its 136-year history, the legendary property has
always retained the cache and sophisticated elegance of a world-class hotel.
Situated in the heart of Long Island's "Gold Coast," it continues to be a
preferred destination for world travelers, local residents, businessmen,
socialites and celebrities. The famed history of the Hotel, hotel began in 1869
when Alexander Tunney Stewart purchased 7,000 acres of land in Hempstead
Plains, 20-minutes from Manhattan. Stewart founded the village of Garden City
to offer affluent New York residents an alternative to hectic urban living, in
a new and beautiful suburban setting. The village of Garden City has much to
offer its residents and businesses: easy access to nearby beaches, sports
venues, theater, museums, fine shopping, sophisticated dining and nightlife.
The elegant luxury shops of The “Americana At Manhasset”, The
Roosevelt Field shopping mall and first run movie theaters are minutes away.
Stewart's belief was that the hotel would be the focal point and main
attraction for the community. True to his vision, The Garden City Hotel has
grown, and prospered and still remains the focal point and main attractiona
principal spotlight for residents and visitors to this prestigious
community. |
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| Upon our arrival at the Hotel, a smartly attired
uniformed doorman greeted us at the front doors of the hotel and our car was
quickly valet-parked. We walked through the richly decorated lobby with its
exquisite white marble floors and winding staircases. Plush carpeting, and
burnished wood finishes surrounded a brightly lit and beautiful front desk
where we were quickly checked in. Shortly after check-in, I briefly met briefly
with Nasser Samman, the debonair, highly professional general manager of the
Hotel, to discuss our program for the next two days. Nasser and his staff are
key reasons for The Garden City Hotel’s reputation for excellent service
and elegance. As a result of its fine reputation, The Hotel is the leading
choice on Long Island for weddings, banquets, meetings, and special occasion
parties. After our meeting, we took the elevator to the 8th floor to unpack and
refresh in our magnificent two-room executive suite. We were led by our bellman
into a large living room area with an earth tone decor, wood paneling, a grand
dining room table and a large fireplace with a large-big screen,
high-definition television above it. The living room also offered comfortable
chairs, and a small seating area with a soft and luxurious couch and
chairs. |
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| Adjacent to the living
room was our bedroom with a luxurious king size bed dressed in Egyptian
high-thread count cotton bedding and a duvet fit for a "King and Queen". We
both were delighted for having two separate but equally attractive marble
bathrooms equipped with over-sized showers, hair dryers and mini-bottles of the
finest toiletries. All GCH suites come with sitting rooms, flat screen
high-definition televisions, WiFi, snack bar and the amenities that befit
today’s sophisticated travelers. |
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| Room - Garden City Hotel |
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| That evening we went down to the lobby to sample our
first night’s dinner at the hotel’s signature restaurant, "Rein"
Dining Room and Bar. Rein’s beauty and sophistication are a perfect
compliment to one of America’s finest hotels. The room reflects the
changing times in today’s cuisine and hospitality. It’s decor is the
creation of world-renowned architect Robert DiLeonardo who took a traditional
venue and created an air of excitement through his use of fine artwork, and
with unconventional vibrant colors and textures. The restaurant’s decor
also incorporates a large, rear-lit onyx bar with custom artwork and three
high-definition plasma television screens. Rein offers warmth and
sophistication, not typically found outside of Manhattan. |
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| Garden City - Rein Restaurant |
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At one time, dining at
the GCH Garden City Hotel meant dressing for a more formal dining experience.
Today, while guests continue to have that option, hotel guests are free to
dress in casual sophistication while dining at Rein. The menu also reflects the
new attitudes towards healthy foods and homegrown local produce. It is a place
where guests, businessmen, women, and children can enjoy! Our introductory,
first night dinner began with some treasures from the sea; oysters and shrimps
and then followed by a beautifully prepared Caesar salad. Our main courses were
charred tuna steak and and lemon pine-crusted lamb chops. For dessert we were
treated to a plate of fresh fruit, house-baked cookies and pastries with exotic
teas and coffee. |
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| We both looked forward with anticipation to the
following evening's tasting menu designed and prepared by award winning
Executive Chef Steven De Bruyn. Our meal ended at around 10 p.m.when we then
went upstairs to watch TV and blissfully sleep. The next morning, the sun
peeked gently through our black-out curtains. We decided to try the
hotel’s famed GCH room service for breakfast. Our breakfast arrived on
time at our room delivered by an impeccably attired waiter with a serving cart.
We had a special house-blended granola with nuts and fruits along with hot bowl
of steel cut oatmeal. We also enjoyed a large assortment of freshly cut exotic
fruits and carafes of hot water and coffee. After breakfast, we walked around
the hotel's magnificent grounds decorated in rich flowers. |
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| We then took an initial
Garden City hotel tour of the property which included a look at some of the the
hotel’s services and amenities which feature: in- room spa treatments, a
large indoor swimming pool, business center and a “state- of- the- art"
gym with treadmills, and computerized bikes. It was now time for some local
exploration. The hotel offers guests bicycles to explore the hidden treasures
of the historic area, but we picked up our car at the valet station and toured
Garden City's business district. After years of lost vitality, Garden City is
now experiencing its own renaissance. |
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| Grand Ballroom - Garden City Hotel |
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| Today, it is the home to many top financial companies,
publishing houses, and an amazing number of exciting restaurants with diverse
ethnic cuisines. Upon returning to the hotel, we visited the hotel's
spectacular main Grand Ballroom, which has played host to some of the Long
Island and New York’s, most spectacular lavish affairs. The
25,000-square-foot ballroom can accommodates 500 guests and is lit by gorgeous,
over-sized Austrian crystal chandeliers, which illuminate the room’s
designer floral hand-tufted carpeting with traditional Chinese pattern and
French upholstered wall coverings of silk damask wallpaper. Adjacent to the
main ballroom are a series of elegant banquet suites smaller catering rooms
which are utilized for cocktail parties and receptions. We then returned to our
suite to refresh and prepare for our evening meal. |
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Executive Chef Steven De Bruyn has been a member
of the Garden City Hotel's senior team since 1994, and oversees the menu and
food preparation for "Rein", the banquets, conference services and in-room
dining. Prior to joining the hotel, De Bruyn served as Executive Chef at two of
Belgium's finest restaurants, and as an Executive Sous Chef for Club Med
properties throughout the world. Chef De Bruyn has brought to the hotel a
unique combination of classical French style cooking combined with a
sophisticated new modern American style. ”Rein” has been cited as one
of America's top 100 hotel restaurants and the #1 hotel restaurant, for brunch
in NY. De Bruyn also serves as the wine director of the hotel presiding over a
spectacular wine collection. "Rein" has been acknowledged by . “Wine
Spectator” magazine with an Award of Excellence for three consecutive
years, for its ongoing commitment to its fine wine list. Chef De Bruyn has also
won awards and been honored throughout the years for his culinary skills as
exemplified by his excellent reviews and write-ups in the New York Times and
other culinary journals. He has also reached the highest ranks of the culinary
profession as a Belgian Master Chef. It was with great pleasure and gusto that
we started our tasting menu with an appetizer of sashimi grade tuna tartare
with avocado and fingerling potato chips. The meat of the tuna was tender and
rich, a perfect combination that made me smile from sheer pleasure. The fact
that the tuna was graded ‘sashimi’ indicates that it is of the
highest quality and has been evaluated for color and fat content, an equation
that lends itself to a particularly high standard. We also shared an order of
shrimp with pimenton, garlic chives and grilled focaccia bread, after which I
was able to boast that I had actually enjoyed the subtle flavor of this
particular version of a chive. The shrimp was plump and juicy while coated with
a sprinkling of pimenton, made from dried red chile peppers suggesting a bite
of fresh baked focaccia to cool the mild heat. |
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Executive Chef Steven De Bruyn |
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To our great surprise,
our appetizers were paired with an icon of the North Fork of Long Island, Pinot
Blanc Reserve, Lieb Family Cellars 2007, a pleasing wine that has won numerous
gold and silver medal awards nation-wide. This wine is produced from some of
the oldest vines on the North Fork from only the first pressing of juice after
which it is carefully fermented in stainless steel. We relished its rich
mouth-feel and gentle fruit character reminiscent of white stone fruits with a
hint of kiwi. Next up came a course that consisted of a trio of demitasse cups
filled with chilled soups of asparagus with chevre, gazpacho with anchovies and
carrot with lime shrimp. The trio was similar in that they tasted fresh,
summery and cool although they couldn’t have been more diverse in their
flavor and ingredients. The first being asparagus creamed with velvety goat
cheese, then the cool spicy flavors of tomato, cucumber and fresh herbs
together with anchovies and finally sweet carrot with plump shrimp and a touch
of lime. |
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| All this was served with a stellar salad of lobster,
white asparagus with watermelon-basil-coconut curry vinaigrette, for a
decidedly Asian/Mediterranean theme. A bottle of Lensteiner Grüner
Veltliner, Federspiel-Terrassen, Wachau Austria 2005 was the suggested wine
pairing for this complex mixture of flavors and textures. Grüner
Veltliner, the national grape varietal of Austria, is one of the few wines that
can work well with the strong flavors of asparagus and vinaigrette dressing
without descending into chaos. As a matter of fact, we found it to be
delightful and refreshing with characteristics almost as if you were to produce
a wine crossed from a Riesling and a Chardonnay. Our entrées of two
types of fish began with slow poached cod with pequillo pepper stuffed with
semi- cured cod piperade with Marcona almond-caperberry salad. In this
imaginative course comes the legacy of the Basque region of Spain and all its
deep culinary traditions including the typical combination of green peppers,
onions and tomatoes along with a salad of sweet Marcona almonds and tart
caperberries. This entrée was served alongside whole Roasted roasted
branzino Provencal Style style with broccoli rabe and cherry tomatoes on the
Vinevine, consisting of the everyday standard of the region – tomatoes,
onions, garlic and white wine. The vegetable broccoli rabe brought with it the
right amount of bitterness to make the dish truly and wholeheartedly a
Mediterranean favorite of mine. The highlight for me as far as sinful
confessions go, was the incredibly crispy and tasty skin of the sea bass
produced by basting with olive oil and roasting in a very hot oven, which has
the other effect of tenderizing the meat underneath. A spectacular salmon
colored rose wine called Chateau du Rouet, Cotes de Provence, France 2008, was
the pairing recommended for this course. This is a perfect summertime wine, a
blend of Grenache and Syrah that should be served chilled to display its
elegant dry red berry characteristics with a creamy feel on the palate. For
dessert, Executive Chef De Bruyn chose his a signature flour Chocolate
chocolate Cake cake with raspberrysorbet and , vanilla ice cream topped with
chocolate whipped cream as well as a silky smooth honey yoghurt panna cotta
with almond cookies and blueberry coulis. Needless to say our inner decadence
rose to the occasion to be able to finish off both dessert selections down to
the very last lick. We enjoyed the dessert wine Les Clos de Paulilles, Banyuls
Rimage, Roussillon France 2003, France’s answer to Port wine made from
100% black Grenache, a difficult wine to understand until your eyes are opened
upon tasting it. It is fortified and exhibits rich and succulent forest berry
notes with a sweetness that is able to support any dessert featuring chocolate
or fruit. Chef De Bruyn paid a visit to our table and discussed his new Rein
menu and the success it has met with in this "age of healthy
living". |
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| After dinner we spent
time conversing at our table & and enjoying the cross-town rivalry game
between the Mets and Yankees on the large HD television screens. At 11 p.m. we
adjourned to our room for some much needed slumber. Sunday morning, after
refreshing and relaxing, we went to one of the finest brunches in America. The
Garden City Hotel is noted for its excellent, exciting and spectacular Sunday
Brunches, which are very much a part of the Hotel’s fabulous reputation.
In fact, magazines, and newspapers have consistently voted their brunch one of
the tops in the country. We were seated by Rein’s dining manager and then
made our way to seemingly endless presentation tables filled with hot and cold
specialties, lobsters, shrimp and Stone stone crabs, sushi, salads, savory
carving station with turkey and roast beef, pastas, and a custom-prepared
omelet bar. |
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| Nasser Samman & Barry Kay |
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| Dessert trays finished the meal along with trays of
luscious fresh fruit pastries, ice cream and coffees and teas. Typically the
brunches have between 120 -200 people and are either single or double seatings
or double. After 2 two hours and numerous trips to the various tables and
stations we were fully sated. It was now time to leave The Garden City Hotel
and return to everyday life. As we departed from the the legendary hotel, our
two-day review provided a brief but delightful return to an "era of elegance
and luxury". Congratulations to Nasser Samman, The Garden City Hotel's
ubiquitous, and charming general manager and his wonderful staff. Also thanks
to Executive Chef Steven De Bruyn for his innovative, and superb culinary
creations at "Rein”. A Very very special thanks and congratulations to
Cathy Nelkin, The Garden City Hotel's President, and the Nelkin family for
providing an "oasis of elegance" in the suburbs of Garden City, Long Island.
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“The Garden City Hotel remains one of America's
finest, and most luxurious hotels,
excelling at making its guests feel
special with its excellent service and attention to detail.” ~
BK |
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by Barry Kay
Editor-in-Chief: John Lomitola |
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| © 2010 ~ Seven Stars and Stripes,
Inc. |
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