New York Social Diary - Across The Nation/Across The World

More than 350 patrons attended the preview party of the Washington Winter Show.

SOCIAL LIFE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
by Carol Joynt

New Year’s resolutions, like the missives in fortune cookies and the numbers on lottery tickets, are fun, often fleeting, and allow us a moment to believe anything is possible. The fortunes collected over a few recent Chinese meals have included, “You should be able to undertake and complete anything,” “Maybe you can live on the moon in the next century,” and “You are going to have some new clothes.” Make of those what you will. But, wow, the optimism.

Among the fortunes was also, “Accept the next proposition you hear.” The writer had a sense of humor and maybe knew it would land in the hands of a resident of the nation’s capital, where so many propositions rise and then promptly fall. I’ll save all of them because on the flip side they have lottery numbers. Wouldn’t a random fortune cookie be a sweet way to come into millions of dollars?

I don’t know how they picked their numbers but in the last month I’ve heard of two lottery winners who are remotely in my orbit. One of them is a friend’s aunt, who won $2 million and, according to my friend, “spent almost all of it on jewelry.” Now don’t go making a judgmental sad face. Just think of the happy jewelers.

The other, a man who is a cook at the downtown Palm restaurant, also won $2 million. He reported to work the next day and told his bosses his plan was to keep working in the job he’s held for 30 years. Could lottery luck be moving geographically closer? I’ll let you know if my fortune cookies produce a fortune. What would I do? That’s easy. Disappear.

For now it is New Year’s resolutions. In particular, social life New Year’s resolutions. I was able to put some of them to use right away with the preview party this week for the annual Washington Winter Show, which used to be known as the Washington Antiques Show. It’s almost adjusted comfortably into its new name, though all the regulars still call it simply “the antiques show.” Regardless of the name, it begins the city’s winter social season, which more or less ambles along until it hits a trot by the time of the February thaw and then a gallop by the arrival of spring, when the hard core party people return from their winter holidays.

There are more than a few bars at the Washington Winter Show and the first one, here, is right inside the door.

The theme of this year’s show was Southern Celebrations: Traditions Handed Down, and included – along with booths of antiques from 45 dealers – an exhibition from Robert E. Lee’s birthplace, Stratford Hall.

Resolution number one is to attend social occasions with at least one friend, and that’s exactly how it went down at the antiques show. As in past years I went with two of my best friends, Ellen Charles and Myra Moffett. Myra and I were Ellen’s guests. Ellen is a collector, Myra is working on graduate studies in interior design and decorative arts, and I am, I guess, a former collector who is now an appreciative observer. Whatever we three do together we have fun doing it and laugh a lot. At the antiques show, Ellen looks and buys while Myra and I look, comment, possibly drink too much, laugh, and follow in Ellen’s wake. Myra noted how “the crowds part” for Ellen. The dealers are happy to see her, just as they are several other serious collectors who attend opening night.

Cave dwellers, out of hibernation for a night, Bruce Larson and Ellen Charles.

Myra Moffett with restaurant entrepreneurs Bo and Meghan Blair.

Can someone please tell me the date when old brown wood will come back in fashion? It was alarming to hear a dealer say that even those who can afford the finest are content with the “disposable” trendy and mass-produced because “they want drawers that are easy to open,” and I think we can all relate to that (the secret is a bar of soap, folks), but also, “when they move they want to leave the furniture behind and get new furniture for the next place.” Yes and no.

The party met another resolution, too, which is to limit going out to parties of fewer than 500 people. Better still fewer than 300. The antiques show preview was about 350. It always draws a classic mix: the sincerely charitable, because it benefits good local causes; the cave dwellers, who are eager to come out of hibernation for a moment; the purely social, because the A-list is there; collectors of all ages, because there are treasures to be ogled and/or bought; and the ambitious, who wouldn’t dare miss a good party. The age range is Millennials to Baby Boomers and beyond. There’s always an ambassador attached as “honorary chair” – this year Switzerland’s Manuel Sager– but it’s not a political event. The guest list rarely if ever includes elected officials from Capitol Hill or high profile administration people. It’s a different world.

Tudor Place executive director Leslie Buhler with Phillip Legett, a new addition to TP's executive staff.

Another resolution – meet new people – was handily achieved at the preview party, thanks to professional southerner and artful writer Julia Reed, who was booked by the show as a featured lecturer. She has many titles but was there as an author and contributing editor of Garden & Gun magazine, which has become the haute insider publication of the haves and, in its own stealth way, stalks both Vanity Fair and Town & Country (and Black Card Mag, too). That said, I marvel at the engaging reinvention of T&C. It’s not unlike what David Remnick did for The New Yorker. But Garden & Gun is unique.

Back to Julia. I met her over the phone last week in an interview for Washingtonian to preview her scheduled Washington Winter Show lecture: “Ham biscuits, hostess gowns, and other Southern specialties.” She also planned to pull from her new book, But Mama Always Put Vodka in her Sangria. I asked her about the success of Garden & Gun and she did not equivocate. “Thick paper, great photography, great writers like Roy Blount. They cover stuff that, at the end of the day, is about how people live. It’s a window into a soulful place, but it’s entertaining.”

Author, and professional southerner, Julia Reed, with Will Feltus.

Jeffrey Powell, ready to re-supply.

Evie Rooney and Peggy Beers, the show's director, make themselves at home.

Julia and I share affection for the writing of the late John D. MacDonald and in particular his character Travis McGee. I don’t meet many people with whom I can discuss the finer points of Travis, or whether Leo DeCaprio can adequately portray him, which reportedly is in the works. The last time an actor gave it a try was Sam Elliott in 1983.

Myra and I had a nice chat with Julia and her friend Will Feltus before we resumed following, losing, finding again and wandering after Ellen. We didn’t sit down to eat until 9:30 p.m., joined by John Irelan and Hannah Cox, as the caterers from Susan Gage were carrying away the dinner courses. Fortunately we were adjacent to the curtained off catering kitchen and Francisco, one of the helpful servers, brought us plates of chicken pot pie, barbecued beef, sweet onion pie, grits, Brussels sprouts, and biscuits. This part covers two more resolutions: eat wisely at social events, even if that means having only two helpings of the salad course and sticking to fruit for dessert. Also, end the evening with a smile. And I did, though I still have to figure out how to undertake getting to the moon in the next century and with my new clothes.

Jonathan Cresswell of the Philadelphia Print Shop waits patiently for a customer.

William Hutchison of WM Hutchison of Mendenhall, PA., goes over an item with Myra Moffett.

Myra Moffett discusses a fine point of decorative arts with her friend, Alexandria, VA., dealer Christopher H. Jones.

The preview party of the Washington Winter Show is as much a time to browse as it is to talk and catch up. On the far left, Gary Saragent and Donald H. Dewey.

Here are some of the folks who attended the Washington Winter Show preview party: Tom Adams, John Akridge, Hadley Allan, Geoffrey Baker, Adelaide Barrett, Edmund Bartlet III, Jane Battle, Dick Beatty, Margaret Beers, Robert Benton, Mary Bird, Bo and Meghan Blair, Albert Biddle III, Leslie Beuhler, Wiley Buchanan, Buffy Cafritz, Michael Cantacuzene, Brice Clagett, Gina and Brooke Coburn, David Deckelbaum, Bessie Doffermyre, Meaghan Donohoe, Thomas U. Dudley II, Edmond Fleet, Nancy Folger, Eric Fraunfelter, Steve Gewirz, Michael Gewirz, Letitia and Will Grant, Elizabeth and Jeff Powell, Thomas Higginson, Robert Higdon, Noah Hirsch, Marcus Jaffe, James M. Johnson, Melissa McGee Keshishian, Knight Kiplinger, Dan and Martha Korengold, Matthew Lee, Ted Lee, Katy and Bill Magruder, Karen and Chris Louvar, Tim and Jane Matz, Nina McLemore, Claire Parker, Mary Plumridge, Kathy Prendergast, Jack Rasmussen, Simone Rathle, Alan and Joan Rizek, Howard and Page Smith, Reg and Ted Stettinius, Peter Sturtevant, Martin Sumner, Sarah Wallerstein, Jonathan Willen, Gary E. Young, Amy Zantzinger.

David Deckelbaum, Buffy Cafritz, and Robert Higdon.

Bitsey Folger and Tony Powell.

Reg Stettinius, a member of the preview party committee.

The Washington Winter Show is a night for fashion, too. Here, Simone Rathle.

Dealers Robin Kaplan and Polly Senker of Arthur Guy Kaplan Antiques & Fine Art.

Jeffrey Powell, Elizabeth Powel, and CJ.

After the looking and the buying, Myra Moffett and Ellen Charles assess the show.

John Irelan, Myra Moffett, Ellen Charles, Hannah Cox, and Susan Gage.

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

Santa Claustian Michel Richard, with the beard, and his kitchen staff at Citronelle in Georgetown.

MICHEL RICHARD, AND SCHADENFREUDE WITH A TWIST
by Carol Joynt

It is a holiday in Washington, and elsewhere in the country, as we celebrate the Martin Luther King holiday.

It’s also a couple days after First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated her 50th birthday with a dance party at the White House, that apparently lasted till the wee hours. No doubt the city’s gossips will fill their blogs with lists of the famous who attended, but we know for sure Beyonce and Jay-Z were there, as friends and to perform.

As a prelude to the big day, ABC News broadcast a discussion that was hosted by Dan Kloeffler. Cokie Roberts and I were the guests. Watch it here:

Los Angeles and New York may think they have the corner on professional schandenfreude, but it romps about here, too, finding joy in the failure of others. While it thrives in politics, the most recent episode involves the food scene and the Villard rooms at the Palace hotel on Madison Avenue, once home to Sirio Maccione and Le Cirque.

A decade and change later Villard is in the hands of Michel Richard, a chef who only 18 months ago was more or less king of the culinary hill in Washington, a darling of the Relais & Châteaux set. He is a Santa Clausian character, round with a white beard, equal parts jolly and curmudgeon, but also a food genius who after starting in pastry as a protégé of Gaston Lenotre, created his own unique menu of French-California fusion. He’s good. He’s very, very good.

The bar at Villard Michel Richard, followed by the dining rooms.

But last week when Pete Wellsreview of Villard Michel Richard appeared in the New York Times, there was no jolly, not even a trace. Wells savaged the Villard Michel Richard. He called it “awful,” gave it no stars and ranked it “fair,” one heartbeat from death. This was a day after Adam Platt of New York Magazine weighed in with a review that was tepid, at best. It was as if the two New York critics were a restaurant execution tag team. Platt got Richard from his cell and walked him to the virtual Place de la Cuisine, where Wells pulled the bag over his head and dropped the guillotine.

In Washington, where restaurants and bars are a boom industry, the New York drama was noticed. There was woe, but there was also glee. A lot of people felt, even those close to Michel, that taking on New York was folly. He had big hits here with the more formal Citronnelle, where the patrons included the President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, among many other notables, and Central, his casual bistro on Pennsylvania Avenue that is very popular with members of Congress and the lobbyists who love to woo them.

In his Pete Wells wrote "If Villard Michel Richard doesn't make it as a restaurant, it could reopen as the Museum of Unappetizing Brown Sauces."

The delicious charcuterie tower at Central in DC. Pete Wells tried Richard's cuisine there and New York: "In every case, the Washington version looked and tasted better."

In his review of Villard Michel Richard, Wells took the unusual step of traveling to Washington to dine at Central. (Citronelle closed in the summer of 2012). He liked Central quite a lot. He compared several dishes — Villard vs. Central — and Central won in a knock out. What an opportunity for a publicist to turn lemons into lemonade. Ignore the trashing of Villard and instead issue a release with this headline: “New York Times Gives Strong, Good Review to Central Michel Richard.” Right? It didn’t happen. I’m not sure Michel’s crew knew what to say after the one-two punch.

So, where’s the schadenfreude? Out in the open, but with a twist. DC readers of the New York reviews winked at each other, made frown faces on behalf of poor Michel, but inside they smiled at the possible silver lining for Washington; maybe he’ll come back where he’s loved, reopen Citronelle, and reclaim the high ground. The first hint was in a report from The Washington Post’s restaurant critic, Tom Sietsema. In December he wrote: “The best news to come out of a recent dinner at Villard Michel Richard ... is this: The French chef who dazzled us at the late Citronelle in Georgetown is mulling over another run in Washington.”

Outside of Citronelle in the winter months. Now the building is closed and boarded up.

The old Citronelle bar, after the restaurant was closed due to major repair and renovation needed at the Georgetown hotel where it was located.

A peek inside the window at the Citronelle bar.

The foodies here love Michel Richard. It’s been a complicated relationship, though, since he arrived in 1994 from California, where he created the popular Citrus in Santa Monica. At first he didn’t seem to want to be here, commuting back and forth. But then, with a $1 million state of the art new kitchen, he got more settled in at the Latham Hotel in Georgetown. He seemed happy here. Then, he got restless again, opening and closing at a Ritz Carlton in the suburbs and an outpost in Atlantic City; all the while with an eye on New York.

Sietsema, in his 2011 Washington Post dining guide, gave Citronelle a full four stars. “When it comes to showing off his food, there’s not a more creative costumer than Michel Richard.” In an earlier review, he began, “Michel Richard has me at the amuse bouche.” In Washingtonian, critic Todd Kliman opened with, “Michel Richard’s dazzling reinterpretation of French cooking puts the hoot in haute cuisine.” Ka-boom!

The cocktails at Citronelle's bar were, like the bar menu, among the best in Washington. Here, Michel's own take on the Cosmpolitan.

The refreshing Michel Richard mojito. It has a secret.

I’m putting all this out there to underscore the logic of Richard taking a crack at Manhattan. But it’s also to underscore my argument for the question: why? To be at the top of the heap in Washington is a sweet ride. When it comes to the city’s major league restaurants, Washington patrons are loyal, the critics eager to see success, and it’s not the “Postal 2” of the New York scene.

You can live well here, be hoisted on the shoulders of your competitors, and when national magazines do round-ups of “where to eat in the nation’s capital,” you get listed as the place to go, providing beyond the Beltway love. Yes, the lyrics of New York, New York make an irresistible call. But while making it there may mean you can make it anywhere, making it here can mean you don’t need to, or you will in spite of New York. “In spite of New York” already is a trend of this century. For example, Austin.

A view from inside the marble topped bar. It was particularly comfortable for a patron who wished to dine alone.

Busy behind the bar, Angel. In the foreground, a dessert of Crepes Suzette.

For all its 20 years, Citronelle was just down the street from my home. The formal restaurant was in the hotel’s lower level, while at the ground level there was a bar and an outdoor terrace. The bar and terrace were a fixture in my life and the lives of many others, including movie stars, visiting heads of state and notable members of the government.

It was the city’s top French restaurant, but it was also a hang-out. While it was a hub of fine dining, it had the best bar menu in town: excellent fried chicken and mini-burgers and pommes frites, and a dish called Tuna Napoleon Nicoise that I mourn to this day. It was a delightful spot for parties, to meet up with a friend or two, or dine alone at the bar, watched over by one of the friendly bartenders.

The bar menu at Citronelle.

Chilled provencal soup, aka gazpacho, on the terrace at Citronnelle

Out on the terrace at Citronelle, the incomparable fried chicken.

It’s not out of the question for that to be realized again in Washington. Michel is not yet Humpty Dumpty, but if too many pages fall off the calendar, the moment of opportunity will pass. A positive sign: his wife, Laurence, still lives here with their children.

Along with all the other woeful faces, I wink and hope.

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

Temperatures will be hovering in the teens tomorrow night when President Obama travels this route, Pennsylvania Avenue, to the Capitol for his State of the Union address.

THE STATE OF THE UNION, THE WEATHER, AND AN O’MALLEY MOMENT
by Carol Joynt

Though we didn’t get as much snow as Philadelphia or New York, Washington last week, and going into this week, is gripped by the same brutal deep freeze. There’s no fun side to it, certainly not after the initial powdery snow hardened into ice, and temps in the teens cut sharply into the city’s southern nature. We like to act northern until we’re shellacked by winter weather. With the exception, perhaps, of a group of Georgetown University business school grad students who took advantage of the frozen C&O Canal (which rarely happens) for a game of “canal hockey.”

Making the most of the Washington deep freeze, Georgetown University students play "canal hockey" on the C&O Canal in Georgetown. Photo by Ryan Bowden.

Intrepid Georgetown University business school grad students, after a game of ice hockey on the frozen C&O Canal.

But the establishment will come out of hibernation briefly tomorrow night. We’re in the moment in Washington that is comparable to the entire federal government cramming for final exams. The result of all that prep and sweat will be presented to the nation when President Obama delivers his annual State of the Union Address. If you watch, or read it later, as you do consider this image: behind each sentence or group of sentences there’s much more going on than simply the crafting by the President and his speechwriting team.

Each legislative flight of thought, or actual proposal, has behind it a team of staff at the federal agencies, usually spearheaded by the Secretary of Wherever, and each agency is competing against the other, and lobbying, for real estate in the speech. Making the grade is making it into the speech. They burn the midnight oil on this project, and for months, and it’s too bad the process isn’t a reality show, which could make it more engaging for the public, having a chance to see the small ball aspects of government come together for the big reveal.

A White House photo of the 2013 State of the Union address.

That reality show would have to include the security preparations. If ever there was a reason for anti-anxiety meds for the protection forces of Homeland Security. Think about it. This is that rare occasion when the hierarchy of the full government comes together in one place, including, in addition to the House and Senate, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs, the Cabinet, diplomats and typically the First Lady, too. There is a “designated survivor,” a member of the administration who is cabinet-level, joined by a few members of Congress, who do not attend; if the worst were to happen there would be someone to run the government. That element adds some drama, right?

A White House photo of the 2012 State of the Union. The words change, but the backdrop remains the same: the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

For spectacle, there’s the President’s arrival in the House Chamber, which is very much a dance of protocol and blatant political ambition. The protocol dictates that the House members are seated first (it’s their half of the Capitol, after all), followed by the Senate. Everyone is announced with fanfare. The President, also formally invited, is the last to enter the room, announced in a heraldic manner by the Sergeant at Arms. A committee of House and Senate members escorts him and the task is a perk, because they get TV face time and can brag about it to the constituents back home. Same goes for the sharp-elbowed members who line the aisle – shaking his hand, pawing him, grabbing for hugs, asking for autographs – as he walks to the rostrum, where he’s greeted by the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

The media, who receive advance copies of the speech – and numerous briefings, and report it all in advance – stay awake by looking for any diversions in the script and counting the numbers of times there is applause, standing or seated, and whether it’s everyone or only the Democrats while the Republicans sit on their hands. It helps the story if there’s a TV shot of some opposition member scowling, mouthing foul words, laughing at a proposal or, better still, nodding off as the speech drones on.

It's protocol that the Sergeant of Arms of the House announces the President's arrival in the Chamber. In 2011 that was Wilson "Bill" Livingood. Tomorrow night it will be Paul Irving.

It’s a big night in Washington and in years past I attended several times, but here’s how I watch it today, thanks to social media. With my iPad in my lap, I turn on the TV but turn off the volume. I go to Twitter, enter either #stateoftheunion or #SOTU, and follow the comments of others, which range from notable opinion makers to regular folks, and cover a spectrum of the vox populi that at best is wise observation, political passion and wit, and at worst, snark and hate. But it’s a riveting show.

Subjects to expect: the economy, jobs, affordable health care, war and peace, maybe some Sochi, and a subtle thread, from beginning to end, that’s politically mindful there are mid-term elections this year. A lame duck president likes to do well in that last national referendum of his policies.

The media count the numbers of ovations at the State of the Union. Here's one for First Lady Michelle Obama last year.

HANGING OUT WITH CANTORE & O’MALLEY

I’m a weather geek and a devoted viewer of The Weather Channel since its first days. Since NBC (and Bain and Blackstone) bought the cable network it has been shape-shifting into another Bravo, which is lame, but at least when a big storm happens the bosses have the good judgment to give the actual weather wall-to-wall coverage. And that’s when we get to watch Jim Cantore, who is a superstar among weather geeks.

When I heard that Cantore was assigned to the DC part of last week’s snowstorm, I sent him a DM on Twitter and asked if I may hang out at his live location and observe. He replied, “sure, come on down.” Incredible, right? Right.

The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore, live on the air, waiting for the snow to fall in Washington.

That’s how I spent Tuesday morning at a street corner on Capitol Hill, freezing, but in the company of Cantore, his producer Steve Dresner and shooter Mike Broleman. These people deploy to crazy weather wherever it happens, and they also know how to stay warm. Broleman had a little tent. Cantore and Dresner had layers and industrial strength gloves.

“Being a forecaster who’s already been here for two busts, yes, I’m a little concerned,” said Cantore, frustrated that the snow wasn’t falling on schedule. “I will quit coming to Washington if it doesn’t snow here. I’m serious, I won’t come back here; I don’t care if there’s 60 inches of snow forecast.” Fortunately, it eventually snowed. Not a lot, but enough to mean Cantore will return.

Cantore has more than a quarter million Twitter followers, and he checks in on them, and email, between live shots.

Weather Channel camera operator Mike Broleman is zipped inside that Pak Shack, because Weather Channel staff know how to stay warm in freezing temps.

When I arrived at The Weather Channel location, this and a camera set-up were all that was there. Cantore and his crew were off getting warm.

Before going on air, Cantore slips on his Smartwool gloves, while producer Steve Dresner stands ready with his microphone. It's all a team effort.

Because he often doesn't know his weather assignments until the last minute, Cantore says his professional life "is a lot of moving parts."

A few nights later, it was the opening of a new Irish pub in Georgetown, Rí Rá. I stopped by on my way home from another party, not really sure what to expect, though I figured the crowd would be mostly DC locals. And it was, until through the swarm, at the end of the packed bar, I noticed a tall, slim man in a dark suit. It was Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. At the risk of being called out as non-PC, so be it; he’s an attractive man.

O’Malley has a natural smile, which did not flag as other patrons began to come up to say hello or to ask for a photo. He was chatty and friendly. He was solo, with his security detail at a discreet distance. I asked if he’d had other business in town and he said he came to DC just for the opening of the pub. This is not far-fetched. He was born in Washington, and attended high school and college here, before law school at the University of Maryland.

Rí Rá Irish pub co-owner David Kelly with Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley.

Shortly after we started talking we were joined by two members of The Steve Miller Band, Jacob Petersen and Kenny Lee Lewis, who were in town for a private gig. They had plenty to talk about because O'Malley is also a singer and guitarist and has played in a band. There were pints hoisted, O'Malley admirers coming and going, and, again, lots of posing for photos.

A governor with the name O'Malley at an Irish pub named Rí Rá made sense. Still, let's not forget there's a long tradition among politicians, especially those with Irish blood, and running for office, of popping into a pub for a brewski. O'Malley's final term as governor is up and it's no secret he's interested in the Democratic ticket for the 2016 presidential race. O'Malley-Clinton, Clinton-O'Malley? Who knows, maybe one of these January nights, years down the road, instead of pubbing he'll be preparing for his own State of the Union.

Three musicians, having a chat: Jacob Petersen of The Steve Miller Band, Gov. Martin O'Malley, and also from the Miller Band, Kenny Lee Lewis.

Was it the blarney? O'Malley gets a laugh out of Petersen, while Lewis checks his phone.

A bar patron enjoys some face time with DC native and now Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley.

Rí Rá's David Kelly, CJ, and Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

NB's Ollie and Spicey ready for the big snow day.

Yes, It's Even Cold in Charleston, SC
By Ned Brown

The Polar Vortex has dipped into the Palmetto State. Our typical winter spell from January to mid-February is generally temps in the 30s at night and 50s during the the day.

Not this year. Since early January, it's been nights as low as the teens and days in the 30s. As I write this, we are awaiting freezing rain, and snow not too much further upstate. My poor hibisci, lime trees and eugenia are zapped by the frost and cold. It will be a challenge to see what bounces back this spring. However, my koi and goldfish are swimming right along in their 55-gallon outdoor fish tank. I just bundle the tank in blankets, which they also seem to enjoy.

Black Moor Goldfish swimming around at 26 degrees.

Fish tank tucked in for the night.

Unlike our friends up north who retreat indoors during the winter months, Charlestonians relish the outdoors to celebrate the colder weather. We retreat during July to September when the heat and humidity get oppressive. My friend, Merrill Benfield, celebrated local antiques dealer and noted vintage Rolls-Royce judge, likes to quip, "Let's bust-up the Chippendale for firewood, and drink cheap bourbon out of the Baccarat."

This weather is also for the dogs ... literally. Our canine friends seem to enjoy the cooler weather, and step it up a notch romping through White Point Garden with their pals. The owners are often in full Barbour gear.

Mike Frederick with Queen Victoria (Jack Russell).

Dr. Bonner Thomson with Shang Whu (Shi-tzu).

Allan Anderson with Mazie and Angus (Westies).

A perrenial favorite winter activity is the Lowcountry oyster roast. The Charleston Historical Society held theirs recently at Lowndes Grove plantation house along the Ashley River. Lowndes Grove is a wonderfully preserved eighteenth century
Venue where many weddings and corporate events are held. The typical oyster roast comprises lots of steamed oysters (this year from the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia), accompanied by home-made chili with all the fixin's, freeflowing beer and wine, and good conversation across the shucking table with friends.

Lowndes Grove plantation house — scene of the Lowcountry oyster roast.

Tented area at Lowndes Grove beneath the live oaks for the roast.

Virginia oysters a'steamin'.

Shuckin' at the community oyster table.

John LaRoche and David Crump replenish the supply.

Patricia and Tom Bliss digging in.

Authors Harriett McDougal and John Thompson.

Lowndes Grove dock onto the Ashley River.

Common topics of agreement are that while the sustained cold takes its toll on our beloved gardens (even the camelia blooms were burned by the frost), the cold kills the pesty tick and mosquito larvae. We also know that the spring flowers will be popping up by mid-February, and the azaleas will be in full bloom in just eight weeks.

A few holdout red camellia blooms.

Freeze-singed camellia blossoms.

Looking ahead to spring, the Charleston Antiques Show is about to get underway March 21-23, with a preview party (food by Salthouse Catering) on March 20th. The antiques show has become a sought after event by dealers from around the country who love visiting Charleston, meeting-up with old friends, and for those dealers coming from above the Mason-Dixon line, a taste of spring.

The antiques show is being honorary chaired by Lourenna "Lou" Hammond (of New York and Charleston), and it benefits the Historic Charleston Foundation (HCF). The foundation, ably run by Kitty Robinson, preserves and protects the historical, architectural and material culture that make up Charleston's rich and irreplacable heritage. When Travel & Leisure magazine votes Charleston the #1 city in the world, HCF is one of those key local organizations that steadfastly ensures the quality of the 18th century homes and gardens that millions visit each year. If you just visited the New York Antiques Show, book your ticket to Charleston, particularly after this year's winter weather.

Lou Hammond, Stephen Gates, and Anne Sutherland Fuchs at last year's Charleston Antiques Show.

Okay, so all is not picture-perfect in Charleston. If you want to see what happens when your beloved children come to Charleston for college — with an AmEx Platinum card, a Mercedes SUV, and a great apartment — and you want to see what they could turn into after college, just tune into Bravo's new reality show, Southern Charm, debuting March 3. The show's premise is to show the boozing (that's there), partying (there too) antics of Charleston's old society millenials (not there). Everyone I know from Charleston's old guard who was initially involved with the show scattered when they got wind of where the show was headed, except our loveable, local 50+-year-old bad boy, Thomas "T-Rav" Ravenel, member of a prominent business and political family.

Thomas "T-Rav" Ravenel on location with friends for Southern Charm.


	Thomas Ravenel. Mug shot, Easthampton Police, DUI July 2013.

Don't get me wrong, I sincerely like T-Rav; I find him engaging and personable. But when you go from being an elected state official (South Carolina Treasurer), to convicted coke junkie serving federal time, to getting busted last summer in East Hampton on a DUI, to getting a young woman pregnant and capturing it on a reality TV show ... all of this in a five-year span; when do you wake-up from a nightmare trainwreck being driven by the Lindsey Lohan of the Lowcountry?

In full confession, I got invited to one of the Southern Charm tapings on the old presidential yacht, Honey Fitz. When I saw what was coming from the creators of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, or Princesses of Long Island, or Vanderpumps, I knew the course chartered for this show was the mud flats of Charleston Harbor.

So, look ahead to another wonderful Charleston spring after our winter cold snap; we had freezing rain today. Come visit the real reality of Charleston and its wonderful, gracious people, and skip the faux "reality" on trash TV.

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The whole kitchen crew, plus hosts Sarah and Bob Nixon, at a dinner to benefit Martha’s Table and DC Central Kitchen. In the photo in no particular order: Lee Derosiers, Chris Swensen, Bob Nixon, Spike Gjerde, Chris Fischer, Sarah Nixon, Kayla Foster, Olivia Pattison, Elizabeth Davies, Alison Kirby, Hannah Ragan.

Boozing and Binging Through The Polar Vortex
by Carol Joynt

This is how I’ve dealt with our brutal winter weather over the past couple of weeks. Not in tropical sunshine or on powdery slopes, but here, in my frozen hometown, eating. Not even a recent visit to New Orleans felt as gluttonous, and that was with meals at Bayona, August, Domenica, Galatoire’s and Luke! However, when the Polar Vortex hit the east coast, the only distractions to coincide with its arrival were invitations to parties that celebrated food and drink. I succumbed with the excuse, “I’ll start watching what I eat after the Super Bowl.”

Suitable for the Super Bowl: a quiche Lorraine and Key Lime pie from Red Truck Bakery in Warrenton, VA.

Last night included all the usual and irresistible high-calorie football foods. They, and Bruno Mars, made up for a dull game. The menu: chips with bowls of salsa, guacamole and hummus; Swedish meatballs; three-bean chili with cheese; buttermilk fried chicken; pulled pork barbecue sandwiches, with extra barbecue sauce; chopped vegetable salad; rounded out by a gorgeous quiche Lorraine and a Key Lime pie which were dropped off by their baker, my pal Brian Noyes, who owns Red Truck Bakery in Warrenton. The subject line on his email was "Your Favorite," with an offer to deliver. There was no choice but to organize a full blown viewing party. Phew.


	Alice Waters and Joan Nathan, who along with chef Jose Andres created the Washington fundraiser Sips & Suppers

The feast and the big game have come and gone. No more excuses, but here's a reprise of the social boozing and binging in the days before.

All in one weekend there was a charitable extravaganza to raise money for Martha’s Table and DC Central Kitchen, who run programs to feed the homeless and hungry.

It’s called Sips & Suppers and was created several years ago by chefs Alice Waters and Jose Andres, and food writer Joan Nathan. The first night, Saturday a week ago, was a feast at the Newseum, where dozens of restaurants, food trucks, food entrepreneurs and bars set up buffets on three floors to feed approximately 700 guests.

I’m not one for eating while standing up – the image of a trough is too vivid - but I didn’t mind standing to sip the delicious Manhattans made by George Manolatos and Pete Conner for Cashion’s Eat Place. I also stopped by the table Luigi Diotaiuti of Al Tiramisu, which claims the bragging rights as George Clooney’s favorite DC bistro. Luigi, who served tasty duck prosciutto, also exhibited enough energy to melt the snow outside.

The Newseum as it began to fill up with the 700 people who paid $95 each for the "Sips" half of Sips & Suppers.

Sips & Suppers raises money for Martha's Table and DC Central Kitchen, who both work to feed the homeless and hungry. Antoin Washington, Franklin Garner and Gregory Jackson are students at DC Central Kitchen.

Chef Luigi Diotaiuti of Al Tiramisu was a most happy fella. You would be, too, if yours was George Clooney's favorite Washington restaurant.

The next night, Sunday, was a more relaxed occasion, even though another round of bountiful feasting. The “suppers” part of the weekend is dinner parties at private homes throughout the city, designed on purpose to “preserve the intimacy of the dinner party,” according to Waters. My hosts, Sarah and Bob Nixon, did that quite well. The steps of their sprawling and handsome Georgetown home were marked with candles. Inside the house it seemed that every available fireplace – I counted 4 – had a fire blazing. We were welcomed with a choice of rum punch or Champagne.

The long dining table took up most of the library and was set to seat 27. The guests, paying $600 per person, included General Services Administration chief Dan Tangherlini, and Theresa Tangherlini, Deputy attorney general James Cole and Susan Cole, Abby Eisener of DC Central Kitchen and Kirsten Gercke, Andrew Cockburn and Leslie Cockburn, Jules Bernstein and Linda Lipsett, Anne Luzatto, Gordon Litwin, Jeh Johnson, Susan Dimarco, Susan Weller, Cintia Guimaraes, Andrea Angallaco, Jeffrey Elliot, and a drop by from Emily Lenzner.

Chris Swensen of Woodberry Kitchen, Lee Derosiers of The Beach Plum, Spike Gjerde of Woodberry, Chris Fischer of Beach Plum and Kayla Foster of Beach Plum.

Chefs at work in the kitchen.

Spike Gjerde and Hannah Ragan of Woodberry Kitchen.

Aprons, lemons, Champagne flutes at the ready.

In the large kitchen was another large and busy group, a combined team of chefs and staff from two beloved restaurants: Spike Gjerde and his crew form Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore, and Chris Fischer and his crew from The Beach Plum on Martha’s Vineyard, coincidentally owned by our hosts, Bob and Sarah. I’m a big fan of Woodberry. It is, as Michelin likes to say about 3 star restaurants, “worth a trip.” Yes, even to Baltimore. Maybe, especially to Baltimore. (http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1909153) The Beach Plum is a favorite date night destination of the Obamas and the Clintons.

In the pantry, a pause before showtime.

While in the living room, Bob Nixon, on the right, welcomes guests.

This is how we do coats in Georgetown.

Fireplaces were blazing throughout the main floor of the house. We counted four.

Sarah Nixon quite liked this hostess gift.

The library was transformed into an elegant dining room.

The guests prepare to sit down for a seven course dinner.

Kristen Gercke and Abby Eisener.

Andrea Angallaco.

Jules Bernstein and Jeffrey Elliot.

Sarah Nixon and Andrew Cockburn.

Spike came to DC with an assortment of locally sourced foods, including oysters, while Chris flew down from the Vineyard also with oysters, and a pig, and, yes, we ate the pig. But that’s not all we ate. Here’s the full menu, not counting a range of canapés that were served at the start ...

• Iced Oysters from Martha’s Vineyard and the Chesapeake Bay with an assortment of sauces, including mignonette and Spike’s own Snake Oil.

• Beetlebung Farm Beef Carpaccio with sunflower oil, pickled Next Step mustard seed, hillbilly salt and herbs.

• Tender Winter Greens with Mermaid Farm feta, grilled bread, and honey.

• Whole Wheat Rigatoni with fromage blanc and black pepper

• Beetlebung Farm Suckling Pig with rosemary, garlic, anchovy, sweet potato spoonbread and creamed kale.

• A restorative fish brother

• Raspberry Pecan Linzer with Bay ice cream

• Woodberry Kitchen amaretto

• Mignardises and pressed coffee

The wines at the ready.

Lee Derosiers shucks the oysters.

The first course — oysters on the half shell from Martha's Vineyard and the Chesapeake Bay.

Spike prepares the beef carpaccio.

Between courses, Abby Eisener of DC Central Kitchen tells the guests about how the money raised will help feed the needy.

Winter greens with feta cheese, grilled bread and honey.

Lee Derosiers slices the roast suckling pig while Chris Fischer brings it from the kitchen. It had traveled with Chris from Martha's Vineyard.

Chris and Spike serve the roast suckling pig.

Bread pudding, creamed kale and roast suckling pig.

Preparing the "restorative" fish broth that was served after the pig but before dessert.

Treats for after the dessert of raspberry pecan Linzer.

I walked the two blocks home but needed to walk at least 20. Instead I hopped into bed and turned on the last quarter of The Grammy Awards, with all those skinny rockers in skinny clothes. As noted above, my mantra was, “after the Super Bowl.”

Mid week came the opening of Joe’s Stone Crab. If you know Miami then you know Joe’s – one of the original purveyors of those seasonal delicacies, the stone crab claw; a giant, sprawling restaurant, famous for the food, the wait for a table and bustling service. In 2000, the owners of Joe’s entered into a franchise arrangement with Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, which opened the first Joe’s in Chicago and Las Vegas but with the new name Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab.


	The Washington Joe's Stone Crab is in a beautiful period building, originally the Union Trust Bank building, only two blocks from the White House.

The Washington Joe’s launched last with what had to be the biggest restaurant opening party in memory, maybe in recorded history. They invited 1500 guests, including a who’s who of DC’s usual partygoers, for an all you could eat and drink evening of premium alcohol and stone crabs, steak, oysters, shrimp, Alaska king crab, hashed browns, spinach, mushrooms, and desserts. The staff to patron ratio felt almost one to one.

In the mix were LEYE’s founder Rich Melman, and managing partner Mike Rotolo. Also greeting guests was Billy Marovitz, a key backer, whose background includes politics, the real estate business, settling an insider trading charge with the SEC in 2011, and he is also the ex-husband of Christie Hefner. Did I say colorful characters? “All very Chicago,” said a mutual friend who was there.

It was quite the party, and raised the bar high for future Washington restaurant openings.

The task ahead for Joe’s is to fill those seats when it’s not an all-you-can-eat grand opening. The setting is in a gorgeous old bank building and it is quite glamorous with the high ceilings, chandeliers, columns, marble, leather banquettes, and white tablecloths.

The bar dining room at Joes'. Only some of the restaurant's 350 seats.

The bar on opening night, when the guest list was at 1500 people.

Rich Melman, on the right, greets some of the first dinner guests at Joe's Stone Crab DC.

A signature table setting at Joe's.

Like Miami, the service is robust. It has the potential to be for the lobbying and lawyer crowd what Le Diplomate has become for the gay elite and the stylish, and Rose’s Luxury for fashion-forward hipsters: the place to see and be seen. All three, because of their reputations, will attract tourists, but tourists alone can’t float a restaurant in Washington. There needs to be a loyal local base, too. Diplomate has the beginnings of that, Rose’s is on the cusp, and time will tell for Joe’s.

All three are the latest in a list that keeps growing of chefs and restaurant entrepreneurs who want to be in Washington as the city transforms into a culinary destination. Daniel Boulud swears he’ll be opening a DBGB in 2014. Top Chef winner Paul Qui was reported to be looking around.

I better keep my Super Bowl vow.

On opening night, guests could eat as many of these seafood bowls as they wished.

Joe's wedge salad.

Classic Joe's stone crabs. Missing from the picture, the famous mustard sauce.

Two musts at Joe's: fried sweet potatoes and cole slaw.

Mashed potatoes.

Hashed brown potatoes.

Banana cream pie.

Boston cream pie with Key lime pie in the background.

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

The Breakers, Mediterranean Ballroom. Cocktail hour at the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society Dinner Dance. Chairman James D. Berwind, the event's first male chairman, welcomed more than 375 guests, and with a record-setting auction conducted by Sotheby's Jamie Niven, raised more than $1.1 million for the organization.

Palm Beach Weekend: Lilly! Andy! The Zoo! Nicky! Jane!
By Augustus Mayhew

This past weekend I took a few moments away from the scriptures of Palm Beach's revered social history to exhaust my camera battery by taking a few snaps of the resort's omnipresent philanthropic celebrations for various causes and concerns.

"It's a jungle out there," decorative pillow. Comforting words of warning from one of the more than 275 lots from the Estate of Lilly Pulitzer auction slated for 22 February 2014 at 11 am.

31 January 2014 - 11:00 am
Preview of Property from the Estate of Lilly Pulitzer Auction
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers www.lesliehindman.com 1608 South Dixie Highway West Palm Beach

If you are looking to add the Lilly Look outside of your closets, the upcoming February 22nd auction by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers of selected pieces from Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau's recently sold South County Road enclave might be just time and place to Lillify every room. Conducting 50 auctions annually in the Midwest, Naples, and Palm Beach, LH has handled sales for Mrs. Robert R. McCormick, the Potter Palmer families, and Dole heiress Elizabeth F. Cheney, along with the estates of Leona Helmsley and Betsy Pickering Kaiser, who in 1982 insisted I use Erno Lazlo products and I have ever since.

Last Friday, as the staff was prepping their 1608 South Dixie Highway saleroom a block south of the Norton Museum, I stopped by and took some snaps. The catalog is online at the Leslie Hindman website if you want to pick some must-haves before the actual frenzy goes through the ceiling. Here are a few objet d'Lilly that caught my eye.

There are several Neo-classical-style painted furniture pieces.

A tabletop with accessories to fine-tune any North End décor. Lot 5, the Chinese Export porcelain urns, are of note. Estimate $2,000-$4,000.

Although this Majolica pair of vases may have a chip here and there, who can resist having them as ultimate conversation pieces? Lot 183. Estimate $4,000-$6,000.

A worldly whimsical whippet. Lot 13. Estimate $300-$500.

The cat's meow.

Artist Piero Aversa, the King of Mykonos, was a longtime Palm Beach favorite. Lot 6. Estimate $5,000-$7000.

31 January 2014 - 11:30 am
Press Preview - To Jane, Love Andy: Warhol's First Superstar
Norton Museum of Art West Palm Beach

Friday midday I dropped by the Norton Museum of Art for a preview and tour of the To Jane, Love Andy: Warhol's First Superstar exhibition that the following night would be the main attraction for the Norton's annual Gala. Curator Cheryl Brutvan led the local press through the show, along with Norton director and CEO Hope Alswang and communications director Scott Benarde. Just as some of us were getting ready to leave, Jane Holzer graciously arrived. As she glanced up to watch herself in one of Warhol's underground classics, Holzer chatted casually about her 15-minutes of fame — an expression credited to her patron Andy Warhol— that has been mounted at The Norton as a major museum show.

Norton Museum of Art, west elevation.

Norton Museum, rotunda. Mural by Mickalene Thomas. faux real, 2013. Vinyl, paint, contact paper, and oil stick.

Detail, faux real, 2013. Vinyl, paint, contact paper, and oil stick. Mural by Mickalene Thomas.

Cheryl Brutvan, the museum's curator of contemporary art and director of curatorial affairs.

Scott Benarde, the museum's director of communications.

Jan Sjostrom, the Palm Beach Daily News art editor.

The exhibition's opening image.

" … Jane Holzer, the most looked at girl of '64." Each room focuses on a different aspect of Holzer's life in relation to her Pop life during the 1960s.

Jane Holzer wearing something by Betsey Johnson.

The press at work.

The Norton's curator led us through the exhibit.

"Jane and Andy at the Factory."

Exhibit display.

Jane Holzer as a magazine cover model.

The exhibition is in association with the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

"Create your own screen test." Museum goers are encouraged to film their own screen test.

Jane Holzer, Then …

... And 50 years later.

Museum director Hope Alswang, left, welcomes Jane Holzer.

Jane Holzer meets the press.

As you have probably noticed, Holzer is wearing two wristwatches.

Holzer toured the exhibit with the press.

I stepped outside into the Frederick and Paricia Supper Center Garden for a look at the Fountain of Youth.

A Garden in the Wild
Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society Dinner Dance
31 January 2014 - The Breakers - 7 pm

The Palm Beach Zoo’s 2014 Gala Committee was headed by James D. Berwind, chairman; Michele Kessler, honorary chairwoman; Whitney Bylin & Thomas C. Quick, event chairmen; and Samantha Storkerson, auction chairwoman. The gala’s major benefactors included: Florida Crystals Corporation, James D. Berwind, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Hamm, III, Stephen E. Myers, Mr. and Mrs. Michael M. Connors, Florida Power & Light Company, Kim Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. Llwyd Ecclestone, Mary & Mark Freitas, Gunster, Susanna Hager, JP Morgan, Tracie and Gary Krieger with Barclays, Carol and John Moran, Palm Beach Kennel Club and The Rooney Family, Amy and John Phelan, Thomas C. Quick, Tiffany Raborn and Tim Carroll, The AMG Foundation/Kerry and Sean Healey, and Noreen Zanft. Among the night’s most generous donors were Michele and Howard Kessler Ann and Charlie Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Luter, III, Mr. and Mrs. William P. Rayner, Thomas C. Quick, Elizabeth and John Raese, Susan and Lloyd Miller, III, Nancy C. and Richard R. Rogers, and the Donald A. Burns Foundation.

The Palm Beach Zoo’s record fund-raising event will further the organization’s mission of protecting wildlife and wildlife habitat, and inspiring others to value and conserve the natural world.

The Breakers. Entrance fountain designed by Leo Lentelli.

April, one of the zoo's expert handlers, introduces a colorful feathery friend to John Andreu and Ann Nitze.

James D. Berwind, gala chairman.

Darcy Gould and Michelle Kessler, the gala's honorary chairman.

Luis Fernandez.

Lillian Fernandez and Amy Phelan.

Alfy and Raysa Fanjul.

Hunter, the wise owl.

Ashley and Mike Ramos with Samantha Storkerson, right.

Graham Berwind and Susan Stautberg.

Jessie and Rand Araskog. "I'm wearing a vintage Pamela Dennis."

Frances Scaife.

Andrew Aiken, president and CEO of the Palm Beach Zoo.

Linda Soper.

Guests arrived in the south loggia and made their way to the Mediterranean Ballroom for cocktails.

William Condie, Kim Campbell, and Sanders Lewallen being photographed by another photographer.

Phil Reagan and Ashley Hensen.

Kevin Clarke.

The Breakers, Mediterranean Ballroom.

Dudley and Peggy Moore.

Maureen Donnell.

Vicky Hunt.

Mario Nievera and Susan Malloy.

Steve and JoAnna Myers.

Don Burns.

Michelle Henry and Garrison du Pont Lickle.

Kristen Alyce and Wyatt Koch.

The skeek was a popular attraction during the cocktail hour.

Chris and Grace Meigher.

Dr. Omar and Cheryl Almallah.

Carol Mack and Lora Atkinson.

Ambassador Mary Ourisman.

As much as I might have preferred hearing Alabama Shakes, The Soul Survivors appeared to be playing just what the crowd wanted as the dance floor was packed quickly.

This centerpiece added a surreal touch.

Table 36. "Siberia?" I asked, smilingly, when I picked up my table card at the front desk. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised; one more step and I would have been on Singer Island. Seated to my left was Farley Rentschler and Lisa Solar who I would happen to run into at The Colony where they were having lunch and someone said Nicky Haslam was having a smoke before his presentation.

Folly de Grandeur Lecture with Nicky Haslam
2014 American Friends of British Art Luncheon
1 February 2014 - The Pavilion at The Colony Hotel - 11:30 am

The American Friends of British Art's 3rd Annual Lecture & Luncheon was held Saturday afternoon at the Pavilion of the Colony Hotel. Guest speaker Nicky Haslam, presented "Folly de Grandeur: Romance and Revival in an English Country House." The event sponsors included: William R. Eubanks Interior Design, Smith and Moore Architects, Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design, Paris Ceramics, Jennifer Garrigues Interiors, Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, and the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show.

Michael Ridgdill, director of the American Friends of British Art, welcomed 150 guests to the group's annual fundraiser. Great fun.

The Colony Hotel, a view from across the pool looking west.

Lisa Solar and Farley Renstchler.

Nicky Haslam, out by The Colony Pool for fresh air.

Leta Austin Foster. A pleasure sitting beside Leta during the luncheon.

Tom Quick.

Tim Johnson, Gale Alger, and Fernando Wong. Tim and Fernando introduced themselves at my lecture "Wonder Women" for the Historical Society and invited me to join them for the American Friends of British Art lunch that I had never previously attended.

Luce Churchill and Marina Zangrilli.

Ben Stein and Bill Eubanks.

Jeff Jacobus, owner of Classic Bookshop on South County Road, was busily selling Haslam's books.

Sir Christopher Lewinton. "Nicky and I are old friends …"

Brandy Stephenson.

Lady Sheila Hale and Scott Moses.

Darrell Hofheinz.

Barbara Crimi.

Terri Mersentes.

Michael Ridgdill introduces Nicky Haslam.

Nicky Haslam presented an entertaining mix of personal anecdotes and details surrounding the transformation of his 17th-century hunting lodge into a showplace, once owned by John Fowler.

2014 Norton Museum Gala
To Jane, Love Andy: Warhol's First Superstar
1 February 2014 - Norton Museum of Art - 7 pm

Sold out for the past two months, the Norton Museum of Art was transformed Saturday night into a Studio '64, a tableaux to showcase the opening of the museum's latest exhibition of Palm Beach-New York personality Jane Holzer's former incarnation as a Superstar at Andy Warhol's Factory. As Warhol's first and most glamorous superstar, she played a leading role during the 1960s counterculture. The Norton's exhibition traces Holzer's media-magnate rise from her uninhibited roles in Warhol's grainy downtown black-and-white films to her sought-after international magazine cover girl career. Here are scenes from Jane Holzer's latest role as the focus of a museum exhibition.

Guests gathered for cocktails in the museum's main rotunda.

Gala Sponsors. The gala's honorary chairs were Jeff and Mei Sze Greene. The trustee gala committee included Nicki Harris, Harry Howell, Jane Korman, Joanne Pearson, and Dorothy W. Stapleton.

Annie Falk, co-chair of the Norton Gala.

Matt and Tracy Smith, co-chair of the Norton Gala.

Then and Now. Jane Holzer, wearing Alexander McQueen.

Jane Holzer, Nicky Haslam, and Hope Alswang.

Rob Wynne, Beth Rudin DeWoody, and Patrick McMullan.

Jane Korman, Nan Laitman, and Leonard Korman.

Ralph and Muriel Saltzman.

Ted and Ruth Baum.

Christine Aylward.

Tracy Stern.

Jane Ylvisaker.

Craig and Debbie Stapleton.

Barbara Georgescu.

Tony and Vanessa Beyer.

Tim and Susan Malloy.

Ward Blum and Ronnie Heyman.

Wyatt Koch and Kristen Alyce.

Madeleine Rudin Johnson and Bruce Barnet. A pleasure at dinner sitting between two Rudins, Madeleine and Beth.

Mei Sze and Jeff Greene inside the Mylar tunnel on their way to dinner.

The staff finishes last minute touches before the guests arrive.

Place setting and salad. Table 29. The dinner menu was 11-lines long. If only some of the speakers had been as succinct. However, all was redeemed when Holzer's granddaughter spoke, articulate and touching, she may have reminded everyone why art matters.

2014 Norton Museum of Art Gala. Dinner. The view from Table 29.

Andy Warhol and Jane Holzer.

Photographs by Augustus Mayhew.

Augustus Mayhew is the author ofLost in Wonderland – Reflections on Palm Beach.

The Washington Coliseum, 50 years after the Beatles performed their first U.S. concert. The stage was where the camera is, in the middle of the arena.

SOME WINTER WARMTH, AND A BEATLES ENCOUNTER
by Carol Joynt

By the time you read this another icy, snowy arctic blast will be about to hit the east coast. Snow is forecast for Washington Wednesday and Thursday, just as French President Francois Hollande wraps up his state visit — as we know, sans ex-girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler or reported new girlfriend, actress Julie Gayet (who can keep up?). Were he here with a lover I'd say do this: slip away from the official maelstrom to some tropical warmth and beauty. No, not St. Barth's, but the United States Botanic Garden, which occupies almost a whole block at the base of Capitol Hill. As Stefan on SNL might say, it's all these things: warm, humid, green, quiet, watery, private, mysterious, and historic. It opened in the early 19th century, a legacy of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

The other chilly day, while walking from Capitol Hill to another part of town, we slipped in for some needed warmth. It has very nice benches. Perfect for two.

MEET THE BEATLES, SORT OF

I’m taking a leap here and assuming some of you remember the first time you heard “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” Maybe you were barely a teenager. Even if older, you knew something was happening.

Today, February 11, is a significant date in rock and roll and in Beatles history in particular. It is the 50th anniversary of their first arena concert in the U.S. It happened at the Washington Coliseum. The building is a ruin now, used as a parking lot, due for demolition and renovation. The sounds of that memorable night — iconic tunes and screaming teenagers — are a haunting echo. I wasn’t there for the concert but the day is vivid in memory.

On the night of February 11, 1964, Beatles fans sat in these seats, most likely screaming at the tops of their lungs.

The owner of the Washington Coliseum, developer Douglas Jemal, owner of Douglas Development, plans to renovate the ruin into a mixed use property. He says the new space will pay some homage to the historic night the Beatles played there.

Four of us, my sister and two friends, all just barely tweens, pooled our allowances to journey from the suburbs into the city to chase John, Paul, George and Ringo from Union Station, where they arrived by train due to a snowstorm, across the city to their hotel, the Shoreham. The make-up of our group worked because no two of us had crushes on the same Beatle. I was the “Paul girl.” He was all mine.

I was a Beatlemaniac. It’s the only time I’ve experienced a “mania,” but it was the real deal. They were my universe. My bedroom was a shrine, the walls plastered with their photos. Their debut U.S. album, “Meet The Beatles,” was permanently parked on the record player by my bed. I had chopped off my long hair into a Beatles cut, and, in a dramatic flourish, started speaking in Liverpudlian, though that lasted only days, until classmates handed me a petition that begged me to stop with the maddening accent.

On that February morning in 1964, Union Station was a loud and chaotic mob scene. Across the mass of other teenage girls we saw the tops of the Beatles heads. We screamed and ran from one end of the railroad station to the other as they wedged their way through the horde. When they disappeared into limousines we dashed to the taxi stand and, frantically, used our last precious dollars to buy a ride to the Shoreham, arriving only minutes before the Beatles motorcade.

John Lennon, riding the train from NYC to Union Station in Washington DC.

The others walked into the hotel but at that moment I spotted the limos about to turn into a side driveway. I ran in that direction.

My feet did not fail me. I dodged through a police line and was on the driveway in the middle of the motorcade, camel’s hair coat flying, snow boots pumping the asphalt as I tried to avoid being plowed under by a Cadillac. I spotted floppy hair through a back window and kept my eyes on the prize. The cars turned a corner and pulled up to an abrupt stop at the hotel’s back door. I ran to the car doors. They opened and, just like that, right in front of me and all around me were George, Paul, John and Ringo.

Adrenaline kept me from fainting.


	On display at the Shoreham Hotel, the Beatles song list for their Washington Coliseum concert.

I shoved a pen and a piece of paper at Ringo and then George, pleading for autographs. They had deft skills as pop super stars, meaning they moved fast to the next destination. George stopped, though, to sign the piece of paper. He smiled, too. I was swept into the hotel in their entourage. Next thing I was standing in front of an open elevator. The Beatles were crammed inside, looking back at me. Ringo gave a sweet little wave of “bye bye,” as the doors closed across them.

I turned. Behind me was a rope line, holding back dozens of girls, including my sister and friends, all of them screaming, especially my crew, who shouted my name. I bolted back out the door and up the driveway, but got only a few paces before two policemen picked me up by me elbows, one on either side of me.

“You’re in big trouble.”

“Why? What did I do?”

“You broke through a police line. We’re going to take you in to the station and call your parents.”

“You can’t do anything to me. I’m a kid.”

Did my logic win them over? Who knows, but at the front of the hotel they released their grips on my arms and said, “go! Don’t let us see you again.”

My girlfriends slumped in chairs in the lobby; convinced our quest to meet the Beatles was done. I had another idea. “Let’s go up the stairs.” We found a door to the back stairs and climbed the several flights to the top. At the last landing we resorted to stealth maneuvers, meaning silence. The anxiety was trumped by determination. I poked my head out the door. The coast was clear.

Some people got into the Beatles Shoreham hotel room. Here's a photo from February 11, 1964, released by the Shoreham hotel.

On hands and knees, slightly encumbered by my winter clothes, the coat and boots plaid wood pants, I inched along the plush carpeting of the hallway, staying close to the wall, feline in my quiet moves. I turned a corner and could see what I was sure was their door. But I didn’t get too far before coming nose to shin with the legs of a man. My eyes traveled up the gray trousers, the navy blazer, the polka dotted ascot, to a round face with pink cheeks.

“Can I help you?” he asked in a British accent. I stammered something about my friends back on the landing and how much we wanted to meet the Beatles. Please. “I’m Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager,” he said, “can you take me to your friends?”

They were there sitting on cement stairs, the George girl now crying hysterically, the other two in a silent panic. “I’m sorry, girls, it’s just not possible to see the boys right now,” he said. “They are napping.” He was pleasant but it was a firm “no.” He urged us to head back to the lobby.

The Beatles, performing in the Washington Coliseum the night of Feb. 11 1964.

Which we did, heads hung low, not saying a word, tears turning to quiet whimpers. We were tired, hungry and emotionally drained and had exactly one nickel between us, which was used to call for a parental ride home.

We sat silently and waited, only a few steps from the elevator doors, which opened and closed with the coming and going of many people. I noticed two young women, though, who were dressed quite smartly and carried notepads. Right after they bounced out of the elevator, on impulse, I walked up and politely asked what they were so happy about. “Oh, we were just with the Beatles,” they said with delight.

February 1964. The Beatles, in Washington DC, after a snowstorm.

“How could that be?” I asked. “They are supposed to be napping.”

“Oh, they aren’t napping. We were interviewing them. We’re reporters.”

That’s my Beatles story.

Whatever else February 11 means to Washington and the world, for me at least it’s the day I decided to become a reporter.

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

Who likes the snow? This snow bunny likes the snow.

The Wintry Mix Of Love
by Carol Joynt

The seemingly endless winter is making all of us urban east coasters just a little bit bonkers. Cabin fever is the least of it. The most recent blast of snow was beautiful, especially in the lovely quiet of the wee hours, but the sunsets are taking on the warmer hues of spring and stir yearnings for spring fever. I did see pussy willows in bloom, but we want more. Apparently Washington, buried in the wintry mix, is also starved for love.

What got this thought on my radar was a Valentine’s story I wrote for Washingtonian magazine. Part of the research involved scanning through Craigslist personals, where an otherwise routine “men-seeking-men” post had a remarkable point of view: “It’s Valentine’s Day. The woman I was seeing broke up with me about three weeks ago. But a guy has needs—and everybody knows that it’s easier to find a guy to screw in this town than a woman to date.” And by screw he did not mean out of a job.

The snow in Georgetown at 3 o'clock in the morning.

In hibernation now, but soon these boats will be out on the water.

This little fella wants spring, too.

Pussy Willow sighting on the C&O Canal in Georgetown.

A day earlier, the Wall Street Journal posted its own discouraging take on romance in the capital, in a WSJ-commissioned Facebook survey of “the best places to live if you are single and looking for love.” Washington came in next to last — out of 50 cities! I know that’s not scientific, but still, yikes.

Does this mean don’t come to Washington to find love? I wonder, especially when there are so many other reasons to live here, not the least of which are well-paying jobs and a boom in modern (though high-priced) apartments.


	Valentine's Roses that were given out to guests at a Hillwood Museum Valentine's night soirée.

There are so many cultural attractions, plus a vibrant hipster-foodie-craft cocktail scene where most of the people at the tables and the bar will have a college degree (or two). Washington over the last decade has transformed into what its devotees consider a world-class place to call home (take or leave the government).

Washington has figured itself out, too; it’s not about the government but it is about this century. It’s a mecca for youth, but with a peaceful co-existence among generations. The Millennials, the generation that got the short end of the Great Recession, respect the elders because they do the hiring and they know how to do the work.

In DC, it is sexy to be smart. And fit. Yes, there is a coterie of bored women (and some men) who let doctors destroy their faces and bodies, but they aren’t the driving force here. What does drive the city is a health minded populace who take a certain pride in not being pretty for pretty’s sake. What thrives are members-only gyms, yoga and pilates classes, Crossfit, with SoulCycle on the way; young women parade with yoga mats slung over their shoulders, and it seems that every other person is a runner. There are Hash House Harriers and cycling clubs. As soon as spring arrives the Potomac will host dozens of people on paddleboards, and in kayaks, canoes and sculls.

The Washington National Symphony Orchestra, taking a bow in the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center, just one of DC's many cultural attractions.

Modern apartments are a boom industry in DC. This is one of the $1.4 million 2-bedroom condominiums at the new CityCenterDC complex in downtown.

In DC these days a new scene opens almost weekly. This is the new hot spot, Joe's Seafood, Steaks and Stone Crab.

DC is fun: this is at the new Pinstripes bowling alley that just opened in Georgetown.

The new Malmaison on the Potomac river waterfront, and only a short walk from kayak and paddle board rentals.

Taking a break on the Potomac.

My previous thinking was that 20-somethings should graduate college and head straight to New York to pump up the resume with serious East Coast cred and then take that and their brains to Los Angeles to cash in. But I’ve reconsidered. Washington may be the best place to hone the resume, followed by a beeline to Austin.

But what does any of this have to do with love? Obviously it happens here — the bridal biz is thriving — but what makes it happen at a rate that is so desultory? I have a friend who is divorced and who would like to meet Mr. Right II (and is not alone in that quest) and is obsessed with this issue and she has a simple theory: this is not the best city in which to be straight, but it’s a great city in which to be gay. Any kind of gay — young and gay, old and gay, public or private sector gay, power or artsy gay, media gay, lawyer-doctor-academia-diplomat gay.


	Washington, D.C. takes the (beef)cake.

She could well be right and she gets a back-up from The Advocate, which just labeled Washington “the gayest city in America,” moving up from fourth place last year and easily out-ranking San Francisco, which came in eleventh. What makes Washington so gay? According to The Advocate, a high number of gay-friendly neighborhoods, and gay elected officials, and a growing population.

DC leads the nation in being home to people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to Gallup, who last year put it at 10 per cent, well beyond the national average of 3.5 percent.

On the matter of elected officials, the publication said this: “Though they’re ostensibly right-leaning, we think hunky young pols Rep. Paul Ryan and Rep. Aaron Schock are subtly demonstrating their LGBT friendliness by indulging in well-known gay customs: Ryan lifts weights and exaggerates his stats (how fast was that run, Paul?), and Schock likes his shirtless photo shoots and pink fashion accessories.” They like, too, that House Speaker John Boehner dabs away the tears with the deftness of a Nancy Reagan. Pols aren’t the likeliest to come out, though. There’s a rumor a high diplomatic post is about to be filled by an openly gay man who lives with his partner. That’s a big step.

Socially, I see it all around. At a few galas in the last year there were tables of only men. At first I wondered if this was some seating mishap, but no. They were gay couples, married or on dates. I’ve been to dinner parties at the homes of married gays with children. No big deal; just another family.

Seating mishap? No.

When I hang out with friends who happen to be gay, or go to a dinner or party they host, I’m struck by the vastness and diversity of the community, and the reach across so many professions, and especially the relaxed and happy mood. They are into each other, they enjoy the freedom and acceptance they’ve achieved, and in a city that reflects and respects their values. Even some of the veteran walkers, always famously closeted so as to support the illusion of the “available bachelor,” or the “extra man,” are slowly, tentatively coming out.

Maybe not all couples, and maybe not even all gay, but still it's becoming more common at galas to see tables of only men.

The lesbians are not nearly as pronounced or obvious but, again, my friends who are gay tell me they are everywhere, too, have their own power circles, their own mafias, are in some of the city’s top jobs, are getting married, having children and going on about life. I often meet male couples who introduce themselves as married or partners but only once, and recently at a dinner party, has that happened with a female couple. A gay friend said, “Lesbians don’t need the spotlight like we do.”

Maybe. I don’t know. What I do know is that somebody is having all the fun in this town and, Tinder excluded, it doesn’t seem to be the boom trend among straight people. There’s a distinct feeling the tide has turned and it’s the heteros who stand on the sidelines of the action, watching and complaining about no dates, no sex, and no love. Subtract us from the Wall Street Journal/Facebook survey and the results would probably flip, making DC not only the gayest city in America but also tops for finding love.

Not soon enough ...

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

Television personality Katie Couric and country music sensation Zac Brown, joined by actor Michael Keaton and Jimmy Buffett, headlined the 9th annual ForEverglades Benefit at The Breakers where a record number of supporters kicked in $2 million for the organization's efforts to "Save the Everglades."

Social Vortex:
Palm Beach + Bal Harbour + PAMM + Vizcaya+ Art Wynwood opens + ForEverglades Benefit + Friends of the Uffizi brunch
By Augustus Mayhew

Not everyone was in Sochi last week, as Palm Beach to Miami roadways were swamped by an unprecedented surge of sun-seeking winter refugees motoring between The Breakers and the Fontainebleau docks, where the International Yacht Show was underway, or at any one of the too many events scheduled on the same day at the same place. In between crawling on the Dolphin Expressway and touring Herzog and de Meuron’s latest oeuvre at the heralded Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), I was at The Breakers, along with a mix of characters usually found in only the most page-turning Balzac novel. Thank you to the ForEverglades PR staff who saved me a few times from the hotel’s security and event staff (“You come here to me,” a command I haven’t heard since the latest episode of the BBC comedy “Who’s in Charge?” ).

After all, I was trying to photograph a place setting. Dinner was delicious, Yes, at The Breakers; the company at table, enjoyable. On Saturday night, if you weren’t one of the more than 800 in a state of rapture at the SRO ForEverglades Benefit, where The Breakers ballroom shook from the sounds of the Zac Brown Band with Jimmy Buffett and Katie Couric’s one-liners, then next Saturday you’ll have another opportunity to go through-the-roof at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ sale of 275 lots from the Estate of Lilly Pulitzer.

And then, there’s PAMM. Having attracted 25,000 visitors during its first month, it appears to be awaiting collections comparable to its world-class architectural stature and $131 million price tag. As part of my “Looking for Art” series, I thought I might add some perspective with a flashback spotlight on Vizcaya that sixty years ago was rechristened the Dade County Museum of Art. During the 1950s, James Deering’s heirs sold Vizcaya and its furnishings to Dade County for slightly more than $2 million.

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). West elevation. Herzog & de Meuron, architect. A view of Miami's latest starchitect destination from the adjacent Knight Plaza designed by NYC's Field Operations, the firm credited for the High Line.

Vizcaya, 1912-1916. The Barge. A. Stirling Calder, sculptor. By reinventing the past, James Deering lived in tropical splendor where every day was as if time stood still, as it was in a time long since gone.

Here is a look around the past and present few days ...

Palm Beach
11 February 2014 – 6 pm
Auction Preview Cocktail Party to benefit Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League www.peggyadams.org 


	"Loved by Lilly." In addition to animal adoption and spay/neuter services, Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League provides a vaccine clinic with affordable vaccine packages, pet identification and micro-chipping, and behavior/training courses.

On Tuesday night, as the national spotlight focused on the prominent, the poised, and the perfect at the Westminster Kennel Club, I was being welcomed by a streetside reception line of neglected and homeless dogs and cats in front of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ showroom in West Palm Beach where a preview party for the upcoming February 22 sale of furniture, fine art, and decorative art from the Estate of Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau was held to benefit the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League. While public previews at Hindman’s 1608 South Dixie Highway showroom began on February 15, supporters of the Humane Society of Palm Beach County, Pulitzer’s favorite charity, garnered a first look.

“Lilly was well-known for her compassion towards animals; it is only fitting that her legacy continues to portray her passion by supporting the League in its efforts to provide critical services to the cats and dogs that are in need,” said Rich Anderson, executive director/CEO of the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League. “We are honored to be chosen as a beneficiary of this event.”

Though blue ribbons and silver cups may never be in reach, this puppy wins every heart. The league provided services to more than 20,000 animals annually. It provides shelter to lost, homeless, and unwanted animals; furnishes medical and other services for the care of companion animals; cares for, protects, and finds quality homes for homeless and neglected animals; promotes animal welfare, community involvement and education to further the bond between people and animals, for the mutual benefit of both.

We arrived a few minutes before the cocktail party was SRO. Lot 106. Partial Mottahedeh dinner service for twenty-four. Estimate: $1,500-$2,500.

Leslie Hindman, president and CEO of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers – Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Naples, and Palm Beach.

Richard and Lisa Anderson. Rich Anderson is the executive director of the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League.

Pause to reflect on the less fortunate.

Niki Gottesman, foster care coordinator, introduced this playful kitty in need of a home.

Julie Parker and Maura Ross are associated with Leslie Hindman's office on Palm Beach.

With temperature dropping to near 74 F, guests welcomed refreshments.

Minnie Pulitzer McCluskey.

Lilly Leas, Lilly's granddaughter.

Guests studied the catalog. Lot 266.A vintage bamboo settee. Estimate: $100-$200.

Decorative pillow. Salvatore Ferragamo.

Dougal Fletcher and Flo Chase (Florence Fitch McKim Doubleday Chase), Lilly's sister.

Kevin Clarke and James Berwind.

Joy Humphries, director of development and marketing at the Peggy Adams Rescue League, and estate attorney Carol MacMillan Stanley.

Vicky Hunt.

Candy Hamm and Sam Hunt.

Paulette Cooper Noble, author of Palm Beach People and Their Pets, and Paul Noble. Paulette writes the Pet Set column at the Palm Beach Daily News.

Bob Calhoun and Liza Pulitzer Calhoun.

Lot 233. A Victorian bamboo and lacquer bedroom suite. Estimate: $1,000 - $2,000. The firm's South Dixie Highway showrooms were transformed into tableaux replicating rooms from Pulitzer's South County Road house designed by Kemp Caler to display the more than 250 lots of furniture, artwork, and decorative arts that will be sold February 22.

13 February 2014
Bal Harbour Shops - Lunch @ La Goulue

As the ongoing rivalry between Miami's mega luxury retail destinations, Bal Harbour Shops vs. Miami Design District, continues to escalate, I stopped in at Bal Harbour for what I thought would be a relaxed late lunch. I was lucky to find a parking space and every table everywhere was taken.

La Goulue at 2:00 pm. Mobbed, but they found me a table in the bar area. Actually, perfect. Overheard banter between two grande dame nonagenarians sitting at the next table: "Sid Caesar died …" "Was he still alive?"

Oscar de la Renta. Simply sensational!

Valentino.

Prada.

Giuseppe Zanotti. Just the thing for shopping at Publix in Palm Beach.

13 February 2014 - 3:30 pm
PAMM - Perez Art Museum Miami (2013) + Vizcaya (1912-1916)

PAMM. East elevation, bayside. A view looking from along the waterfront up towards the restaurant.

Vizcaya. East elevation, bayside. Because Vizcaya rents out parts of the facility for private and corporate events, it is often difficult to get a clear view of the villa, modeled by architect F. Burrall Hoffman Jr. from Villa Rezzonico, near Vicenza.

The Barge. The view east from the villa. Because of storms, much of the original statuary has been replaced and the tree stands removed.

PAMM. The view east from the museum of the Port of Miami includes a glimpse of a "superfast" boat destined for the Resorts World casino in Bimini.

Vizcaya. Casino, a view from the Venetian Landing below.

Vizcaya, Barge statuary.

PAMM. Border the museum's south and west elevations, sculptural works by Ai Weiwei represent Chinese astrological signs.

Ai Weiwei's sculptural works along the west elevation, looking north towards the Arsht Center.

Vizcaya, south elevation. The staircase leads from the terrace to the gardens and casino beyond.

PAMM. South elevation, main entrance.

Vizcaya. West elevation, main entrance.

PAMM, west elevation. Staircase.

Vizcaya. Staircase leading from the Casino to the Venetian landing.

PAMM, west elevation. Knight Plaza is an urban park situated between the art museum and the new science museum.

Vizcaya. The gardens between the villa and the casino.

Vizcaya, A view of the gardens looking towards the villa's south terrace. While PAMM does not permit professional photography, on my visit to Vizcaya there were at least fifteen professional photographers shooting prospective brides and grooms and quinceaneras.

Vizcaya, south elevation. A view from the terrace above across the garden.

PAMM – Elevation views + Knight Plaza

PAMM, northeast elevation. Landscape by Arquitectonica GEO.

PAMM, north elevation.

PAMM, west elevation. A view looking up from the underground parking area.

Knight Plaza.

Knight Plaza. A view of PAMM's west elevation across the length of the plaza..

Knight Plaza. Egg-shaped forms are planted within the landscape.

Knight Plaza. A view looking northeast across the plaza.

PAMM, south elevation. Main entrance.

PAMM – Interiors

Entrance desk.

Capital Campaign.

The gift shop is an open area between the restaurant and the main entrance.

A display on the main entrance level.

The museum's grand staircase doubles as a performance/lecture hall.

"Ai Weiwei: According to What" exhibition
4 December 2013 – 16 March 2014

Exhibit poster.

Stacked. Ai Weiwei's bicycle composition.

Ai Weiwei. Exhibit gallery.

Update: On Sunday afternoon, a Miami artist smashed one of the vases valued at $1 million in the Ai Weiwei exhibition at the Perez Art Museum Miami, according to a Miami New Times report by Michael Miller. Charged with felony criminal mischief, local painter Maximo Caminero told the New Times: "I did it for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here … They have spent so many millions now on international artists. We are all taxpayers here and PAMM used $200 million of public money on its building and opened with Weiwei's work to draw attention to itself and as always continues to ignore local artists." According to a police report, a PAMM security guard said Caminero picked up the vase and when told to put it down, "he threw and broke the vase on the floor in protest." Caminero told the New Times,"I lifted the vase and let it smash on the floor like Ai Weiwei did in his picture then waited for authorities peacefully and never resisted punishment … I admire Ai Weiwei greatly and have always supported his actions while he was suffering indignities from the Chinese government."

Miami panorama. As seen around 4:30 on Thursday afternoon, looking southwest from PAMM's third floor terrace, the Miami skyline, foreground, Miami Heat's American Airlines Arena.

Exhibit gallery with moveable walls.

The South Florida Wildlife Rescue Unit: Mobile Laboratory. Mixed media installation. Mark Dion, artist. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Lin Lougheed.

Exhibit gallery from the PAMM Collection.

View from the third floor, administrative offices, terrace looking northeast towards Miami Beach.

Third-floor terrace.

View from PAMM's third-floor terrace of the performing art center complex designed by Cesar Pelli, looking northwest across the expressway.

The Hanging Gardens, view looking east towards the bayfront.

13 February 2014
Art Wynwood VIP Preview – Midtown Miami

Coincide with the 26th annual International Yacht & Brokerage Show in Miami Beach, Art Wynwood 2014 opened with more than 6,000 collectors and art enthusiasts. Along with the 70 galleries presenting an array of artworks, this year's fair highlighted street art, murals, pop surrealism and other vanguard genre.

After touring PAMM, I drove over to Midtown for the Art Wynwood VIP opening.

Pamela Cohen and Nick Korniloff. With Korniloff as the show's principal director and Cohen heading up VIP Relations, Marketing, Sponsors + Partners, the husband-and-wife team play a significant role in developing the Art Wynwood event.

During the first hour, several thousand had already arrived for the preview event.

Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York.

Hollis Taggart Galleries. New York. Papyrus and Lotus, 2008. Stainless steel. Babette Bloch, artist. $9,500.

Hollis Taggart.

Flowers Gallery, London.

Alfredo Ginocchio Gallery, Mexico City. Unfamiliar with this Uruguayan artist, I was captivated by Bruno Widmann's paintings

David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe.

Waterhouse & Dodd, London – New York.

The Great Dane Collection, Philadelphia. A four-panel work by Carole A. Feuerman. $15,000.

Among the VIPs at Art Wynwood's opening preview

Galerie Lelia/Waltmann Ortega Fine Art, Miami – Paris. Art in the making with the artists wearing headset video cameras streaming the work-in-progress onto nearby screens.

Archeus/Post-Modern, London. Dancers. Fernando Botero, sculptor. $950,000.

Arlechinno, 2009. Fernando Botero, artist.

Carolynn Friedman and Pamela Cohen.

Mark Borghi Fine Art, New York – Palm Beach - Bridgehampton. The work of artist Tom Dash.

Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables.

Grupo familiar, 1996, Carmelo Nino, artist.

Dillon Gallery, New York.

Rimonim Art Gallery, Miami. The Third Partner. Stainless steel. Artist Beatrice Berenstein.

Emmanuel Fremin Gallery, New York. The gallery featured the Hamptons' beachscapes of Antoine Rose.

15 February 2014 7 pm
9th Annual ForEverglades Benefit - The Breakers
Katie Couric, Michael Keaton, and the Zac Brown Band, joined by Jimmy Buffett

The 9th AnnualForEverglades Benefit held at The Breakers on Saturday night raised more than $2 million for Everglades restoration with the help of host Katie Couric, a performance by the Zac Brown Band and 840 supporters who packed into the Ponce de Leon Ballroom. Foundation Board Member Carl Hiaasen took the stage to present the Everglades Advocacy Award to the benefit’s honorary chair actor Michael Keaton for his work in furthering the conservation, protection, and restoration of the nation’s ecosystems.

The ForEverglades benefit raises money to support the science, communications, advocacy, education and legal programs of the Everglades Foundation — all geared to protecting and restoring what remains of this fragile ecosystem. The board of directors supports all of the Foundation’s administrative and fundraising expenses, allowing 100% of the money raised at the benefit to directly support these programs

The event Chair and Committee included: Mary Barley, Claudia and Carlos de la Cruz Jr., Evan and Glenn Dubin, Jamee and Marshall Field V, Toni and Andrew Wilshire, Mark Dalton, Jennifer and Joseph Duke, Mark Fisher, Tucker Frederickson, Regina and Mario Gabelli, Judy and John Keller, Judy and Jarrett Kling, Heather and Beau Wrigley, Ramona and Thomas Bean, Connie and Dan Burkhart, Katie Carpenter, Bill Davenport and Bruce Wiltsie, Susan and Mark Dougherty, Mia Celano and Skip Dunn, Kirk Fordham and Michael Cevarr, Suzanne and Ramsey Frank, Emily and Harry Grand, Kerry and Sean Healey, Debbie and Nick Iarossi, Tina and Steve McPherson, Lyn and Robert L. Parks, Maura and Brandon Ross, Jeanne and Michael Sole, Peter Vasconcelos, and Patrick Rooney, Jr.

From the courtyard, a view of the Ponce de Leon Ballroom's south entrance.

Hosts for the For Everglades benefit were: Katie Couric, Michael Keaton, Fenia and Carl Hiassen, Zac Brown, Zac Brown Band, Eric and Tonya Eikenberg, Jimmy Buffett, Paul and Sonia Jones, Ashley and Mike Ramos, Lia Reed, Nat and Alita Reed, Adrian Reed, Georgina Bloomberg, Mercedes and Steve Gotwald, Michele Henry and Garrison du Pont Lickle, Mary Morse, Barbara and Jack Nicklaus, Kathy and Paul Leone, Danielle Moore, Thalia and Tommy Mottola, Brooks Bishop, Robert P. Leidy Jr. and Ivy Day, Sasha Lickle, Sara Groff and Piper Quinn, Linda and Jared Soper, and Erik T. Waldin.

Nathaniel Reed.

Michael Keaton and Carl Hiaasen. Keaton received the Everglades Foundation's annual Advocacy Award for his conservation efforts.

Jamee Field and Marshall Field V.

Maria Dolores Ferre and Maurice Ferre with Carlos and Claudia de la Cruz.

Jack and Barbara Nicklaus.

Congressman Patrick Murphy.

Mike and Jeanne Sole.

Gary du Pont Lickle and Michelle Henry.

Nat Reed, Zac Brown, and Paul Tudor Jones II confer.

Between 1985-1987, Katie Couric worked at a Miami television station.

Katie Couric.

Erik Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation.

Lucy and Nat Day.

Vicky Beggs.

Michael Kovner.

Mario Gabelli and Regina Pintaro.

Ponce de Leon Ballroom.

The more than 800 guests made their way to the ballroom for dinner.

Table 41. Carol Ballantine was on my left and Lisa Cregan on my right.

There were videos.

My view of the Zac Brown Band's performance. The audience was on their feet even before the band went on stage.

Zac Brown.

10:25 p.m. Palm Beach resident Jimmy Buffett and Zac Brown keep the audience on their feet.

Jimmy Buffett and Zac Brown.

Paul Tudor Jones and Sage Robbins.

Paul Tudor Jones snaps a shot of Tony Robbins.

At Table 35, Manalapan's newest denizen, the usually talkative media personality Tony Robbins, listens when Paul Tudor Jones talks. John Sykes, left and Sage Robbins, right.

John Sykes and Tony Robbins.

"Country Chic" by way of Palm Beach

The Main Attraction: Katie Couric, center, Michael Keaton, left of center, Zac Brown, right of center, and The Zac Brown Band, left and right of center, Jimmy De Martini, John Driskell Hopkins, Coy Bowles, Chris Fryar, Clay Cook, and Daniel de los Reyes.

16 February 2014 - 11:30 am
Friends of Uffizi Gallery annual brunch
Palm Beach County Convention Center, Ballroom A
www.friendsoftheuffizigallery.org

Having lived in Florence, the Uffizi Gallery was once one of my haunts on my way down to classes at Borgo degli Albizi. Palm Beach is so fortunate to have an ever-growing number of international cultural support organizations, among the representatives, Ireland, the Louvre, French Heritage, British Art, and Venice. During the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art, and Antique Show, the Friends of Uffizi invited art historian and art dealer Robert Simon to illuminate their more than 125 guests on his fascinating research on rediscovering DaVinci's Salvator Mundi.

Robert Simon.

Lisa Marie Brown, Friends of Uffizi Gallery executive director, and Bruce Crawford.

Maddy Singer.

Betsy Matthews and Lara Kramer.

Katie Deits, executive director Lighthouse ArtCenter – Museum, Gallery & School of Art. It seems like yesterday, Katie and I went to school together in Italy.

Robert Silvani, regional vice-president of the National Italian-American Foundation.

Frank Cerabino. The Palm Beach Post feature writer is an accomplished accordionist.

14-18 February 2014
Hope Designer Showcase @ Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show

The design showcase's 14 February opening night was a benefit for the Hope for Depression Research Foundation.

Along with Scott Snyder, design chairman, room designs are by Jim Aman & John Meeks, Bruce Bierman, Campion Platt, and Jennifer Post.

Scott Snyder, Palm Beach – New York.

Photographs by Augustus Mayhew.

Augustus Mayhew is the author ofLost in Wonderland – Reflections on Palm Beach.

They danced on the Titantic, too, but maybe with the Corcoran the ball will go on.

SOMEWHERE, ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE IS SMILING
by Carol Joynt

Word of the death spread through Washington with the urgency of something that had happened suddenly, unexpectedly, but the truth is the death of the Corcoran Gallery of Art has been slow and a long time coming. The death certificate won’t be signed until April, when the various pertinent boards are scheduled to give formal approval. After that, the organ harvesting begins by the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University, the two institutions through which the gallery’s legacy will live on. NGA gets the art; GWU gets the building and the school of art and design.

Obituaries were written with a tone of heartbreak, and that’s fair for those who feel that way, but the other way to see it is as a rescue for an art collection, a board of directors who had no way out — from mounting debt, a shrinking endowment — and for a gorgeous Beaux-Arts building in need of significant and costly repair so it can stand proudly through this century and beyond.

The Corcoran Gallery on a summer day several years ago, about the time the Gehry design was under consideration.

Somewhere, though, the spirit of Robert Mapplethorpe is smiling. If you believe the dead can exact revenge, then this is just payback for him. His photographs, both beautiful and brutal, were a key factor in what may have been the beginning of the end for the Corcoran, way back in 1989. That’s when the Gallery’s timid board, caving to threats from Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and other members of Congress, cancelled a posthumous exhibition of his work, “The Perfect Moment.” Helms, not to my knowledge an arts visionary, pulled together other members of Congress who were offended by the exhibition’s content and that it was federally funded by the National Endowment of the Arts.


	A Robert Mapplethorpe self-portrait from 1980. Not smiling then, but maybe his spirit smiles now.

	The exhibition that never was at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Wherever he was when the Corcoran’s demise was announced I’d like to think that architect Frank Gehry, too, gave in to a Cheshire grin, because he was involved in a later brouhaha in which a much-anticipated design of his fell victim to the Corcoran’s wobbly way of going about business.

That was 2005, when the Corcoran board voted to stop work on a planned and stunning $170 million Gehry addition to the main building. The project was so far along it had gone through the permits and approvals process. Corcoran president and director David Levy, who had shepherded the project, resigned, dismayed. “The board felt the Gehry building was a distraction; I felt the opposite,” he told The New York Times.“I saw it as a ... way of transforming a gray old institution.”

Maybe “gray” and “old” were the Corcoran’s comfort zone, a traditional posture that worked in the last century but didn’t necessarily translate to now, compounded by the fact they charge for admission (not usually done in DC museums) and their location, nearly next-door to the White House, was slightly compromised by post 9/11 restrictions related to heightened security.

It was not easy to drive there and find a parking space. The nearest subway stop is several blocks away. Tourists had to trek slightly off the beaten path. Levy believed the Gehry creation would have a “Bilbao Effect.” The board changed its mind about spending the money.

The collection inside is a reported $2 billion in paintings, sculpture and photographs. The muscle is its American inventory, spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, with paintings by John Singer Sargent, Albert Bierstadt, Gilbert Stuart, Frederic Edwin Church, Mary Cassatt, and Edward Hopper.

The Frank Gehry design for the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

For there to be a happy afterlife ahead a lot depends on the National Gallery of Art and what it does with its new bounty of some 17,000 works. The future of the big art should be obvious. But what about everything else? At this early stage no one is mentioning the word that strikes fear in the hearts of donors: deacquisition. Museums can be stealth in that regard, wanting what they want and not wanting what can bring some financial gain. Only last year the Corcoran itself put up at Sotheby’s a collection of Oriental carpets that brought $39 million.

The early reporting on the deal says the NGA will keep in its East Wing and West Wing the art that fits with its overall collection mandate, noting the Corcoran provenance. NGA would also oversee two ongoing galleries at the Corcoran, one for exhibitions of contemporary and modern art and the other for shows of “legacy” works. The remaining pieces will be distributed to museums across the country, with museums in Washington having first dibs. If the plan sticks, it is a dismantling that will ultimately benefit many. The National Gallery’s director, Rusty Powell, called it “a huge gift to the nation.”

Frank Herrera, photograph of The Perfect Moment protest, June 30, 1989, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

After the Corcoran cancelled the Mapplethorpe exhibit, the Washington Project for the Arts protested by projecting images of him and his works on the Corcoran building.

Social Washington will be wondering what happens to the annual spring Corcoran Ball. Can it go on? Should it go on? Once upon a time it was one of the city’s most glittering formal social occasions, and the grand prom of what passes for the capital’s country club set, before the corporate dollar changed the landscape of exhibitions and museum fundraising.

Like the Gallery, the ball is old school, run by a women’s committee who are listed on the program by their husbands’ names. There are fashion lunches in advance to help women choose their gowns. But that genteel quality was also part of the charm, plus dramatic and artful flower arrangements. It’s a seated candlelight dinner, followed by big band dancing after in the marble atrium.

The grand staircase of the Corcoran Gallery, always a dramatic centerpiece of the Corcoran Ball.

The 2013 Corcoran Ball, done up for spring.

Cocktails before dinner.

Newlywed Lisa Mangiapani putting the Corcoran's grand staircase to good use.

But even the Corcoran Ball has not been spared from the Gallery’s turmoil. Last year some notable women’s committee members, and some long time patrons, boycotted the ball, upset over the general management of the institution and the ball in particular, which they wanted made more accessible to others, meaning finding ways to attract younger people.

One committee member wrote in an email: “I’ve had enough. The Titanic is sinking and the women keep dancing in the ballroom. If only they had looked further than their Junior League ways and had included the community.” The turnout last year was in the range of 700, down from 1,100 in 2007, before the Great Recession cast its long shadow on the gala scene.

The Corcoran Ball flowers are done by Jack H. Lucky Floral Design.

For the Corcoran Ball, guests dine in the gallery's different exhibition spaces

.For each room, the decor is different.

Food among the art and flowers.

One of the many bars set up for the Corcoran Ball.

Making sure the place cards are correct before dinner begins.

The traditional trumpeting of the guests to dinner.

Tickets for the Corcoran Ball run $500 per person.

For most Corcoran Balls, the dinner is overseen by Occasions Caterers.

An Occasions dessert designed to match the flowers.

Deborah de Gorter and Marston Luce at last year's ball.

Sis Hedden and a friend.

Toby and Myra Moffett.

On the right, Sharon Bradley.

Michele Evans at the Corcoran Ball a few years ago.

Myra Moffett and Aubrey Sarvis at the 2013 Corcoran Ball.

Christine Rales, in the center, with friends at the 2010 Corcoran Ball.

Jonathan Martin and Betsy Fischer in 2010

Whether the Corcoran ball continues — in its current or a more inclusive mode — the building will remain a terrific entertaining space. It seems to be rented out on a consistent basis. I’ve been there for weddings, and the setting was perfect. I’ve been there for large private hoedowns — pre-inaugural parties, holiday parties — that were over the top and, again, a perfect fit.

While there is a disco scene upstairs at the Corcoran Ball, the main event is dancing in the Atrium to the Jack Felten Orchestra.

A beautiful entertaining space: the wedding of Lisa Weir and Daniel Mangiapani at the Corcoran Gallery in 2011.

Best memory of all, though, was a small, seated luncheon for the landmark 1982 vintage of Chateau Margaux, adorned with a label painted by the late film legend, John Huston. His daughter, Anjelica Huston, and Margaux’s owner, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, hosted the party in one of the smaller galleries. We sat among beautiful paintings. Luncheon lasted for at least a few hours — delicious food, charming toasts and bottle after bottle of the ’82 Margaux, which now sells for many hundreds of dollars, if you can find it. Of all my Corcoran memories, I’d like to have that day back.

There’s been no timetable announced yet on when the Corcoran Gallery as we know it closes and the new iteration opens for visitors. We do know that like the NGA, admission will be free. How about this for the first exhibition of contemporary art: Robert Mapplethorpe.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter 1979. From Mapplethorpe's exhibition, The Perfect Moment.

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

The Georgetown Waterfront Park over the weekend, before the snow. It may be the Potomac, but Fiola Mare conveys a vibe of Positano.

What’s New & Cool Now: La Piquette, Pinstripes and Fiola Mare
by Carol Joynt

The birds are chirping like mad, morning and evening, so let’s pretend that spring is here. Enough with winter, the houseguest who keeps coming up with a clever excuse to stay on. Oh, snap. As I write this on Sunday night, the forecast is for another 8-12 inches today. The houseguest wins.

If there is a snow day, though, I will make the most of it: work at home but also join random others who take lunch at the bar counter of Bourbon Steak. It’s become a snow day ritual this winter. Two weeks ago it was King Abdullah of Jordan (not at the bar, but spotted at a table), author Aiyaz Husain, whose new book is “Mapping the End of Empire,” having a day off from the State Department, his friend from the staff of Children’s National Medical Center, some other Georgetowners, some of Abdullah’s security (not drinking), stylist Isabelle Goetz (her salon is across the street), whose clients include Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Queen Rania. I was with my sister-in-law, Martha Joynt Kumar, who is usually at the White House.

Snow days at the bar at Bourbon Steak have become a Georgetown ritual, because we've had so many days with the city shut down due to snow.

A tasty snow day lunch: Bourbon Steak chicken salad, with a glass of pinot noire and truffled sticky buns.

Stylist Isabelle Goetz takes a snow day lunch break with friends at Bourbon Steak.

Over the past few months I’ve raved about some interesting new arrivals in Washington -- Le Diplomate, Rose’s Luxury and Joe’s Stone Crab. On any given night there’s a swarm trying for a table at any one of them. Rose’s is the toughest, because they don’t take reservations, and last week they earned a nomination for a James Beard Award for “Best New Restaurant” in the U.S. The secret to Rose’s? Go early.

Kudos to another JBF nominee from DC, Vidalia, in the category of “Outstanding Restaurant.” It’s been in business for two decades, watched over by chef and owner Jeff Buben (himself a past Beard winner), serving fine southern cuisine – and a great happy hour – at its M Street location on the edge of West End, only minutes from Georgetown and Dupont Circle.

Vidalia, 20 years and still cooking ...

There’s so much that’s opening in Washington. Here are three new cool places that are on my radar and that you might give a try – that is, if you’re not giving up French food, Italian food or bowling for Lent. Don’t worry. They will be here for a while, and I list them in order of what opened first:

*La Piquette opened in Cleveland Park last November. The cozy one and a half room bistro is the creation of the same pair – Bruno Fortin and Cyrille Brenac– who own the “cave dweller” staple, Bistro Lepic and Wine Bar near Georgetown. The reasons to go to Piquette are its charm and the man in the kitchen, chef Francis Layrle. In a city with a dearth of French restaurants, there are even fewer French chefs in the kitchens. But Francis is the real deal.

La Piquette is in a hub of restaurants on Macomb Street in Cleveland Park.

La Piquette has the vibe of a neighborhood Parisian bistro.

A native of Gascony, he came to Washington from Paris in 1973 to be Chef de Cuisine at the French Embassy, where he worked with eight ambassadors and their wives for more than three decades. Among veteran Francophiles here, the opinion is his tenure produced some of the most delicious food ever at the elegant residence on Kalorama Drive.

Layrle’s approach at Piquette is classic bistro fare, seasonal comfort food heightened with modern farm-to-table inspiration. Here’s what I’ve tried, so far, on a few visits: green salad, lobster risotto, razor clams on cavatelli, duck confit, steak frites, crème caramel, fresh raspberries with merengue. All of the dishes were superb. The room is packed with neighborhood people, meaning everyone is famous. (I’m kidding, but not entirely. It’s Cleveland Park, after all).

Chef Francis Laryle overees a menu of farm fresh bistro classics.

Piquette is open every day but Monday and serves lunch Wednesday through weekend brunch. Parking is a challenge, but it’s on the taxi circuit. Francis is always there. Ask him about his best friend, Daniel Boulud. They go back decades.

La Piquette
3714 Macomb Street NW
202-686-2015

Piquette features an open kitchen, and one and a half dining rooms (upper and lower).

Chef Layrle is proud of his chalkboard menu.

There's also a chalkboard menu at the petite bar.

This is how the French bread arrives at table at La Piquette.

Piquette's house salad.

Wianno oysters.

Lobster risotto.

The Piquette charcuterie plate.

Sea bass.

A half roasted chicken with frites and grilled cauliflower.

Duck confit with lentils.

Crispy, creamy apple tart.

Creme caramel.

Raspberries with meringue and ice cream.

*Here is a bit of news that surprises people: there’s now a bowling alley in Georgetown. Pinstripes opened last month. I know how to bowl because I spent a few formative years as a military brat in Ohio, where my father was with the Strategic Air Command at Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.

There was not much else to do but go to the Saturday movie matinee, the roller rink or the bowling alley. Pinstripes has only two things in common with the bowling alley of my childhood – lanes and pins. Otherwise, it is entirely a different and more uptown scene. Black leather sofas instead of plastic seating, and martinis served at your lane between strikes.

The entrance to Pinstripes, on Wisconsin Avenue beside the C&O Canal.

Pinstripes is in the center of commercial Georgetown overlooking the C&O Canal. It offers bowling and bocce, and lots to eat and drink. I’ve been a few times with friends – both morning and evening – and we’ve had so much fun bowling, laughing, eating, drinking, bowling and laughing.

Because of the way it’s set up, each sofa shares a table with a sofa across from the table. It makes it interesting. On one visit the opposite sofa was occupied by a couple who made out most of the time, occasionally coming up for air and to swing a ball down the lane. Another time it was an International Monetary Fund couple – German and Spanish – with their young son. They were delightful. The other evening our neighbors were young professionals and we all cheered for each other. This is a good time, a diverting alternative to the same old. It’s active, not passive, and a little bit of “beyond the Beltway” brought close to home.

Not your every day bowling alley. The check-in desk at Pinstripes, with bowling shoes and socks and bottles of wine.

The busy bar at Pinstripes.

The dining room at Pinstripes. Through the glass doors is a deck that overlooks the C&O Canal.

A bit and a drink before bowling? Players can also eat and drink at the lanes.

Go to Pinstripes with friends. Bowling skills are helpful but not essential. They provide shoes and socks. There’s a big bar and a dining room, but do play a game: bowling or bocce. Don’t be surprised if company CEO, Dale Schwartz, in from Chicago, comes up to introduce himself.

Pinstripes has an extensive menu of what I like to call “stoner food.” It doesn’t mean you have to be stoned. The food is tasty in that irresistible way that food is tasty when you are stoned. I like the pizza a lot, the sliders are essentially a mini steak sandwich, and there’s a healthy and delicious Brussels sprouts salad. S’mores rule the desserts. Sunday brunch is a vast buffet.

Pinstripes
1064 Wisconsin Avenue
202-625-6500

During daytime bowling the lights are up bright at Pinstripes.

At night the lights are turned down low.

Instead of plastic seating, bowlers have black leather sofas.

Dale Schwartz, CEO of Pinstripes, is a familiar sight at bocce and bowling, introducing himself to customers.

Brussels sprout salad.

The pinstripes pizza scores a strike.

For fans of flatbread, the Pinstripes menu has many choices. Here, the chicken club.

The pinstripes sliders are essentially mini steak sandwiches.

Dessert at a bowling alley? At Pinstripes, yes. Cheesecake and...

S'mores (you work off the calories bowling).

Fiola Mare could be the next big thing in DC restaurants. It’s been open only a week and with notable provenance: the owners are Fabio and Maria Trabocchi– restaurant entrepreneurs, parents and, as if you didn’t get that, Italian. Fabio grew up in the Le Marche region and his background includes a few Michelin-starred restaurants in the old country.

In the U.S. he has scored multiple accolades, including a James Beard Award for his time at Maestro in Tysons Corner, Virginia. He went from there to New York, where he earned 3 stars from The New York Times for Fiamma. But then he returned here, where there’s so much love for him and Maria. In 2011 they opened Fiola in Penn Quarter. The critics raved.

Fiola Mare at the dinner hour, with the Kennedy Center downriver.

It’s too soon to know the critical reaction to Fiola Mare but, with its sweet location overlooking the Potomac River in Georgetown, its stylish décor and haute seafood menu, the early public reaction is enthusiastic.

Fiola Mare is a little piece of Positano brought to the Georgetown Waterfront Park. There are no ship’s wheels or fishnets, but a subtle thread of nautique is in the details of the look. The tables and the views embrace the water the way the chef ‘s menu embraces oysters, crudo, caviar, Dover sole, Branzino, lobster, and all kinds of pastas with clams, prawns, scallops and sea urchin.

Maria Trabocchi and her husband Fabio are DC restaurant superstars.

I’ve stopped in a couple times, once for dinner with a friend, and after our meal we spent some time with Maria, who graciously showed us around. She has every reason to be stressed but she’s not.

I can’t wait to return to Fiola Mare on a warm day when the big sliding windows are pulled wide open to the breezes. I predict a lively summer scene, a welcomed escape to la dolce vita.

Fiola Mare
3050 K Street Northwest (they have valet parking)
202-628-0065 (and on OpenTable)

These tables, numbered in the 80s, are prime Fiola Mare seating, as close to the Potomac as possible without being on a boat.

Sunny daytime at Fiola Mare. When the weather warms, the big glass doors will be pulled open to the breezes.

More daytime views.

The bar is comfortable for drinks but also for a meal. There's also another bar that comes with a private dining room.

This bar is in a part of the restaurant that can be made private. The Kennedy Center is in the distance on the right.

Fiola Mare's kitchen table, thoughtfully, is not exactly in the kitchen, but adjacent.

The kitchen table's view into the kitchen (close but not too close).

A martini with a twist to start dinner.

The table side preparation of the Dover sole.

The Dover sole is grilled, which is delicious, is served with grilled lemons and three sauces.

A burst of lemon for dessert.

For the perfect attire to wear to Fiola Mare, just drop in to the new Calypso store only a few blocks away on M Street. Company CEO Mindy Meads was in town last week – with NYSD contributor Debbie Brancroft, who is also with Calypso – to help host an opening party, where the co-hosts included Katharine Weymouth, Lois Romano, and Andrea Miano. This colorful boutique (Mindy said there are now close to 50 across the country) started out in 1992 in St. Barth’s and its held tight to its Caribbean chic, which plays just as well on the Amalfi/Potomac coast.

At a Calypso boutique opening party, Andrea Miano, Mindy Meads, Debbie Bancroft and Katharine Weymouth. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Swartz).

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

During the America’s Cup final, thousands of spectators swarmed the San Francisco Bay, some crowded at onshore vantage points, eager for a clear look (and maybe a photo!) of the action.

by Jeanne Lawrence

UPDATE ON THE FUTURE AMERICA’S CUP

The year 2013 was a historic one for San Francisco: The city played host to the 34th America’s Cup (AC) regatta—one of the most exciting events in San Francisco’s history and one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history as well.

The 162-year-old AC is the oldest sport trophy event in the world, first awarded by the Royal Yacht Squadron for a race around England’s Isle of Wight in 1851.

While wintering in San Francisco, in January I lunched with Tom Ehman, Vice Commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which represents defending champion Oracle Team USA. He said the San Francisco event was the “best ever” and asked, “How can you imagine doing it anyplace else?”

Likewise, America’s Cup Organizing Committee Chair Mark Buell said, “[Oracle owner] Larry [Ellison] delivered on his vision: the fastest boat, the latest technology, and the best sailors. And San Francisco delivered on its promise: the best venues for spectators to watch the races and a spectacular setting. We’re all hoping the America’s Cup will race here again.”

Fans are awaiting news about the location for the next Cup in 2017. Most think it will be San Francisco again, but negotiations have not been finalized.

Oracle CEO Russell Coutts and the city of San Francisco are clashing over the cost to taxpayers and the benefits of hosting the Cup. Supporters say San Francisco received international attention and press coverage you couldn’t buy at any price.

More important than potential revenue, the racing events turned the waterfront into a free community playground for Bay Area citizens, their families, and visitors.

Since racing took place close to shore, spectators enjoyed unprecedented views of the race amid stunning scenery.

Other cities being considered include San Diego, which hosted the Cup in 1988, 1992, and 1995, and Hawaii, where billionaire Oracle owner Larry Ellison owns the island of Lanai. Rumors are swirling that Long Beach and Newport, R.I. are in the mix as well. As SFGate.com has written, “Stay tuned. It’s never dull around Cup negotiations.”

For a taste of what it was like to be a spectator at various venues during the 2013 Cup, read my dispatch:

THE 34TH AMERICA’S CUP RACES IN SAN FRANCISCO

Winning the prestigious America’s Cup (AC) regatta, dating back to 1851, is considered the grandest honor in the yachting world. The 2013 event, initially scheduled for September 7 to 21, actually continued through September 25, making it one of the most extended and dramatic in the Cup’s 162-year history.

Software billionaire Larry Ellison’s defending Oracle Team USA was pitted against challenger Emirates Team New Zealand.

The regatta was riveting, with New Zealand just one point away from winning the Cup and taking it back home when the unbelievable happened.

Oracle Team USA staged amonumental comeback, won eight straight races in a row, and captured the Cup in a thrilling, winner-take-all final race.

THE RACE FOR THE CUP

The America’s Cup consists of “match races” between two yachts—the defender, which holds the cup currently, and the challenger. Both teams sail with a crew of 11. One point is awarded for winning a race, and the first team to win a total of nine points becomes the champion and new defender of the Cup.

Since defender Oracle Team USA had been penalized two points for pre-regatta violations, its first two wins wouldn’t accrue points, so the team needed to win eleven races total to be the final winner.

When the schooner America won a race around the Isle of Wight sponsored by Britain’s Royal Yacht Squadron in 1851, the trophy was renamed the America’s Cup,and the name stuck.

I was scheduled to fly in for what was anticipated to be the second and final week of the races, but by Friday, September 13, a victory seemed likely within two days. With a 6-0 lead, challenger Team New Zealand was only three points away from taking the Cup. Most everyone, including the Kiwis, thought it was all over.

THE RACING TEAMS

ORACLE TEAM USA

Ironically, eight members of Oracle Team USA’s full sailing crew are actually from New Zealand and seven are from Australia. Only two are from the United States!

Some would like to see the Cup go back to the old days, when the race was run like the Olympics and team members were from the country for which they sailed. Then the competition would be among countries rather than among people who can afford to buy the best sailors of the world.

Oracle Team USA, whose owner and principal is Larry Ellison, includes CEO and four-time AC winner Russell Coutts and Skipper and Helmsman James Spithill, who won the 2010 America’s Cup as the youngest helmsman in race history.

EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND

To the 4.4 million New Zealanders, the AC is like the Super Bowl. Indicating how important the regatta is to them, on the first day of racing, 62% of the nation’s televisions were tuned in to the races.

On board Emirates Team NZ, which is owned by Team New Zealand Trust and partly funded by the government, were Managing Director Grant Dalton and Skipper Dean Barker, who was a member of New Zealand’s winning team in 2000.

THE RACE COURSE

As part of Larry Ellison’s plan to make the AC more accessible, this year the boats raced in the natural amphitheater of San Francisco Bay rather than miles offshore.

Even the competition considered San Francisco Bay the perfect venue, with its reliable winds and challenging tides as well as 7.5 miles of waterfront and 39 piers offering many vantage points for watching the races.

The five-leg course, almost 10 nautical miles, began near the Golden Gate Bridge and concluded in front of America’s Cup Park, at Piers 27/29.

The course took sailors past San Francisco landmarks like former prison Alcatraz (seen here), Golden Gate Bridge, Treasure Island, and Angel Island.

THE AC72: A TECHNOLOGICAL FEAT

The America’s Cup has always been about pushing the boundaries of modern technology, and the tradition continued this year with the introduction of the groundbreaking AC72 racing catamaran.

These ultrafast boats are transforming the regatta from a billionaire’s pastime to a public, Formula One-like spectacle, fulfilling Larry Ellison’s goal of drawing wider audiences.

The AC72’s rigid sail and carbon-fiber hydrofoils skim the water at speeds exceeding 50 mph, making it more of a flying machine than a boat. Speeds are such that sailors are now required to wear crash helmets and small oxygen tanks.

DAY 5: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2013 – RACE 8

I arrived at SFO airport on Day Five of the races, dropped off luggage at my apartment, rushed to Fort Mason, a former army base, where the San Francisco America’s Cup Organizing Committee (ACOC) had invited donors, friends, officials, supporters, and VIPs to watch the races.

As it was Saturday and there was a chance the next day might be the last of the races, the Committee threw a big event at Fort Mason.

The event featuredplenty of food and drinks, giant television screens scattered about, viewing decks, entertainment for the children, and Google Glass try-ons for adults.

Hilary Newsom Callan, Mayor Edward Lee, and Stephanie Roumeliotes watched the races from Ft. Mason.

ACOC CEO Kyri McClelland with her husband Aaron and their son.

Jeanne Lawrence with ACOC Chair Mark Buell (right) and a fellow fan.

Elaine Asher, Lucy Jewett, who was inducted to the AC Hall of Fame in August in thanks for her more than 30 years of support, and Kyri McClellan.

SF Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, who is running for California State Assembly in 2014, with his wife Candace Chen, whom he wed in October.

Google Executive chairman Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy (seated), along with other guests, were raptly focused on the race.

Thomas Durein, Shannon Bavaro, and Peter Getty.

Maria Manetti Shrem with Susie Thompkins Buell and friend.

Mary Pilara with Catherine and Anthony Rubino.

Timothy Alin Simon, Kimberly Brandon, London Bree, Lee Houskeeper, Brenda Wright, and Steve Bowdry.

Dick Barker and Nune Worraruji.

Lori Pucinelli Stern and Peter Stern made the day a “family outing” with their children.

Lisa and Olivia Allenson with Kate and Annabell Palfrey.

Hilary Newsom Callan with Geoff, Siena, and Tali Callan.

SATURDAY’S RACE 8

Each day, weather permitting, there were two races: one at 1:15 and the second at 2:15. I was glad to arrive just in time for Race 8 at Ft. Mason, where thousands were watching on the shoreline.

Race 8 was an exciting near-disaster, as Team New Zealand almost capsized its boat on a too-quick turn maneuver. The boat was literally teetering on its side, with one hull lifted 30 feet in the air and the sail at a 45-degree angle from the surface of the water.

A few more feet and it could have been game over for the Kiwis,” NZ skipper Dean Barker later said. “We were as close as you possibly could get before the thing would have ended up on its side.”

We stunned viewers thought for sure it would crash, but the wind shifted and it righted. Watching was nerve-wracking and I was frightened for the crewmembers hanging some three or four stories in the air above the water.

Oracle won Race 8 by a mere 52 seconds. It was the second win for the team, which meant it could then start to accrue points after being docked for rule violations.

VIEWING VENUE AT MARINA GREEN

The second race of the day was cancelled due to dangerous winds exceeding the limit of 22.6 knots, so after the race I checked out the scene with the public at the America’s Cup Village at Marina Green.

DAY 6: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 – RACES 9 & 10

On Sunday, I joined the America’s Cup Organizing Committee (ACOC) again, this time at their Chalet, a temporary viewing building located between the St. Francis Yacht Club and Golden Gate Yacht Club.

ACOCChair Mark Buell with Nini Ferguson Johnson of Washington D.C. (right) and her daughter Charlotte Ferguson.

William Hearst and his son William Dedalus Hearst.

ACOC CEO Kyri McClelland celebrated her birthday on this day.

George and Brenda Jewett, whose family has been supporting the Cup for generations.

ACOC members Linda and Tom Coates.

Susan and Jim Swartz, an ACOC member and avid sailor.

Jeanne Lawrence and Carolyn Chandler.

Susan Dunlevy, Joshua Robison, Carole McNeil, and Denise Ivory.

Team USA won the first race, finally earning its first official point.

Then Team New Zealand took Race 10, which brought it within two points of winning it all.

DAY 8: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

On Tuesday, September 17, I headed to America’s Cup Park to visit Oracle’s Hospitality Suite, where Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) Vice Commodore Tom Ehman welcomed guests, spoke at the AC72 Dock Out Show, and held press conferences.

GGYC Protocol Chief Tom Webster, whose day job is wealth management, escorted me to the Oracle VIP suites. “The 34th America’s Cup met all the criteria to be a great sporting event,” Tom pointed out. “A great venue, great competitors, a great history, and a great story line.” He predicts it will be one of the top sports stories of the past 100 years.

GGYC Protocol Chief Tom Webster met me at the America’s Cup Park gate in a go-cart and off we went to the Oracle VIP suites.

On the way, we passed several big yachts moored at AC Park, including Larry Ellison’s boat and another Silicon Valley billionaire’s yacht, topped with its own helicopter.

AMERICA’S CUP PARK

The Cup was a catalyst for the city to make long-awaited improvements to the waterfront, including the construction of America’s Cup Park (Piers 27 and 29) and America’s Cup Pavilion, with a 9,000-seat amphitheater for nighttime concerts and watching the races on large video screens.

Spectators enjoyed watching the races for free from AC Park.

Jeanne Lawrence with Dean Barker, the handsome Emirates New Zealand skipper.

New Zealander youngsters got into the patriotic spirit during the races.

ORACLE HOSPITALITY SUITE

Team Oracle provided a bounty of snacks for its supporters.

Sandy Hayes, Chris Otorowski, Cindy Olsen, Stephanie Pugash, Tom Webster, Wendy Yamano, and GGYC Vice Commodore Tom Ehman.

Tom Ehman, Jeanne Lawrence, Team Oracle CEO Russell Coutts, and Ian “Fresh” Burns, Team Oracle’s Head of Performance.

Every morning, Tom Ehman led a press conference on the state of the races.

RACES 11 & 12 CANCELLED

On September 17, the races were first postponed and then cancelled due to more dangerous wind conditions. “Waiting fatigue” was starting to set in among the spectators—we just wanted to see the results! I sympathized with everyone who had traveled to the site that day and failed to see anything, but they made the best of it.

GOLDEN GATE YACHT CLUB

I’d planned to watch races 11 and 12 from the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which is represented by Team Oracle USA. GGYC became the first American club to win the Cup since 1995 when the Oracle team, in Larry Ellison’s third attempt, defeated the Swiss Alinghi team in 2010 in Valencia, Spain.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club, founded in l939 and once situated on a barge in the Marina, was rebuilt after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

America’s Cup veteran Jim Nicholas, who competed as a crewmember in seven AC campaigns.

Visiting from Hong Kong were Quam founder Bernard Pouliot, Brand America founder Michael Sadak, and Kidder Mathews EVP Skip Whitney.

After being spruced up with some funds from Larry Ellison, the GGYC is a fresh and intimate venue with fabulous views of the races from the dining room and the outside terrace.

ST. FRANCIS YACHT CLUB

Later our entourage walked next door to the St. Francis Yacht Club, where members of both clubs mingled amicably.

The St. Francis Yacht Club features a Spanish-style tiled roof and a fleet of large expensive boats (both motor and sail-powered) docked out front.

George Drysdale and Kelly Grimes in the St. Francis Yacht Club.

Since the day’s races were cancelled, we had plenty of time to enjoy camaraderie before competition resumed.

DAY 9: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 – RACE 12

On Day 9, I watched the races in the smartly decorated Louis Vuitton Hospitality Suite at the America’s Cup Village.

Team New Zealand was only one point away from winning the Cup, with Team USA trailing at a dismal single point. But Oracle rallied and came out ahead on Race 12.

Barbara Myers, Jeanne Lawrence, and Christine Belanger at the Louis Vuitton Hospitality Suite.

New Zealand lost its second opportunity for a win later that day when, as the teams were already crossing the start line, officials announced that Race 13 would again be postponed due to dangerous conditions.

Former head of Team New Zealand Sir Michael Fay, champion Australian yachtsman Sir Jim Hardy, Louis Vuitton Cup Director Christine Belanger, and America’s Cup film library manager Larry Keating.

Jeanne Lawrence, Deepa Pakianathan, Stefanie Tsen, and Suzana Jackson.

The Louis Vuitton Suite had great views of the Bay and surrounding hills.

DAY 10: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 – RACE 13

Day 10, Race 13: The “wind gods” were certainly not working in Team NZ’s favor.

After three days of postponement due to excessive winds, on Day 10 there wasn’t enough wind.

Team NZ was leading by three-quarters of a mile and was only slightly more than a nautical mile from the finish line when the race was stopped.

Light winds forced the race to be abandoned when the 40-minute race time limit expired.

It was a lucky break for Oracle, and when the race was rerun later in the day, Team USA came out ahead, once again dashing New Zealand’s hopes to bring the regatta to a close.

DAY 11: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

Today I stayed home and watched the America’s Cup on TV and my computer screen, just like millions of fans worldwide. (It was a good decision, as both races were cancelled due to unraceable wind conditions.) I was fascinated to see how television captured this new, thrilling racing style.

Ellison hired Stan Honey to create AC LiveLine, a groundbreaking television innovation that shows which boat is leading and the speed and wind direction by digitally projecting infographics onto live video.

The America’s Cup mobile phone app allowed fans to watch the races in real time, with commentary.

The America’s Cup website was also beautifully designed, and after each race you could watch replays and listen to interviews and commentary.

DAY 12: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2013 – RACES 14 & 15

This day was the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere. Under sunny skies and amid brisk winds, my daughter, Stephanie Lawrence, and I headed to the GGYC.

Stephanie and Jeanne Lawrence with GGYC Commodore Norbert Bajurin and theAmerica’s Cup trophy, which rides in its own airplane seat as it travels the world.

Georgianna, Adrianna, and Robert Sullivan.

St. Francis Yacht Club Women’s Committee member Laura King Pfaff and Staff Commodore Committee member Richard Pfaff.

Jeanne Lawrence and Stephanie Lawrence, with views of San Francisco from the GGYC.

In the GGYC, Jim Spithill’s father Arthur Spithill (far right) and other supporters cheered on the team.

When Oracle won both races, our hopes rose: Could Team USA possibly win it all? At the end of the day, the score stood at 8-5 NZL-USA.

DAY 13: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013 – RACE 16

Today I again headed to the GGYC. Oracle had now won four races in a row. They had made daily modifications to their craft and clearly had the faster of the two.

These races have become Nascar on water!After a brief postponement, Oracle won Race 16, achieving an unheard-of five straight victories in a row.

I heard that the Kiwis had canceled the victory celebrations at the Fairmont Hotel and the Emirates plane that was waiting to whisk them back to Auckland.

The teams were both suffering from mental strain, and even the spectators (who had expected a victory by now) were stressed out.

DAY 14: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013 – RACES 17 & 18

Tuesday, three days after the race that was projected to be the conclusive one, the competition was still alive. I decided to watch from the spectators’ bleachers, to experience the public’s view. Luckily it was another perfect and sunny day.

Thousands of spectators filled the bleachers at AC Park and lined the shores of San Francisco Bay to catch a glimpse of the flying AC72s.

USA won the first race, narrowly avoiding disaster: When Oracle came out of the starting line, the team buried a hull in the water, which could have caused the craft to capsize. But the team recovered and took the lead, 200 meters ahead of New Zealand for most of the race, maintaining a 54-second advantage to take the win.

Even if you knew nothing about the sport, you could feel the heart-stopping excitement.

For the fifth day in a row, Oracle won the race and the New Zealanders went home still just one point away from the Cup.

DAY 15: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 – RACE 19, FINAL DAY

Today I left early for the Golden Gate Yacht club and the final race at 1:15 p.m., with the teams tied 8-8. Luckily the weather was perfect and the wind wasn’t too strong. Another postponement was unthinkable!

The excitement was extraordinary. Out-of-towners were jockeying for flights into San Francisco at the last minute, but all were booked. Those within driving distance got in their cars and started driving.

TeamUSA fans Elizabeth Thieriot, Linda Jenks Kjaempe, Jeanne Lawrence, and Tom Webster watched history in the making from the GGYC stands.

THE FINISH LINE

Oracle Team USA won! In the first winner-take-all race since 1983 and only the third in the history of the America’s Cup, the team sailed to victory in an unprecedented eight races in a row.

At the end of the day, Oracle simply had the faster boat.

A sailor friend told me every night Team USA tweaked the design to make the boat faster, while Team New Zealand didn’t make additional progress.

Larry Ellison congratulates the crew.

After winning the AC, Team USA waved to the cheering fans as they passed close to shore.

CELEBRATION CEREMONY AT AMERICA’S CUP VILLAGE

After Oracle crossed the finish line, my friends and I quickly left the GGYC and drove downtown to the America’s Cup Village at the Embarcadero waterfront to watch the teams and the press conference.

“We were facing the barrel of a gun at 8-1 and the guys didn’t even flinch,” exulted Oracle skipper James Spithill. “Thanks to San Francisco, this is one hell of a day.”

Even the American supporters gave a wild cheer when Team New Zealand took the stage, as they had sailed a very good race.

The Champagne bottles were uncorked and Team USA’s crew followed the tradition of drinking out of the Cup.

It was a glorious day for San Francisco, Oracle Team USA, and the exuberant spectators who filled the waterfront.

Team USA skipper James Spithill kissed the America’s Cup trophy in celebration of the victory.

THE 35TH AMERICA’S CUP

Five days after the AC ended, Queensland, Australia’s Hamilton Island Yacht Club (HIYC) was announced as the next Challenger of Record (COR).

Once there is a new AC winner, other yachting clubs around the world petition to challenge the team at the next regatta. The COR is the first challenger accepted by the defending champion.

The teams will work together to negotiate the next “mutual consent terms,” which establish the time, type of yachts, and match format for the next race.

The big question now is whether the regatta will remain in San Francisco; at the time of publication, negotiations were still ongoing.

Want to learn more about the America's Cup? Read my previous coverage of San Francisco's America's Cup Opening Weekend here and the Louis Vuitton Cup races here.

Photos by Jeanne Lawrence, Drew Altizer, Gilles Martin-Raget, Balazs Gardi, Guilain Grenier, Chris Cameron, Abner Kingman, Frances Kupersmith, and Ricardo Pinto.

*Urbanite Jeanne Lawrence reports on lifestyle and travel from her homes in San Francisco, Shanghai, and New York, and wherever else she finds a good story.

From my view, the hundreds waiting for the noon opening far exceeded last year's interest.

TEFAF opens as art market soars
By Augustus Mayhew

Whether the spectacular early spring, considering last year's snowy deep freeze, or the Guido Reni oil-on-copper painting at Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd., the Damien Hirst, the recently discovered portrait of the Begum of Oudh by English painter George Duncan Beechey at Amir Mohtashemi, or the Emil Nolde watercolour at Beck & Eggeling, the aisles were filled within the first hour for The European Fine Art Fair's opening 2014 Vernissage at Maastricht.

The entrance hall featured a work by Alexander Calder.

On the eve of today's day-long event attended by more than 10,000 fairgoers, TEFAF's foundation released its annual market study documenting that the global €47.4 billion art and antiques market has nearly reached the same levels as the pre-recession boom years. As several hundred awaited for the gates to open at noon on Thursday, the report named Americans the world's leading buyers and ascertained the escalating values were due to rising prices for major Post-War and Contemporary artists.

According to the report, the 11% growth in the value of the Post-War and Contemporary sector is attributed to the highest-ever auction sales total of €4.9 billion with a significant portion of it paid as record prices for artists such as Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. According to the report, the US had 38% of the world market. The US accounts for 42% of the world's 32 million millionaires with at least 600,000 of this global group tagged as high-level art collector members.

Willem van Roijen, the chairman of TEFAF's board, and Titia Vellenga, public relations and marketing manager for TEFAF.

The Met, The National Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Los Angeles County Art Museum, and the Bruce Museum are among the US institutions whose members, directors and trustees are attending TEFAF as part of a museum-sponsored tour.

Trailing the US, China's share was slightly down at 24%., although China remains the most important of all the newer markets with a turnover of €11.5 billion in 2013. Chinese paintings and calligraphy are the largest sector of the market. Non-payment by winning bidders at auction remains a persistent problem with only 56% of lots at Mainland Chinese auction houses being paid for within six months.

The UK remained in third place with 20% despite a drop of 3% while the European Union also dropped by 3% to 32%.

Once again this year, the fair lived up to being the most beautifully staged fair in the world.

The aisles were landscaped with a spectrum of tulips.

"After recovering strongly in 2010, the global art market has experienced mixed performance within different sectors and between nations," says Dr. Clare McAndrew in her report for TEFAF. "Some sectors and individual businesses have reached peaks well in excess of those achieved in 2007, while others are still struggling to regain momentum."

The international press were well represented.

Among Thursday's reported early sales, Galerie Ulrich Fiedler has placed the 1902 gilded oak Carlo Bugatti Chair designed for the Le arti decorativi internazionali del nuovo secolo' in Turin, priced at 350,000 Euros. A significant Chinese drum stand priced at 2.5 million Euros is said to have been sold at Vanderven Oriental Art. A 1st millennium BC "Amlash" spouted pottery vessel with a burnished surface attributed to the Marlik culture in the Southwestern Caspian region and tagged at 100,000 Euros has also apparently found a buyer at Galerie Kevorkian.

Still available after a brisk first day, Damien Hirst's Black Sheep With Golden Horn (2009), described as a ram in formaldehyde, priced at 2.25 million Euros by Tomasso Brothers Fine Art.

Here is a look around some early moments of the fair.

American board member Michel Witmer with board member Konrad Bernheimer. Witmer gave the press a highlights preview of the fair before it opened for the Vernissage.

TEFAF trustee and gallerist Johnny van Haeften.

Paul Laster, with Art in America and Art AsiaPacific.

Angela Schuster, senior editor at Art +Auction.

Titia Vellenga and Michel Witmer.

Paul Herring and John Herring.

Anne Marie Monin and Pascal Zuber.

Gallerist Otto Naumann.

Axel Vervoordt, right, being interviewed at his stand.

Several of the stands were as brilliantly crafted as the artwork they presented.

Veronique Bamps, Monaco. Mid-19th century multi-color diamond brooch, from the Estate of Elsa Schiaparelli. 85,000 Euros.

A La Veille Russie, New York.

A La Veille Russie, New York. George III gilt bronze clock and automaton in the form of an elephant. The maker is thought to be Hubert Martinet.

A La Veille Russie, New York. Emerald and diamond diadem, c. 1910. $195,000 US.

A La Veille Russie, New York. Late 19th century multi-color diamond dragonfly pin. $60,000 US.

Marlborough Gallery, New York. Artist descending a Staircase, 2012. Clive Head, artist.

Galerie Patrice Tringano, Paris.

Galerie Boulakia, Paris. A 1939 painting by Ferdinand Leger, asking 1.4 million Euros.

Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd., London.

Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd., London. A View of the Vredeveldt Mansion. H. K. Schepper, dated 1767.

Otto Naumann, New York.

Konrad Bernheimer-Colnagi, Munich and London.

Konrad Bernheimer-Colnaghi, Munich and London.

Richard Green, London. Portrait d'homme ... 16th century oil on panel. Corneille de Lyon, artist.

Richard Green, London. The peasant lawyer. Dated 1615. Pieter Breughel the Younger.

Adam Williams Fine Art, New York.

Connaught Brown-Osborne Samuel, London.

Waterhouse & Dodd, London & New York.

Boizo, Amsterdam.

Galerie Henze & Ketterer, Bern. Dance of Death. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. 3.7 million Euros.

Galerie Henze & Ketterer, Bern.

Van de Wwghe, New York.

Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York. Angela Westwater and Walter Biggs, managing director.

Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York. Divine Details, 2014. Jan Worst, artist.

Landau Fine Art, Montreal.

Gallerist Jacques de la Beraudiere, Paris.

Galerie Jacques de la Beraudiere, Paris.

Axel Vervoordt.

Theo Daatselaar, Zaltbommel, Netherlands.

Dickinson, London. "The asking on the van Gogh is somewhere in the 8-figures, Euros, of course."

TEFAF's Museum Restoration Fund assists private, public, and academic museums worldwide.

Photographs by Augustus Mayhew.

Augustus Mayhew is the author ofLost in Wonderland – Reflections on Palm Beach.

Markt Square, Maastricht. Every day in Maastricht has been more beautiful than the day before.

Reported sales mark TEFAF opening
By Augustus Mayhew

While there wasn't yesterday's crush, TEFAF opened its 27th edition on Friday morning with a rash of red dots on cards at several stands and talk of considerable sales. Set to run until March 23, attracting as many 70,000 fairgoers, this year my two days was only time enough to linger at the German Expressionist works at Henze & Ketterer, marvel at the extraordinary photography at Gallerie Johannes Faber, and be pleasantly startled at Les Enluminures phenomenal volumes, among probably more than one hundred other captivating stands.

Once again, there was a measurable crowd waiting for the gates to open.

Whether gratified by art's aesthetics or economics, TEFAF's Great Hall of Wonders is as much a showcase for artists and artisans as it is an engaging marketplace. Tomorrow, Saturday, it is on to Rotterdam and the work of Rem Koolhaas.

Here is a look at this morning's symposium and my last snaps at TEFAF.

Though the stands were busy, navigating the aisles was more manageable.

The day began with Dr. Clare Andrews presenting TEFAF's annual art market economic report in an auditorium at MECC.

Dr. Clare Andrews, founder of Arts Economics, delivered an overview of her report that was released on the eve of the opening Vernissage.

Reasons for low levels of e-Commerce in the art market.

Growth of the online art market.

Following the market report, Marie Kalt, editor Architectural Digest-France, moderated a panel headlined "Addicted to Vintage - Trends in 20th Century Design," sponsored by 1stdibs. To her right, British journalist and design expert Ian Phillips.

Marshmellow Settee, c. 1956. George Nelson. Phillips pointed out various peak sales for vintage furniture. In 2006, Nelson's Marshmellow Settee sold for more than $50,000.

Jean Prouve's "Grand Repos" armchair sold at Art Curial, Paris, for $656,680 in 2011.

Eileen Gray's "Dragon" armchair sold at the YSL auction in Paris for more then $28 million US.

Willem Baron von Dedem, chairman of the TEFAF board of trustees.

Marie Kalt and Olivier Gabet.

Michael Bruno, 1stdibs founder and CEO.

Chanhan Minassian, interior designer , was one of the symposium's speakers.

Here are some of the 20th century design stands at this year's TEFAF.

Galerie Downtown, Paris. Francois, Laffanour, director.

L'Arc on Seine, Paris.

Sebastian+ Barquet, New York.

Eric Philippe, Paris.

Eric Philippe, gallerist.

Dansk Mobilkunst Gallery, Copenhagen and Paris.

Here are several galleries of interest.

Jean-David Cahn, Basel.

Kukje Gallery and Tina Kim Gallery.

Bowman Sculpture, London. Auguste Rodin.

Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Dusseldorf.

Flore de Brantes, Brussels.

Dickinson, London. Lulu and Mimi. Niki de Saint Phalle, artist. 625,000 Euros.

The haute joiallerie stands were brilliant in their craft and provenance.

A. Aardewerk Antiquair, The Hague. The elevated centerpiece is by Spanish artist Lluis Masriera,c. 1910.

A. Aardewerk Antiquair, The Hague. A gold and diamond Rene Boivin, c. 1959, brooch is this display's highlight with various works fom Cartier and George Lenfant.

Hancocks, London.

Hancocks, London. The Rene Lalique butterfly is priced at 500,000 Euros. Below, the butterfly bracelet is by Carreras.

Wartski, London.

van Kranendonk Duffels, The Netherlands.

Deborah Elvira, Castellon. Pendant (Corbata). Spain, c. 1670. An exemplar of monastery jewelry.

J. Kugel Antiquaires, Paris. Before the doors opened ...

J. Kugel, Paris. Within the first half hour after the doors opened ...

J. Kugel, Paris.

Ben Janssens Oriental Art, London.

Laue-Mehringer & Bernappi, Munich.

Galerie Kevorkian, Paris.

Les Enluminures, Paris, New York, and Chicago. Schembart Carnival Book, c. 1550-1600.

Michael Goedhuis Gallery, London.

Carlton Hobbs, London. The Thomas Hope Table. Top, Rome, c. 1795. The Base, English, c. 1800.

Carlton Hobbs Jr.

Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo.

Littleton & Hennesey Asian Art, Hong Kong, New York & London.

Fr. Janssens Van Der Maelen, Belgium.

Gallerie Johannes Faber, Vienna.

Ursus Books.

Ursus Books. Le Tumulte Noir. Paris, 1927. Voyages et Adventures de Josephine Baker. Limited edition of 500. 35,000 Euros.

Getrud Rudigier, Munich. Royal Treasures of Dresden.

Le Mesangere, Albert Vandervelden, Liege.

Perrin, Paris.

Ralph Gierhards, Dusseldorf.

H. Blairman & Sons, London.

Franck C. Moller, Hamburg.

Axel Vervoordt.

Robbig, Munich.

Laue-Mehringer Benappi, Turin.

Paul Kasmin, New York.

Landau Fine Art, Montreal.

Sam Fogg, London.

Galerie von Vertes, Zurich.

Next: Nouveau Amsterdam + Rotterdam: Modern & Moderne

Photographs by Augustus Mayhew.

Augustus Mayhew is the author ofLost in Wonderland – Reflections on Palm Beach.

The St. Coletta fundraiser was an intimate and heartwarming occasion.

SETTING ASIDE MALAYSIA AIRLINES FOR SOME HOMETOWN GOOD: ST. COLETTA
by Carol Joynt

It’s impossible for me not to be obsessed with Malaysia Airlines Flight #370. The disappearance of the Boeing 777 somewhere in Asia taps into my DNA — love of breaking news, fascination with mystery, and fear of flying. I’ve been madly consuming the low-hanging conventional media, The New York Times, CNN, Huffington Post, but also jumping on the crowd-searching site Tomnod.com, where users, with the odds of lottery winners, scan satellite images to find the plane.


	The search continues.

I sample pilot threads, too, and flight crew threads and passenger threads, and threads that skew politically left and right. My overall compulsive go-to, however, is Reddit.com’s “Comprehensive timeline: Malaysia Airlines” for 24 hour global human sharing of news, expertise, theories, conspiracies, and just enough wisdom and crazy to keep it irresistible.

Even with all of that information flooding my brain, I know nothing. My theory is simple. The lead international authorities either don’t know where the plane is and are being honest with us or they do know and they are lying.

I had drinks with a friend who I’m sure is CIA — though in Washington when you’re out with a CIA friend you don’t ask, you do along with the ruse — and he theorized that a lot of the secrecy is different nations, some of them warring, who don’t want to reveal how or what they know because they don’t want to reveal their own secret radar (spying) assets. Also, he said, there could be a race of nations to be the first to get to the plane, and for all kinds of good and bad reasons. Good: solve the mystery and maybe save people. Bad: scrub the evidence of what went wrong.

It says quite a lot about St. Coletta of Greater Washington that I fully disengaged from the Malaysia Airlines mystery on Saturday to attend their annual fundraising gala at the Four Seasons Hotel. A lot of fundraisers make the eyes go dry and numb the brain, but not St. Coletta. It can’t be missed.


	One of the live auction items: funding hot lunches for the adult program.

Last year I spent a day at the school in southeast DC, speaking with the chief executive officer Sharon Brady Raimo, and making visits with her to various classrooms and other public spaces where the students went about their daily business of learning. I wrote a story for Washingtonian, and rather than plagiarize myself I’m just going to lift the first paragraph:

In so many ways, St. Coletta of Greater Washington looks like any other school or playground where children gather. The DC charter school’s building, designed by architect Michael Graves, is colorful, even festive. It has classrooms and lockers, a cafeteria, an outdoor gym, and even a small indoor pool. In the halls and classrooms children and adults interact. There are smiles.

There’s laughter. Some of the children walk and some ride on wheels; some talk, some don’t. But the wheels they ride upon aren’t strollers or bicycles or skateboards. They are wheelchairs. The children who don’t talk probably never will. The 285 students, some as young as three, are moderately to severely disabled, most since birth, and will be disabled for the rest of their lives. St. Coletta is there for them as advocate and friend and most of all not to pander but to teach. The message is: You are not invisible; you count.

Perhaps you’ll read the full story here.

David Pryor, father of Hampton, at the St. Coletta gala.

St. Coletta's CEO, Sharon Brady Raimo.

Amanda Perry and Jake Perry.

Heather Knight and David Knight.

Tanya Potter Adler and Sheila Sullivan.

Ready with the white wine at the Four Seasons ballroom.

I first became aware of St. Coletta through David Pryor, Jr., the head of government affairs for Microsoft, former Clinton White House appointee, son of former Arkansas governor and senator David Pryor and older brother of Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor. But it’s his son, Hampton, who is his connection to St. Coletta. Hampton, who will soon be 19, has been a student there for years.

David will tell you they are facing a juncture, too, because DC allows aging students to stay at the school only until they turned 22 and then they have to find an adult program, but DC doesn’t sponsor adult programs. Unless the program changes, Hampton will have to go to a facility in Virginia or Maryland. Pryor loves St. Coletta so much he would like Hampton to be able to stay there for as long as he needs.

William Risbrook, St. Coletta's head chef, and Steve Damato of Restaurant Nora.

DC City council member and mayoral candidate David Catania made it to the dinner despite being under the weather.

Jane Froehlich was there with the Trimark Corporation.

Sandi Davis, Allyson Eastman and Andrew Eastman, family of a student.

What Pryor has done with his connections and skills is create an annual gala where tables are bought by his friends and also some of the biggest corporate money in town: Boeing, Beam, Google, Comcast, FedEx, Walmart, Facebook, the National Association of Broadcasters, Trimark commercial real estate, BB&T bank, and various other local organizations. There’s a silent auction and a live auction and the items include the usual luxury getaways and exclusive meets and greets, but also the useful: funds to buy a new van for the school, a new awning, and hot lunches for adult students.

Checking in for table assignments and auction devices.

Bidders focused on the silent auction.

Lyndon Boozer of AT&T with his wife, Karen Anderson.

Lyndon shows off LBJ cufflinks that belonged to his namesake.

The highpoint of the gala is at the beginning, when the school’s choir takes center stage to perform. Music director Joni Thompson leads them in a couple of songs and with obvious affection, determination and joy. The children, in turn, reflect the joy and the pride of a job well done. It’s heartbreaking and heartwarming, but most of all heartwarming. It’s a very positive face of what can be accomplished when need and determination have the opportunity to connect with money and generosity. Sharon Raimo delivers the need and determination, David Pryor, and his friends and other parents, deliver the money and generosity.

Beautiful spring flowers adorned all the tables.

The first course was a salad of lettuces and fruit followed by short ribs.

The band played before dinner and for dancing after.

The Google table.

The St. Coletta Chorus performs "Lean on Me."

The highpoint of the St. Coletta gala is the chorus performance, and the performers know it.

Back stage, the St. Coletta Chorus members change into their bright orange t-shirts.

I returned home feeling as I did after my day at St. Coletta – grateful that these children have the care and attention they need, wishing the same could be there for all the others like them. My story of that day ended with this, and it’s appropriate for the ending here, too.

“Does (Raimo) ever get discouraged by the work? No, she says. ‘It’s a joyful thing. These kids, if it’s in their heart it’s on their lips. There’s no filter. There’s always truth. They are great. I feel happy every day.’”

John Sullivan and Alexa Adler.

Frannie Lasala, Jessica Killin, and Deana Perlmutter.

Leigh Allen and Micaela Fernandez.

Cleveland Greer, Rebecca Hill, and John-Henry Loomis.

Lee Brenner, Pascaline Clerc, and Laura Howell.

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

Rotterdam's skyline — devastated after the German bombing blitz in 1940 when more than a square mile of the city was leveled — now features a formidable collection of high-rise buildings, including the works of two of the world's most renowned architects, pictured left, Renzo Piano's KPN Tower; right. Rem Koolhaas/OMA's 44-story mixed-use De Rotterdam.

TEFAF + Nouveau Amsterdam + Rotterdam Modern
By Augustus Mayhew

Today's Amsterdam and Rotterdam present two diverse urban approaches, however much the fate of both cities has been the upshot of World War II. Amsterdam was spared the concentrated bombing that destroyed much of Rotterdam's traditional building heritage. Even so, less than monumental Art Nouveau-Art Deco style buildings have been too often disregarded in favor of the more Dutch traditions. While in Rotterdam, the high-rise capital of The Netherlands, where nearly half the population is non-Dutch and more than 150 languages are spoken, glass-and-steel canyons make for Blade Runner-like street scenes. But before a look at Nouveau Amsterdam and Modern Rotterdam, and as the sound of the most often heard Dutch cant "Yeah-Yeah-Yeah" echoes in my mind, here is the most recent tally from TEFAF at Maastricht and my jaunt to the renovated Rijksmuseum.

TEFAF @ Maastricht
14 March-23 March 2014

As we drove by the Maastricht airport, I noticed a dozen or more private jets on the runway, waiting perhaps for the €1.4 million Buddha statue to be crated or the Breughel the Elder painting to be wrapped. None of the jets appeared large enough to accommodate the de Gaulle desk from Galerie Downtown, Paris, that unconfirmed reports have placed with a prominent buyer from Greenwich-Palm Beach. I found a reluctance for some of TEFAF's dealers to utter a syllable about the details of a transaction. When I returned to the Laue-Mehringer Benapi stand to gather details on the spiral-designed Venetian glass plate, the sales clerk informed me it had sold and she could no longer share the price, the terms, or the identity of the buyer.

The mystery of just how many masterpieces sold for how much remains unknown. That is, until next year, when TEFAF's more than 275 exhibitors converge in Maastricht and display their wares for what will undoubtedly again be heralded as the world's most beautiful and momentous art fair.

Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo.

Here are a few of the official reported sales:

During the past several days, sales in the antiques section, the largest and most eclectic division at TEFAF, were described as "plentiful." The Met secured a c. 1690 parcel-gilt ostrich ewer with its basin from J. Kugel Antiquaires, Paris. A private collector bought a pair of 17th-century globes by Willem Blaue from Daniel Crouch Rare Books, London, that will be exhibited at the Rijksmuseum. Galerie Kevorkian, Paris, reported the sale of a portrait of a Safavid Nobleman, by Shaykh 'Abbas, which was the subject of bidding by two museums. Aronson Antiquairs, Amsterdam, reported the sale of a pyramidal flower Delft flower vase, c. 1690, for a high five-figure sum to the National Gallery of Victoria, the oldest public museum in Australia.

In the paintings section, The Weiss Gallery, London, reported a number of deals including one if its highlights, a signed oil-on-panel painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586) titled Lucretia, c. 1537-1540, asking price of €2 million euros. A small canvas by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875), painted c. 1826-1827, titled Ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct, Rome was sold by Daxer & Marschall, Munich. Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam, sold View of Lausanne, c.1870, by Matthijs Maris (1839-1917) to The Gemeentemuseum, The Hague. The director of the museum, Benno Tempel, declined to give the price but commented, "Nobody knew where this picture was, and I found it here, at TEFAF." A life-time bronze cast, 1950, titled Piccolo Cavallo by the Italian sculptor Mario Marini (1901-1980) was sold by Landau Fine Art.

Contemporary photography specialist, Galleri K, Oslo, sold a large frieze (pictured above) of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, created by Thomas Struth in 2005, consisting of five separate photographs.

Amsterdam

Singel 423. Amsterdam is best known for its concentric canal rings lined with endless variations of traditional 16th-17th-century Dutch gabled facades.

And yet, whether by foot or on board a canal boat, Modernist buildings, though not as numerous or sizable as Rotterdam, can be found in between the time-honored wooden shoe-and-windmill houses.

Tesla showroom. Opened on Amsterdam's fashionable P.C. Hooftstraat in December 2013, Tesla plans to open other outlets for Arnhem, The Hague, and Utrecht in 2014.

Rjiksmuseum
Museumstraat,1

Rijksmuseum, 3:00 p.m.

Several weeks ago, I had arranged a confirmed 3 p.m. photo/press appointment at the Rijksmuseum. When I arrived, the reception desk was unaware of the appointment, although I showed them my confirmation and identification. They would not call or e-mail or text the person who had arranged the appointment. They would not allow me to speak with the museum's press/marketing/media staff. After more than 15 minutes, I felt as if they were going to have security guards usher me out of the building for being an imposter. The next day, when I was already in Maastricht, I received an apology from the museum's public relations/marketing department, inviting me to drop by the next time I was in Amsterdam. In Maastricht, I spoke with two other press who also had similar tales from the Rijksmuseum. The "reception" staff's harsh unyielding tone gave way to a quaint sense that I had arrived at Fawlty Towers.

Rijksmuseum. Side elevation, processional tile mural.

Rijksmuseum. Café and Gift Shop.

Rijksmuseum. The circular reception/information desk is in the lower right of the photograph.

Rijksmuseum. This was as far as I was allowed at the Rijksmuseum.

Rijksmuseum. On my way to the exit door before security guards are called and after yet another bureaucratic bungle.

Nouveau Amsterdam

Amsterdam American Hotel, 1898-1900
Leidsekade 97, Leidseplein
W. Kromhout & W. G. Jansen, architects.

Amsterdam American Hotel. A view from across the Leidestraat, showing the 1929 and 1954 additions.

Amsterdam American Hotel. A bas-relief of the original hotel, more in the Viennese style, before it was transformed into the Nouveau style.

Amsterdam American Hotel, canal side entrance to the hotel.

Amsterdam American Hotel, canal side view.

Amsterdam American Hotel. The view from my room #116 included a perspective on the left canal bank of Tommy Hilfiger's European headquarters.

Amsterdam American Hotel. Tile and iron detail.

Amsterdam American Hotel. Café sign.

Amsterdam American Hotel. The fountain basin is in the shape of a pike. The sculpture, Fish (1962), is a work by Gerarda Rueter.

Amsterdam American Hotel. A view of the Café Americain.

Amsterdam American Hotel. Café windows overlooking the Leidsestraat.

Amsterdam American Hotel. Café chandelier, detail.

Amsterdam American Hotel. 8:10 pm. A view of the Café Americain looking towards the bar mural.

Amsterdam American Hotel. Café Americain.

Pathé City, Kleine Gartmanplantsoen, 15-19. Located across the street from the American Hotel, the City Theater complex was next to a delicious Pancake Corner café.

Theater Tuschinski, 1918- 1921
Regulierbreestraat, Rembrandtsplein
H. L. deJong, architect

Theater Tuschinski, entrance.

Theater Tuschinski, facade. Sensational!

Theater Tuschinski, side lights.

Theater Tuschinski, film poster.

Theater Tuschinski, lobby. The ceilings lights kept changing.

Theater Tuschinski, film entrance doors.

Theater Tuschinski, light detail.

Theater Tuschinski, lobby detail.

Theater Tuschinski, lobby.

Grand Hotel Amrath, 1913
Het Scheepvaarthuis - The Shipping House. Van der Meij, architect.
Shipping House offices to Amrath Hotel conversion, Ray Kentie, architect.

.Grand Hotel Amrath, canal view. The architect Van der Meij is considered one of the founders of the Amsterdam School architectural style.

Grand Hotel Amrath, corner view.

Grand Hotel Amrath, entrance detail.

Grand Hotel Amrath, canal side detail.

Grand Hotel Amrath, entrance detail.

Grand Hotel Amrath, lobby window, detail.

Grand Hotel Amrath, lobby grand staircase.

Grand Hotel Amrath, view looking up the staircase.

Grand Hotel Amrath, staircase view.

Grand Hotel Amrath, Seven Seas dining room.

Grand Hotel Amrath, looking down the staircase into the lobby.

Grand Hotel Amrath, canal side elevation, detail.

Hugo Boss store, Leidsestraat 1-3.

Hugo Boss store, Leidsestraat 1-3. 1904.

Hugo Boss store, Leidsestraat 1-3.

Rotterdam Modern

SS Rotterdam
1959

SS Rotterdam. I was reluctant when I first heard we would be staying aboard the Hotel SS Rotterdam. Surprisingly, it was quiet and comfortable. The last night we took an exhilarating water taxi for dinner at the Hotel New York.

SS Rotterdam, ship model.

SS Rotterdam. My Lower Promenade cabin was compact and comfy with period décor and costumed staff.

The SS Rotterdam has maintained its Midcentury Modern ambiance.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 1935
Museumpark 18-20

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The interior courtyard. Andreas Van Der Steur, architect. Like a setting for "The Monuments Men," the museum survived the bombing in 1940 and the Nazi occupation.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Construction and additions timeline.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, entrance courtyard.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, café/pavilion addition. The museum hosted a refreshing luncheon for the international press at the café.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. My place at the table where tomato soup and cheese sandwiches were served.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Framing Sculpture: Brancusi, Rosso & Man Ray: 8 February 2014 – 11 May 2014. The exhibit's curators gave us a tour of the show.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Framing Sculpture: Brancusi, Rosso & Man Ray. Work by Man Ray, left; Brancusi, right.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Brancusi's work on display.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Salvador Dali.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Design exhibition.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. A camera shy security guard.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Design exhibition.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Expresso café, sign.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. In the garden.

Chabot Museum, 1938
Museumpark 11
G. W. Baas and L. Stokla, architects

Chabot Museum. The museum is dedicated to artist Hendrik Chabot.

Chabot Museum. Simply sensational!

Chabot Museum.

Sonneveld House, 1933
Brinkmann & van der Vlugt, architect

Sonneveld House,1933. Rotterdam.

Sonneveld House,1933. Rotterdam. The Sonneveld family photographed in their backyard. One of the best-preserved houses in the Nieuwe Bouwen style, the Dutch branch of the International School of Modernism, it was designed by the architecture firm of Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Collection Het Nieuwe Instituut, BIHS Archive.

Sonneveld House,1933. Rotterdam.

Hogeschool, Rotterdam. The Willem de Kooning Academy of Art is part of Hogeschool.

NAI-Netherlands Architecture Institute, 1993
Het Nieuwe Instituut, Museumpark 25 www.hetnieuweinstituuut.nl
Jo Coenen, architect

Het Nieuwe Instituut, southwest elevation.

Het Nieuwe Instituut, south elevation entrance facing Museumpark.

Het Nieuwe Instituut, southeast elevation.

Museumpark, 1991-1992
Rem Koolhaas/OMA architect

Apple orchard with stones.

Kunsthal, 1992
Rem Koolhaas/OMA architect.

Kunsthal, west entrance. Kunsthal "An exhibition machine" reopened in January 2014 after OMA completed an extensive renovation that addressed issues concerning security, energy and circulation.

Kunsthal, south pedestrian entrance along Maas Boulevard.

Kunsthal, view of the east and north elevations from the Museumpark.

Kunsthal, view of the north elevation from the footbridge leading to Museumpark.

Kunsthal, west elevation leading into the auditorium and the café.

Kunsthal, auditorium.

Kunsthal, café.

Kunsthal, view of the north elevation from the footbridge leading to Museumpark.

Kunsthal, pedestrian walkway between Maas Boulevard and the Museumpark.

A view to the northwest from the Kunsthal with a view of the Natural History Museum, left..

Rotterdam Modern

Most of Rotterdam Centrum is a series of abrupt juxtapositions of 20th-21st-century high-rise Modern and more traditional neighborhoods.

A view from the SS Rotterdam across the river park.

Shipping and Transport College, 2003. Aan het Werk, Neutelings Riedijk Architecten.

Because much of the north bank of Rotterdam was destroyed, streets are composed with a diverse variety of high-rise buildings from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

A view of an ensemble of new buildings on Rotterdam's south bank, as seen from the 22nd floor of Der Rotterdam, the vertical city" designed by Rem Koolhaas.

Gerschtsgebouw, Rotterdam.

New Orleans apartment building, Alvaro Viera, architect, as seen from the 42nd floor of Der Rotterdam.

KPN Telcom Tower, 2000
Renzo Piano, architect
Light installation, Studio Dumbar

KPN Telcom Tower. Renzo Piano, architect.

Renzo Piano's KPN Telcom Tower and Rem Koolhaas' Der Rotterdam on the south side ("Kop van Zuid") of the Nieuwe Maas River.

KPN Telcom Tower, a view from the west back of the building.

KPN Telcom Tower and De Rotterdam, view from the street side.

De Rotterdam, 2013
Rem Koolhaas/OMA architect

Ellen van Loon, one of Rem Koolhaas' partners at OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture), gave us a tour of the building and explained its complexities.

De Rotterdam, "The Vertical City" model. The nhow Hotel opened in January 2014.

At De Rotterdam, the press listen in.

De Rotterdam, Rem Koolhaas/OMA. A view from the street.

Across the street from De Rotterdam, the area appears to be more of a work in need of progress.

Rem Koolhaas, OMA.

De Rotterdam, escalators.

Erasmus Bridge, 1996. Van Berkel & Bos Architecten.

Noord Island, view from the 22nd floor of Koolhaas' De Rotterdam.

A view towards Nieuwe Werk from the 22nd floor at De Rotterdam.

A view to the northeast from the 22nd floor of De Rotterdam.

Holland-America Line, 1901-1903
J. Muller, Droogleever Fortuin & C.B. van der Tak, architects
Hotel New York, 1993

Holland America Line, Wilhelmina Pier. Founded in 1873, the Holland America Line was primarily as a carrier of immigrants until 1920, bringing more than 850,000 immigrants to New York. For them, this building on this pier is where it all began. Holland-America Line's head office moved to Seattle during the 1980s, placing its landmark Wilhelmina Pier building for sale. It reopened as the Hotel New York in May 1993.

Photographs by Augustus Mayhew.

Augustus Mayhew is the author ofLost in Wonderland – Reflections on Palm Beach.

San Francisco kicked off the winter 2014 social season with a collection of events, including the dazzling and completely sold-out SF Ballet opening gala.

San Francisco Social Diary
San Francisco’s Winter Social Season 2014
by Jeanne Lawrence

Deciding to winter in San Francisco turned out to be a brilliant choice. New York City has suffered through record cold and snow, while San Francisco experienced an uncharacteristically warm and dry January. The social season was heated here, too, as you’ll see from the following reports.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET OPENING NIGHT GALA, 81ST REPERTORY SEASON, 2014

The San Francisco Ballet’s 2014 Opening Night Gala performance on January 21 brought its theme, “Phenomenal,” to life! A record 3,200 balletomanes filled the War Memorial Opera House to see the company deemed “a national treasure” by the The New York Times when it appeared at Lincoln Center last fall.

The chairs of this wildly successful event included Auxiliary Gala Chair Tanya Marietta Powell, Gala Dinner Chair Patricia Ferrin Loucks, and Décor Chair Shelley Gordon, along with Richard Barker as Honorary Chair.

Ballet Gala committee members Marie Hurabiell, Shelley Gordon, Alison Mauze, Suzanne Thornton, Patricia Ferrin Loucks, Richard Barker, Tanya Powell, Betsy Linder, Cathy Goodman, Debra Taylor, and Judy Anderson.

The evening’s glamour quotient could not have been higher. The ladies dazzled, gowned in rich jewel tones and many also adorned with Bulgari baubles in support of the jewelry house that underwrote the launch party. (Not hard to muster enthusiasm for this show of support!)

A RECORD ATTENDANCE FOR ALL EVENTS

Three lavish black-tie pre-performance dinners were held in the grand City Hall, across the street from the Opera House. Hosted by the SF Ballet Auxiliary, the Grand Benefactor, Benefactor, and Patron benefit dinners were all sold out.

San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House.

The after-party in City Hall sold out at maximum capacity.

With 1,200 at the dinners, a packed house for the performance, and a capacity 3,000 (fire-department maximum) crowd at the after-party, this gala was the highest grossing to date. Wow!

“Bulgari’s launch party kicked off the Gala with a bang!” Auxiliary Gala Chair Tanya Powell said. “Bulgari gave a beautiful launch party. It set the tone for a phenomenal Gala. As well, they were a generous cash sponsor.”

Auxiliary Gala Chair Tanya Powell and Gala Dinner Chair Patricia Ferrin, in Bulgari jewels, alongside Bulgari’s Daniel Diaz.

Kathy Huber and Ballet gala event designer Riccardo Benavides.

DECOR

The “Phenomenal” theme was also epitomized in the dinner décor created by J. Riccardo Benavides of i•de•as. Cutting-edge special effects by Immersive Lighting added to the excitement of the evening.

The crowd went wild over Immersive Lighting’s designs. The company filmed SF Ballet dancers and then projected the moving images onto City Hall.

SF Ballet principal dancer Mathilde Froustey.

SF Ballet principal dancerMaria Kochetkova with longtime ballet patron Lucy Jewett.

ENCORE! – THE YOUNGER SET

Encore! event chair Alyson Blume and vice-chair Greer Goings planned a buffet supper in the South Court rather than a formal sit-down dinner to keep the ticket price affordable for 200 younger fans. This group is vitally important, since they represent the future of the Ballet Company.

Encore! supporters Kelly Cramer, Greer Goings, Ashley Tudor, Alyson Blume, Vanessa Jean Baptiste, Jane Burkhard, Lenna Gikkas, Robin Farmanfarmian, Joanna Winter, and Bridget Dixon Nguyen.

Carrie Lerner, Vanessa Jean-Baptiste, friend, Bridget Dixon Nguyen, and Ruwa Sumanasekera.

Natasha Yarushkina, Aaron Aiken, and Emily Hu.

Grand benefactors Alison and Michael Mauze stopped by the Encore! party.

Keith and Claudia Ross also joined the Encore group for a few dances.

Rachel Cloy, Isaac Hall, Kelly Cramer, and Steve Gomberg.

From Encore! sponsor Men’s Wearhouse: Robert Pearson, Kelly Pearson, Catherine Wood Hill, and Thomas Hill.

ONE-TIME-ONLY GALA PERFORMANCE

Welcoming the crowd before the 8 p.m. performance, Board Chair John Osterweis announced that the Ballet raised more than $2.4 million from the event, a record amount.

Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson, who began his career as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, started the program with a selection from his production of Giselle, a classic that the SF Ballet premiered in 1999. Twelve spectacular classical and contemporary works and excerpts followed.

SF Ballet Board of Trustees Chair John Osterweis and his wife Barbara.

Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson and his wife Marlene.

AFTER-PARTY BACK AT CITY HALL

After the magnificent performance ended at 10:20 p.m., guests returned to City Hall, where the young (and the young at heart) enjoyed an after-party for three hours with live entertainment, dancing, a bountiful buffet, and an open bar.

Some indefatigable guests partied from 5 p.m., when the cocktail reception began, stayed till the end of the after-party at l a.m., and continued on to the first-ever after-after-party!

The exceptional event, just $100 a ticket for SF Ballet subscribers and $125 to members of the public, was quite a clever way to entice young, prospective ballet supporters.

During the party, principal dancers dined on the Mayor’s Balcony, overlooking all the frolicking guests as they were pumped up by DJ Chris Clouse and the live music of David Martin’s House Party.

THE FIRST AFTER-AFTER-PARTY

Following the after-party in City Hall, many headed to another, first-ever after-after-party at Club Harlot on Mina Lane in the Financial District. I’m told that the crowd, which included many of the ballet company members, got a second wind and kept the party going until 4 a.m.

This ballet gala was truly “Phenomenal,” as its theme promised.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

I love the festive Chinese New Year celebration in San Francisco. Under red banners flying all over town, it always includes a colorful parade, the crowning of a new Miss Chinatown, street fairs, and myriad other activities.

San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade is noted as one of the top ten parades in the world.

The Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco is one of the few remaining illuminated nighttime parades in the country.

The Miss Chinatown pageant draws young Chinese-American competitors from all over the U.S.

HONORING CULINARY ICON CECILIA CHIANG

For the 2014 New Year celebration, I hosted a luncheon to honor the remarkable restaurateur Cecilia Chiang, a dear and longtime friend. At 94, she is as elegant, sharp, and gracious as ever. We celebrated at one of her favorite restaurants, Hakkasan. World-renowned, recipient of a Michelin star, it offers a modern take on Chinese cuisine.

Culinary icon Cecilia Chiang with her autobiography (complete with her favorite recipes),The Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco (Ten Speed Press, 2007).

CECILIA CHIANG’S LEGACY

Often credited with introducing Americans to authentic Chinese cuisine and hailed as “the Julia Child of Chinese food” by chef Alice Waters, MadameChiang created the legendary San Francisco restaurant The Mandarin, whichin its heyday was arguably America’s best Chinese restaurant.

In 2013, Chiang was awarded the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award. You can read more about that inmy previous dispatch here.

Cecilia Chiang accepting her 2013 James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in New York City.

Cecilia Chiang with my daughter Stephanie Lawrence and me.

LONGTIME FRIENDS & NEW FACES

Many of Madame Chiang’s longtime devotees were at my party, and those who were meeting this charismatic and dynamic woman for the first time felt privileged to do so.

Cecilia Chiang, Margrit Mondavi, and Jeanne Lawrence. Naturally, Margrit brought some namesake wine—Continuum wine by Tim Mondavi.

Joy Venturini Bianchi and Mary Poland.

Linda Zider and Brenda Jewett.

Allison Speer, Adrianna Pope-Sullivan, and Susan Dunlevy.

Pamala Deikel and Jan Yanehiro.

Carolyn Chandler and Linda Cannon.

Helen Spalding.

Mary Beth La Motte and Linda Zider.

TWO CULINARY AND WINE ICONS MEET

It gave me great pleasure to see Cecilia and Margrit Mondavi laughing together heartily. Margrit, the younger at 88 and also a renowned figure in the food and wine world, had driven down from Napa just for the occasion. The two are an inspiration for remaining vital, involved, charming, and dynamic even as one ages.

When Margrit Mondavi and Cecilia Chiang later explained the cause of their amusement—both have been invited to be “flower girls” at a mutual friend’s wedding—I laughed just as hard as they did.

HAKKASAN PRIVATE ROOM

Stephanie Lawrence helped set the table with custom chopsticks and pearl bookmarks I had brought back from China.

Guests were asked to “pick a card” to determine where they would sit, a random arrangement that would give them a chance to meet new people.

Host Jeanne Lawrence toasted Cecilia for a life well lived.

Sharon Seto added to that.

Cecilia Chiang responded to the toasts with her characteristic charm, endearing her to all, especially her seatmates, Mary Poland and Pamala Deikel.

Barbara Klein and Susan Dunlevy. A San Franciscan who lived in China when I did, Susan and I had fun exploring Shanghai together.

EXQUISITE DISHES

Madame Chiang, who knows Hakkasan’s chef and has doubtless sampled every dish they serve, helped me choose the menu.

At 94, Chiang never uses her age as an excuse to turn down any food. She eats everything, and she was the one who selected pork belly (fat and all!). Is that attitude the secret to longevity?

Stir-fried mushroom lettuce wrap with pistachio and pine nuts.

Pumpkin puffs.

Crispy duck salad.

Daikon puffs. We also dined on braised pork belly, Pipa duck, stir-fried lotus root, asparagus and lily bulb, and Hakka noodles with mushrooms and Chinese chives.

“I’m keeping this menu,” said one guest. “Everything was delicious, and now I’ll know exactly what to order the next time I’m here!”

THE CHEFS

Chef Jason Xu, who once worked for Madame Chiang at the Mandarin, was applauded when he appeared at the meal’s end.

Jeanne Lawrence with members of the food world: Stephanie Lawrence (1760 [Polk]), Cecilia Chiang, Chef Jason Xu (Hakkasan), and Belinda Leong (b. Patisserie).

Chiang remains involved in the city’s culinary scene, especially new restaurants and chefs, and continues to touch many lives. Through her, I met b. Patisserieproprietor Belinda Leong, who was voted 2012 Pastry Chef of the Year by SF Magazine. “I am obsessed with [this] new bakery/cafe in my lower Pacific Heights neighborhood,” said the esteemed food critic Patricia Unterman. “I sit at the computer inventing excuses to walk over.” Try the mousses, macarons, croissants, and more and you’ll be hooked, too.

COMPASSION & CHOICES LUNCHEON WITH THE GETTYS

On a wintery day, two blocks of cars lined up on Broadway Street in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood. Their owners were eagerly waiting to enter the luxurious, antique-filled mansion owned by San Francisco’s popular and generous hosts, Ann and Gordon Getty, who open their home to many causes.

This time, more that 60 guests filled the house to learn about Compassion & Choices, which supports “Death with Dignity.”

Hosts Merla Zellerbach, Katy Butler, Ann Getty, and Lucie Weissman.

For eight years, Ann Getty’s co-host, author Merla Zellerbach, has been a leader in addressing end-of-life issues and bringing them to the attention of Californians. She spoke briefly of her own experiences—a father who died of pancreatic cancer in the ICU of a hospital, full of needles and tubes and in agonizing pain, in contrast to her late husband, who died in his own bed at home, peaceful and smiling, thanks to the help of a sympathetic oncologist.

“No terminally ill patient needs to suffer a prolonged, painful death,” she told the crowd. “We had no say about how we entered the world, but we can certainly plan how we exit.”

Radha Stearn, Nancy Livingston, and Fred Levin.

Alex Leitstein, Jeanne Lawrence, and Sandra Swanson.

Marsha Monro and Frannie Fleishhacker.

Co-Host Merla Zellerbach welcomed the crowd and introduced the guest speakers.

Journalist/author Katy Butler spoke about her new book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, and discussed the medical community’s strong dedication to preserving life and maximum longevity no matter what the emotional and financial costs to the patient.

Zellerbach and Butler were joined by Dr. Robert Brody, Chair of the Ethics Committee at San Francisco General Hospital for 17 years and now a UCSF Clinical Professor of Medicine. He discussedthe importance of having an advance directive (living will) so one’s end-of-life wishes can be carried out.

Dr. Robert Brody, a UCSF Clinical Professor of Medicine.

Journalist/author Katy Butler autographed her book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death.

During a lively Q & A that followed, a guest commented, “I think a revolution is brewing in medicine.” Discussions of end-of life options have moved from the fringes to the mainstream.

“The two most important events in life are being born and dying,” said a doctor who impressed me when he spoke at another of the group’s gatherings. “There’s not much one can do about the former, but it seems a good idea to plan for the latter.”

Speaker Gretchen de Baubigny reminded guests about the next luncheon on April 4.

Ann Walther and Dorothy Salmon.

Helen Hilton Raiser.

Jade Inch, Deborah Hannah, and Arlene Inch.

Lisa Gross and Elisa Stephens.

I’m sure everyone who was at the lunch went home more aware of the importance of discussing end-of-life wishes with our loved ones, no matter how difficult. The organization’s free online “advance directive” is a good place to begin and offers guidance to the terminally ill.

I’m setting up an appointment with Compassionate Choices and will then talk with my physician about the advance directive. To spare your family future heartache, I suggest you do the same.

Mary Poland and Carol Doll.

Fran Johns and Marlene Tumlin.

Mindy Henderson and Jennifer Raiser.

Pamela Deikel and Jane Inch.

Mary Robinson and Clare Luce Abbey.

For lunch, guests feasted on herb salad, crusted squab, and chocolate mousse.

Committee member Gretchen de Baubigny urged guests to mark their calendars for Compassion & Choices’ upcoming luncheon on April 4, 2014 at the St. Francis Hotel. The event, chaired by Zellerbach and co-chair Lucie Weissman, will present a short program emceed by Dear Abby (Jeanne Phillips), with other speakers yet to be announced.

CNBC SERIES SECRET LIVES OF THE SUPER WEALTHY

In January, Tom Klein, Regional Vice President and GM of the Fairmont (SF), his wife Barbara Klein, and their friend Joel Goodrich hosted a small luncheon for New York real estate agent extraordinaire Dolly Lenz—at the luxurious Fairmont hotel, of course.

The landmark Fairmont Hotel atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill.

Luxe realtors Joel Goodrich, Barbara Klein, and Dolly Lenz, with Fairmont Regional VP Tom Klein.

The Fairmont: The First Century of a San Francisco Landmark.

Head of her eponymous firm, Lenz was named “New York’s Real Estate Queen” by The Economist magazine. As if that weren’t enough, she also hosts her own TV show, Secret Lives of the Super Rich, which in September was picked up by CNBC for eight half-hour episodes.

Joel Goodrich, Dolly Lenz, and Jeanne Lawrence.

Charlot and Gregory Malin with Barbara Klein.

Lorre Erlick and Carolyn Chandler.

Lois Lehrman and Damian Matthews.

VIEWING THE EPISODE

The next night, the Kleins hosted an evening of drinks and nibbles and a sneak preview of the premiere episode of Secret Lives of the Super Wealthy, which aired February 5 in 88 countries and featured the Fairmont’s luxurious 6,000-square-foot penthouse overlooking the city. Anyone seeing the stunning apartment surely dreams of moving right in.

At the Fairmont Hotel, Joel Goodrich, Brenda Zarate, Tom Klein, and Aaron Lenz enjoyed a preview of the series.

Realtor Barbara Klein chatted up a friend.

The episode showed luxe realtors Barbara Klein and Joel Goodrich taking Dolly Lenz on an in-depth tour of the Fairmont’s iconic penthouse suite.

SAN FRANCISCO’S FAIRMONT HOTEL

Construction of the hotel began in 1902 and was nearly complete before an earthquake in 1906. The structure survived, but the interior was damaged by fire. Julia Morgan, the first woman graduate of the architecture program in Paris’s École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, was hired to undertake the repairs, and the hotel opened a year later. Morgan also designed the legendary WilliamRandolph Hearst Castle in San Simeon.

The Fairmont’s lobby includes a lounge offering live music, cocktails, coffee, and screens for watching major televised events.

THE FAIRMONT PENTHOUSE

The fabled penthouse was added in 1927 as an opulent private residence. Spanning the entire eighth floor of The Fairmont’s historic Main Building, it offers 6,000 square feet at a nightly rate of $15,000.

In 1945, financier Ben Swig bought the Fairmont and for many years lived in this luxurious penthouse himself. It features a billiard room and four fireplaces, as well as one of the best night views of the city from the terrace.

In 1945, leaders from more than forty nations representing eighty percent of the world’s population gathered here to write the United Nations Charter.

From royalty to rock stars, the world’s elite have enjoyed the penthouse suite—among them President John F. Kennedy, Prince Charles of Wales, Mick Jagger, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and Marlene Dietrich.

The two-story circular library is crowned by a rotunda where a celestial map is rendered in gold leaf against a sapphire sky, with a secret passageway behind one of the bookcases.

Designed by famed American archeologist and art historian Arthur Upham Pope, an expert on Persian art, the Arabian Nights-themed billiard room is covered in Persian tile from floor to ceiling.

The plush bedrooms are furnished with guest’s choice of 100% cotton or silk linens. It’s rumored that JFK enjoyed a tryst with Marilyn Monroe in the penthouse.

The dining room can accommodate dinners for 60 or receptions for 150 guests.

The highlight of the penthouse may be its expansive terrace, which offers sweeping views of the city of San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO REAL ESTATE UPDATE

The next night, Lenz was again feted by realtor Joel Goodrich, this time at a private party at his Nob Hill lair.

I asked Joel to give my readers his perspective on the current real estate market. “I see a continuing focus on the Bay area,” he said, noting that The Wall Street Journal called the city’s historic Jackson Square area “The New Sand Hill Road.”

“Continuing its tradition as the city that is constantly reinventing itself, San Francisco’s landscape is changing at dizzying speed!”

He mentioned that there’s been a 24.6% sales price increase in the market since 2013. Will the trend continue or the bubble pop? Only time will tell.

Photos by Drew Altizer, Moanalani Jeffrey, Elizabeth H. Armstrong, Jeanne Lawrence, the James Beard Foundation, the Southwest Airlines San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival, and The Fairmont Hotel.

*Urbanite Jeanne Lawrence reports on lifestyle and travel from her homes in San Francisco, Shanghai, and New York, and wherever else she finds a good story.

Outside the St. Regis: Orcun Turkay, the beverage director at the St. Regis Hotel, with Joseph de Feo and Shane Harris.

CHERRY BLOSSOMS TWO WAYS: ON THE TREE AND IN A GLASS
by Carol Joynt

The annual Cherry Blossom Festival has begun in Washington and, if we’re lucky, the blossoms will beat the cold and bloom before the dozens of related events conclude in about three weeks. There are dances, Japanese tea ceremonies, musical performances, a film festival, a kite race and a rugby tournament, fireworks, a parade and a gala ball. The National Park Service predicts the delicate pink flowers will emerge in full on approximately April 8, and if you have any reason to be in Washington you should schedule the visit for that week.

The trees were a gift from Japan and were planted side by side round the Tidal Basin. From any point, the view is excellent. Almost everyone here takes a moment to walk this great promenades at the peak of the blooming season. It’s a ritual of families, school groups, lovers, friends, artists and photographers, the curious and tourists.

The Tidal Basin at dawn in the early spring.

Presidents and their wives have been known to do the circular walk at midnight or dawn, which are especially pretty moments to see the blossoms, and the Jefferson Memorial. Maybe those late or early hours are by choice, because the timing is so romantic, or maybe it’s because the Secret Service figure the First Family will attract the least attention under the cover of darkness.

My favorite moment is sunrise, and I’ve included some photos here from late March of last year, as well as images of the trees once they are in full bloom.

First light.

From 2013, the cherry blossoms in their first blush.

Then in full bloom.

Paddle boats are a popular way to commune with the cherry blossoms.

In a nod to the Cherry Blossom season,Orcun Turkay, the beverage director at the elegant St. Regis Hotel, invited over some friends for a Saturday afternoon “cocktail class” that culminated with the creation of a Cherry Blossom cocktail.

Washington is well known as the nation’s capital, but it could also be called the nation’s cocktail capital. It’s a town that’s always liked a good drink, but in the past few years there’s been a full on embrace of the new movement of boozing, wherein bartenders have become “mixologists” and drinks are “craft” or “artisan” made. Those pretensions aside, what it means is a lot of interesting bars — a new one almost weekly — and tasty tippling.

The St. Regis Hotel on 16th Street. It's two blocks off Lafayette Square and in view of the White House.

Orcun took it a step further with his cocktail class. We didn’t just sit and watch; we got to mix our own drinks. All the necessary accessories were artfully set out before each barstool: jiggers, long-stemmed stirrers, strainers, shakers, ice buckets and the appropriate glasses, plus an assortment of top shelf brands of gin, whiskey and bourbon, liquers and bitters, as well as fresh orange and lemon juice, simple syrup, and lemons and oranges. Small bites of Croque Monsieur, Pork Belly Flatbread and Lobster Bruschetta were served while we drank.


	Orcun Turkay, beverage director at the St. Regis, hopes to make his cocktail class into a regular event.

We prepared four drinks — Old Fashioned, Manhattan, French 75 and the Cherry Blossom — and Orcun not only gave instruction but also provided an oral history of each drink. He pointed out, too, that the St. Regis has a direct and strong connection with the history of cocktails in America, especially the famed King Cole Bar at the hotel chain’s New York flagship.

According to legend, that’s where in 1934 bartender Fernand Petiot created the Bloody Mary. Orcun says it was called the “Red Snapper” due to timidity about using the word “bloody.” But we’ve all gotten over that, haven’t we? It remains one of the world’s great drinks, especially when made with homemade tomato. On a later date, Orcun plans to give a Bloody Mary class.

In Washington, the St. Regis bar is one of the city’s handsomest spots to meet for a drink. It was one of the last to install televisions, and they are, thankfully, discreet. It has old worm charm in the décor — much of it original to when the hotel opened in 1926 — and a modern attitude in the food and service. The adjoining dining room, designed by David Rockwell, has gone through much iteration, and many chefs, including turns by Gray Kunz, with Lespinasse, and Alain Ducasse, with Adour. It is now Decanter, and in the hands of chef Sébastien Rondier.

The handsome St. Regis bar. The door in the back of the room leads to the dining room.

OrcunTurkay surveys the bar set ups before his guests arrive.

Look but no free samples — the cult favorite, Pappy Van Winkle.

To start the cocktail class, a dram of Remy Martin.

Starting the Old Fashioned.

An Old Fashioned in the making gets a brisk stir.

The Old Fashioned, made with rye whiskey.

How we roll on a Saturday afternoon at cocktail class. First course: Old Fashioneds.

Croque Monsieur.

Pork belly flat bread.

Starting the Manhattan ...

Second course: a classic Manhattan, made with bourbon. Shane Harris gives the rim of his glass a touch of orange peel.

Essential for the Old Fashioned, Manhattan and the Cherry Blossom -- a splash of bitters.

Orcun tells the history of the cocktails.

Our desk at "cocktail class."

Any class, cocktails or otherwise, is made more fun with friends. For Orcun’s class, Shane Harris and Joseph de Feo joined me. They are two lovers of the good life who enjoy the artistry of making cocktails. Every dinner party starts with a drink created for the occasion. In all there were about 8 of us. As the spirits warmed us, we became chatty, asked a lot of questions, pointed at the cultish Pappy Can Winkle ($100 a shot) and begged (denied) and left two hours later knowing a little bit more about mixing, stirring, shaking, slicing a lemon peel and the history of it all.

The French 75 — 1 part gin (we used local Green Hat), 1 part fresh lemon juice, 1 part simple syrup and topped with Champagne.

Shane Harris finishes his French 75 with Champagne. Orcun gave him an "A" because it topped off beautifully.

Shane's perfect French 75.

Orcun shared his recipe for the Cherry Blossom, which is made with egg whites, a trending cocktail fashion. “Egg white gives lift, silkiness and structure to a cocktail,” he said, stressing the importance of cracking a fresh egg for each drink.

To make a Cherry Blossom: ¾’s of a jigger each of Japanese whiskey, such as Yamazaki 12 or Hibiki 12, sweet Vermouth, fresh orange juice, Cherry Heering liqeur, and the white of a whole egg. Put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake it vigorously. Add ice and shake again. Strain into a coupé glass, add a few drops of bitters, and top with a silver spear and two brandied cherries.

Setting up to make a Cherry Blossom.

Separating the egg white from the yolk.

Shake, shake, shake. It has to feel like a workout to be effective.

A finished Cherry Blossom.

Photographs by Carol Joynt.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

The courtyard of Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville at the funeral service for Bunny Mellon.

Bunny Mellon’s Perfect Funeral
by Carol Joynt

If you believe that our deaths are a reflection of our lives you will understand when I note that Bunny Mellon went out with beauty, grace, order and determination. And perfection. These words define her understated, well-paced and yet rich funeral service at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, Virginia, which the locals like to call the “Mellon Church” because it was built by Bunny and Paul Mellon– for them and for everyone else, too, and to be open at all hours. Her funeral was also open to everyone, and by her design.


	The many stained glass windows at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, Virginia were made by Joep Nicholas of Holland. This one says: "This church is given to the glory of God by Rachel and Paul Mellon, and of Thine own have we given Thee."

“She was the chief architect of this celebration,” announced Rev. Robert Banse Jr., to a congregation of family and friends, neighbors and staff, celebrities and farm hands, and those who felt she’d touched their lives and who wanted to pay respect. According to one of the speakers, the village of Upperville closed for the occasion.

Bunny was in the details, of course. The service was impeccably timed. There was a sense it had been scripted with the clock in mind – speakers would make reference to “going over” their time – but it never felt long, never felt rushed and always felt just right. The order of service program was titled “A Celebration of Life” and on the cover was Dorelia in the Garden by Augustus John, in which Dorelia McNeill– not unlike Bunny Mellon – is posed wearing blue and leaning on a garden tool. The picture was painted in 1911, a year after Bunny’s birth.

Because of the large turnout, the service in the church was also broadcast on a big screen in the adjacent Parish house, where there were rows of folding chairs. Practically every seat was filled. In front of me was former presidential candidate John Edwards, with his daughter Kate.

I sat with a friend, both of us there as admirers and with connections to Upperville. For a decade in the 1980s I lived in Upperville on Rt. 623, also known as the “Mellon Road,” and it was impossible not to be aware of Paul and Bunny Mellon, and in the best sense. They were a generous part of the community, but who just happened to come and go by jet on their backyard landing strip.

Mourners head from the church to the burial site at Trinity Episcopal Church.

The opening of the service was a full half hour of the choral “Requiem” by Gabriel Fauré, performed by the Trinity Church Choir and members of The American Boychoir concert choir, who traveled all night by bus to be there, and their gorgeous voices were not the least drained by the journey. At the completion of the Requiem, the congregation was asked to stand to sing “O God, our help in ages past.” There was a reading from Lamentations (3:22-26, 31-33), The American Boychoir sang “Bay Psalm 23” from the Bay Psalm Book, followed by the Epistle from Revelation (7:7-19). There was another hymn sung by the congregation, “In the bleak midwinter,” there was the Gospel (John 14:1-6), and the Homily, by Rev. Banse.


	The order of service program was titled “A Celebration of Life.” On the cover was Dorelia in the Garden in which Dorelia McNeill – not unlike Bunny Mellon – is posed wearing blue and leaning on a garden tool.

	Bunny Mellon in gardening attire in 1982.

When he welcomed the mourners, Banse said that one of the advantages of his job was getting to know Mellon over the last six years “and having some wonderful conversations with her.” He said, “She was a person of great love and she devoted that love to always making sure that things were planned wonderfully and well. She had a great eye for detail.” She had an eye for friends, too, and chose a few of them to join her family in speaking and performing at the service. The actor Frank Langella said “this woman had an extraordinary gift for personal relationships.”

Langella came into her life through her daughter Eliza, as did another friend who spoke, Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, a brain surgeon, brain trauma specialist and the chairman of the Brain Trauma Foundation. Ghajar met Bunny when he treated Eliza, who in 2000 suffered a severe brain injury when she was hit by a truck on a New York street. She became quadriplegic and Bunny took care of her at the Mellon’s Upperville estate, Oak Spring, until Eliza’s death in 2008. Ghajar said Bunny’s determination and her insistence on excellence “inspired” him to do work at Stanford University that now benefits victims of concussion in sports and brain injuries on the battlefield. He was impressed at the way she looked at the world and recalled, “Her friend Jackie Kennedy told her, ‘Bunny, you think all your ducks are swans.’”

Langella met Bunny in 1961, when he and Eliza worked together at the same little theater near the Mellon’s home on Cape Cod. Bunny came upon him while he was painting Fleur dy Lys on woodwork for a set, and she sat and talked with him. She had with her a picnic basket lunch for Eliza. Later, Eliza told Frank that he’d made a favorable impression on her mother and she wanted him to come to lunch, an invitation he accepted. When he got to the Mellon home the other guests were Paul Mellon, Fred Astaire and his sister, Adele Astaire, Noel Coward and President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy.

“I was 23 years old. I didn’t have an ounce of breeding,” Langella said of the occasion, where an enduring friendship began. “Bunny divined something in me: a young man eager to learn. She could easily have dismissed me as just Liza’s friend. But she did something for me. She adopted me (and caused) a cataclysmic change in my life. She taught me not to be vulgar; to respect; to go into the kitchen and say ‘thank you,’ and to ask about their families; to write thank you notes. Above all, be loyal.”

On one of his last visits to Oak Spring, she handed him the keys to the car, said “let’s go for a drive,” and “the two of us drove every inch of this farm.” He finished with a poem and tears in his eyes. There was another poem in the service, too, “The End of An Era,” written for Bunny and read by Tommy Breeden.

Her son and grandsons told the congregation of the firm hand but loving heart and soul they knew as “grandbunny.”

Stacy B. Lloyd III, her son from her first marriage, sat as he spoke, and may have spoke haltingly, but his message was clear: life for his mother was never dull, and living with purpose was what mattered. “Mother was a very determined person and whatever she did was for good reason.” He recounted her many projects, usually to do with her homes and gardens. He spoke about her marriage to Paul Mellon and the frenzy of house-buying-and-building that ensued: New York, Washington, Cape Cod, Antigua and Nantucket. He said it was always “some outrageous thing and just beautiful.” Of Paul and Bunny, he said, “they rarely got into fights except about money and houses.” At the end of his remembrance he looked toward her casket: “I’ll miss you, Mommy. Be safe in heaven. Take care of God. I know you are working on a project.”

Her grandson, Stacy B. Lloyd IV, said he treasured the memories of her teaching him to notice the smell of things – bark, soil, leaves, air. “I will always think of her whenever I see a flower – an Azalea or a Geranium,” he said. “She has not died and never will (because) she is everywhere to me. She taught me how to find beauty in everything.” His brother, Thomas Lloyd, said that his grandmother intimidated him when he was young – “as a little boy I kept my distance and watched her create” – and that marriage and a family opened the way for him to become close to “this amazing woman.”

Bunny let her great grandchildren jump in bed with her, paste Barbie stickers on her, and run through the house at Oak Spring, said Thomas, making a beeline for the Lays potato chips “in that plastic container she kept them in.” He revealed, too, that she liked a Bloody Mary. “We would call her often,” he said, “but not at 6:30, when ABC News was on.”

The service concluded with The Lord’s Prayer and the Prayers of the People, the American Boychoir singing “The Lord Bless You and Keep You,” and the Commendation, after which the mourners rose and filed out, walking and singing “Go Forward, Christian soldier” as they moved to the burial plot only steps from the church, where Bunny would be laid to rest with Paul, Eliza and other Mellon family members.

But before the very end of the service there was one more moment, which came after Langella finished his charming recollections. Bette Midler walked up to a lone microphone and, wrapped in a cornflower blue neck scarf, sang “The Rose,” a song she recorded in 1979 for her film of the same name. I wondered at first how and why Bunny chose that song to be the endnote of her perfect funeral, and then I listened closely to the words as Midler sang it perfectly, too, and with wrenching emotion.

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun's love
In the spring becomes the rose.

The family markers now also include Rachel Lambert Mellon.

According to DPC: A source connected to the Mellon family has stated that Mr. Edwards was barred from entering the church by the family. And that he was working the crowd near the graveside after the service. The service may have been open to the public, but he was not welcome.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

Tulip magnolia and forsythia, framing the Washington Monument.

Andy Warhol, The “Holy Terror,” Revisited by Bob Colacello
by Carol Joynt

Clarity and detachment are two profound virtues of emotional and intellectual maturity (aka, aging), and they are at the root of Bob Colacello’s reissue of “Holy Terror.” The tome, published by Vintage, is his sharp, smart and irresistible retelling of his years working with Andy Warhol, and written after Warhol’s death, and so there’s that added element of candor.


	The new edition of Holy Terror, published by Vintage. Click to order.

	A first edition of Holy Terror, published in 1990.

The new, 692-page book, fittingly, begins with a new introduction that’s titled “So Much Has Happened: 1990-2014.” And while that’s true, what happened since Warhol’s death only underscores the bravado of the amazing time when Andy Warhol was alive. Not the least of which is the explosion in the prices of his art. Colacello puts it best: “I have been asked the same question at least a thousand times: Did you have any idea, when you were working for Andy in the 1970s, how important and expensive he would become? I sort of did, as did most of us who helped turn out his art, his films, his magazine, his books, his TV shows at his studio known as the Factory. But he definitely knew.” Colacello was editor of Warhol’s “Interview” magazine.

Everyone should live in New York for at least a little while – if not forever – and my turn there, working at Time magazine and then CBS News and living in the West Village, spanned the 1970s when Warhol was anywhere and everywhere. I didn’t know him, but we’d hit some of the same parties and spots – Max’s, the Continental Baths, Le Jardin, and Studio 54, or dinner at Ballato’s, or well after dinner at Serendipity III. He was just there. I wasn’t part of the Factory world but I had downtown friends who were. He mattered a lot. I recall the day Time arranged for a special in-house screening of whatever was his latest film. Most of us on the editorial staff left our desks midday to sit in a dark auditorium and watch this provocative film. Why? Easy. It was New York, and Time, in the '70s, and Warhol.

Warhol was an icon in his lifetime but also accessible, and curiously mysterious. There was a sense that he was in on it, but it was not analyzed by those of us who got a kick out of being in the same room, and occasionally receiving a “hello.” Colacello puts it best: “Beneath Andy’s bewigged feyness and maddening nonchalance lay an iron will and limitless ambition, which he revealed only to a select few.”

I bought Warhol’s books as first editions, and if there was a signing I lined up to get them signed. (Alas, most now sold through dealers). I bought a first edition of Colacello’s “Holy Terror” and devoured it. If I thought it was fun being a kid at the same party with Warhol, being with Warhol through Bob’s eyes was the romp of the second half of the 20th century, certainly the decade. He says in re-issuing the book, “I am able to look back on the thrilling, crazy, exhausting years ... with greater clarity and detachment."

Out With Andy; Inside the original Holy Terror.

Bob Colacello during his Warhol years.

Bob’s good friends in Washington are Buffy Cafritz, Robert Higdon and David Deckelbaum. Last week they had a swell party for him and all their friends at Central restaurant. In a real amateur move, I forgot to put the memory card in my camera and so all those great shots I shot are pffft. I was mortified. But Buffy, through photographer James Brantley, provided a couple of shots. I’m grateful. The thing to do, though, if you haven’t already, is get the book.

Robert Higdon, Buffy Cafritz, and David Deckelbaum.

Carolyn Peachy, Buffy Cafritz, and Bob Colacello.

Bob Colacello with DC friends.

Washington philanthropist Elise Lefkowitz lost her mother to Alzheimer’s disease in 2009 and in Estelle Gelman’s death her daughter found a cause. Elise and her husband, Marc Lefkowitz, found where to plant their philanthropic flag. “We decided we would do all we can to ensure that families do not have to endure the heartbreak of losing a loved one to this terrible disease,” says Elise. They joined up with Leonard Lauder and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation that he and his brother, Ronald Lauder, founded in 1998.

Four years ago Elise, Marc and Leonard created a DC spring fundraiser that combines education on scientific progress in discovering a cure for Alzheimer’s with a big city fashion show and a splashy ladies luncheon. The first Great Ladies Luncheon honored Estelle Gelman, followed by Nancy Reagan in 2012 and Sharon Percy Rockefeller in 2013. This year the luncheon, held in partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue, honored University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt, who went public with her Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2011.

Marc and Elise Lefkowitz.

Nelson Deckelbaum, celebrating a milestone birthday, with his wife, Luann Deckelbaum.

Leonard Lauder welcomes guests to the luncheon at the Ritz Carlton West End hotel.

Girls day out: Sandy Mittu, Tanvi Dey, Monika Samtani, and Geeta Tholan.

Paul Sherrill of Solis Betancourt & Sherrill Interior Design.

Washington lawyer Beverly Hudnut.

The daytime event featured a seminar or “progress report” on curing Alzheimer’s, followed by the luncheon and catwalk presentation. In the evening, Elise and Marc hosted a small private dinner at their Kalorama townhouse for featured fashion designer, London-based Erdem Moralioglu.

Erdem was born in Montreal, he’s half Turkish, half British, was an intern to Vivienne Westwood, worked with Diane von Furstenberg, and showed his first collections, under the label Erdem, about five years ago. His designs have been described as “dreamy” and “extraordinary” by Vogue. The looks he showed at the Ritz Carlton West End hotel were from his Fall 2014 collection, meaning not really out of synch with the season, given the cooler than usual temperatures of Spring 2014.

The catwalk at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation luncheon

An Erdem creation from his Fall 2014 collection.

Erdem.

Coach Pat Summitt sits and listens as a former player, Michelle Marciniak, pays tribute to her.

The dinner party was good (and bountiful) fun. Erdem, in particular, seemed excited about his two days in Washington. Had he ever been before? “So long ago, I was a child,” he said. For this visit, aside from his professional obligations, he did what all fashionable visitors to Washington do – he went to Ben’s Chili Bowl to have a hot dog smothered in cheese and chili (“but only half,” he said), washed down with pink lemonade.

Erdem and his business partner, who made the pilgrimage together, sat at the same table in the back where Carl Bruni and Nicolas Sarkozy sat when he was president of France and on an official visit to the capital. President Obama has his own table at Ben’s.

The Lefkowitz townhouse in DC's Kalorama neighborhood.

Sarah Tam and John Antonini, both of Saks Fifth Avenue.

How did they do that: On the Lefkowitz' well-stocked bar, a curious item, Pineapple Liqueur with a pineapple inside.

Elise with her guests in the den.

Erdem regales with the story of his visit to Ben's Chili Bowl.

Arnaud and Alexandra de Borchgrave with Deb Gray.

Carrie Tracy and Mollie Wein, New Yorkers who work for the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation.

Elise and Marc’s home is reminiscent of Park Avenue or Knightsbridge. Sumptuous but cozy. Each square inch is put to decorative use and personal touches, particularly family photos in silver frames, are on every flat surface. And then there’s all the candy. On almost every table there is a crystal jar – or jars – filled with candy. All kinds. You name it. From Twizzlers to Jawbreakers. It’s a whimsical and colorful touch. (Their dentist must adore them, or be family).

Patricia Sagon, Cherrie Doggett, and Evelyn Brandt have a chat at Lefkowitz dinner.

Elise Lefkowitz in Erdem.

Wouldn't be a party without the piano and piano player.

Elise’s passions are also food and flowers. She uses the caterer Design Cuisine, owned by Bill Homan, who was a guest at the dinner. Catering companies of Design Cuisine’s size are usually tasked with feeding hungry hundreds at big events with limited budgets. You know the events, where salmon has become the new rubber chicken. But Elise lets Bill just shoot for the moon. Thus we 20 or so guests were treated to a memorable array of delicious eats. The hors d’oeuvres included Foie Gras with raspberry gastrique on pecan raisin bread, Tuna Tartare with lemon on a wonton crisp, caviar with smoked salmon on blinis, petite jicama cups stuffed with avocado and pomegranate seeds.

Erdem checks out the phone with a friend.

Bill Homan.

Headed down to dinner.

Then there was the buffet: Lobster gnocchi, Colorado grass fed lamb chops with mint pesto, Miso glazed Black Cod, Truffle cauliflower purée, steamed green and white asparagus, Quinoa and Wheatberry salad, crispy pomme soufflés, and a vegetable salad that was beautiful and thought through (cucumbers, heirloom Toybox tomatoes, Spanish olives, baby artichokes, golden beets, haricot vert, edamame, Champagne vinaigrette) it could only have been created by a strict vegetarian. Bill is a Vegan.

Dessert met the standards of a chocoholic such as our hostess: triple chocolate sponge cake, chocolate mousse and Valhrona Chocolate gelato with candied pecans.

The buffet dinner.

The buffet centerpiece.

Gorgeous vegetable salad.

More veggies: green and white asparagus.

Pommes soufflées.

Lobster gnocchi.

Imagine a dinner where a Vegan is overseeing the veggies and a candyholic is scrutinizing dessert. The guests win. “I have known Elise and Marc for many years, they are great customers and good friends,” Bill said, noting that the chocolate sponge cake in the dessert was not baked and did not have any flour and was totally gluten free. “Elise can never get enough chocolate and always challenges us to come up with new and different ways to show off the chocolate she loves so.”

The endnote? Elise passed a platter of chocolates from a favorite chocolatier, Palm Beach Confections of Boca Raton, only 20 minutes from the Palm Beach home where she and Marc escape to – and often – during Washington’s cold months. “Choose the snails,” she said, pointing to them on the platter. “I love the snails – milk and white chocolate, marshmallow and caramel.”

The after-dessert course, sweets from Palm Beach Confections of Boca Raton, Florida (after the caramel-marshmello-chocolate snails got plucked.)

The busy season is beginning in Washington but we’re moving into it slowly. We made time Saturday for a walk among the cherry blossom trees at the Tidal Basin, followed by the pinkest soirée ever.

Some actual cherry blossoms (most aren't in bloom yet).

The cherry blossoms on Saturday -- still more buds than blooms.

While walking the Tidal Basin, in front of the Jefferson Memorial, we came upon a crowd dancing "Gangnam Style" to Psy on a boombox ...

... and a bride and groom getting ready to take their vows ...

... and another couple from Tampa also about to their their vows among the blossoms.

... and a cat on a leash that looked like it wanted to be anywhere else.

The pinkest soirée ever turned out to be a cheerful lunch at The Source designed by Andre Wells and hosted by General Motors’ Buick division. It was planned well before the Wednesday Congressional appearance of GM CEO Mary Barra, who was angrily grilled (seared, too) by Senators about the recall of 2.5 million cars due to possible faulty ignition switches linked to more than a dozen deaths.

Company representatives said they did not cancel events because it was decided to go ahead with business as planned. The lunch was called “Blossom with Buick,” and Wells did fill the table with colorful blossoms to complement the Cherry Blossom cocktail and spring menu.

As pink as it gets: the Buick luncheon at The Source, designed by Andre Wells. The Buick luncheon was so pink that the reflected light took five years off every face.

Cherry Blossom cocktails and Champagne.

Kim Carpenter of GM Commmunications welcomes her luncheon guests to the private dining room at The Source.

Tahitian Sour Cream Cheesecake finished off the Buick luncheon of Thai Coconut Soup, Asparagus Soup, Stir Fried Chicken, Apple and Endive Salad, Miso Marinated Sea Bass, Slow Braised Wagyu Short Ribs, accompanied by Champagne, white and red wine.

Follow Carol on twitter @caroljoynt

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