It never ceases to amaze me how willing the public is to accept a decline in standards. When I started at The Plaza fifty years ago, standards in service, food and appointments were, while not at an all-time high, still taken very seriously. Luxury was a matter of service and careful attention to detail, rather than today’s emphasis on room size, decorations and technological gimmicks. Fifty years ago, the best hotels had a box with 3 buttons next to the bed to summon the maid, valet or floor waiter to cater to your every need. Employee uniforms were far more elaborate and varied, each subtlety indicating the employee’s position and rank. After six in the evening, any managers on duty would be in evening dress, and wouldn’t be caught with a hair out of place.
It’s fair to say that the standards that guests put on themselves have lowered as well. In those days, the idea of guests lounging in the lobbies in shorts and t-shirts was inconceivable. Gentlemen wouldn’t dare attempt to enter any one of the five restaurants in the hotel, the Palm Court, Oak Room and Oak Bar Elevator Room, Plaza Nine (the old Rendezvous Room) and the Persian Room, without wearing a jacket and tie. In the summer, all of the furniture in the public rooms was put in “summer dress,” i.e., slipcovers and staff changed into summer uniforms. You felt privileged just to walk in to this resplendent hotel.
This makes The Plaza Hotel a perfect example of how standards have declined. In 1964, The Plaza was a thousand room hotel. For every good room, there were ten lousy ones: small, courtyard-facing, simply furnished and with air conditioning that was erratic at best. However, that did not prevent the hotel from being the favored stopover for the great and mighty of the world. The lobby was magnificent and the staff too numerous to count. The five restaurants were all world class and the menus in the main restaurants, the Edwardian Room and the Oak Room, changed daily. All of the restaurants were packed for lunch, dinner and after theater (In those years, the theater started an hour earlier, making for a much livelier after theater scene).
Today, The Plaza is a far smaller hotel, with only 300 rooms. The lobby is cheesy enough to make you believe you’re staying on the Vegas Strip. The Edwardian is a garish clothing store, the Oak Room and bar are closed, the Palm Court is moribund while the Persian Room and Plaza Nine are long gone. The basement is now a giant food court and much of the banquet space has been lost to condominiums.
To me, the current state of the banquet space is the saddest of all. You enter from 58th Street into what looks like a defunct or failing shopping mall. The ballroom is still the most beautiful in New York, provided you don’t look too closely. The foyer, which was modeled after the Hall of Mirrors, has been dumbed down to nothing, stripped of its elegant furniture and appointments. An extension has been added to what was once florist workspace. It looks like it was prefabricated and dropped in by air; a dull, characterless room with no style or elegance. The banquet bars are carelessly stocked with second tier mixers. This is in a hotel that would only use top-shelf products, even when the owners of rival beverage companies had their children’s weddings there.
Truth be told, the banquet food at The Plaza was never brilliant and that tradition has only been intensified. I recently attended a dinner there and instead of going to the Terrace (a room that has been neutered into banality) for cocktails, I wandered upstairs as I was quite early. I looked into the ballroom around 5:00pm (we were scheduled to go into dinner at 7:00) and the first course was already set at each place. Needless to say, I had no desire to eat it some two hours later.
Some might call us old-fashioned, but at 583 Park Avenue and Guastavino’s we almost never serve preset courses. We understand that every so often, due to a client’s time restraints, a preset first course is a must, but I insist that this be done at the absolute last minute, not two hours ahead of time.
No one ever compliments the food or service at The Plaza, but it remains a very active and expensive banquet venue. Why? Well, the Ballroom is beautiful and the location is choice; but is that really what it takes to make a party great? The answer to that question is fairly complex, and I will elaborate on it in my next commentary.
Herbert Rose is Director Emeritus at GUASTAVINO’S and 583 Park Avenue. He has over 40 years of experience as Director of Catering at New York’s finest venues.
Have a question for Herbert? CONTACT US today and he will be happy to address it in a future post.