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A room with a star-studded view
Imagine vacationing in Francis Ford Coppola's holiday home or bedding down in a hotel personally restored by Bono. With celebrities as hospitality-industry impresarios, mere mortals can sleep with the stars
By JOHN WEICH
Saturday, March 22, 2003 - Page T2
LOS ANGELES -- It's a few nights before Oscar weekend and Matt Damon and pal Ben Affleck's Beverly Hills eatery The Continental is casually crowded. Against the muted interior is a flurry of thirtysomethings eating ahi tuna and capitulating to the DJ's upbeat tempo in oversized leather booths. Apple martini-induced flirtation is all around. An attractive young actor strides across the poured concrete floor and disappears into the elegant crowd. Wasn't that Matt Damon? Most people are having too good of a time to notice.
Thanks to their highly bankable profiles, celebrities such as Damon and Affleck are becoming an ever-increasing presence on the urban culinary scene in L.A., New York, San Francisco. The bacchanalia of the 1990s that sent industry paychecks skyrocketing has fuelled a celebrity rush to establish personality-driven restaurants and bars, which has also spilled over into that other icon of peripatetic cool -- hotels -- if less fervently.
The best celebrity restaurateurs capitalize on the cult of personality. Jennifer Lopez's Madre's restaurant in Pasadena works because fans recognize authenticity in a Latino diva serving up Latino cuisine. Damon and Affleck's The Continental reveals in its stark minimalism a couple of hip young gents who have a discerning understanding of atmosphere and food. Robert de Niro's Nobu, with celebrated chef Nobu Matsuhisa in New York underscores the actor's epicurean image.
In contrast, the hotels that are owned by celebrities tend more to belong to the aging icons of the music and film industries that prefer to juke the spotlight rather than wade elegantly in it.
Fans gather at techno god Moby's New York teahouse, Teany, not necessarily for the food but for a glimpse of the star. However, groupies looking to spy Francis Ford Coppola at his Blancaneaux Lodge in Belize will likely return disappointed. What they will find, however, is a resort decorated largely by Coppola himself, which makes for a much more personal experience. Vacationing at the Blancaneaux Lodge is like watching over Coppola's holiday home while he's away shooting another feature.
Celebrity-owned hotels often begin as personal retreats for family and friends that are eventually opened to the public. These types of resorts are dear to their owners' hearts because they originally built them for their own leisure. Each offers, to one degree or another, a glimpse of the celebrity's personal tastes and predilections.
Some celebrities' motivations for investing in hotels is a heavy dose of beneficence. The dilapidated 19th-century Carmel ranch that Clint Eastwood rescued from condominium developers in 1986 guaranteed the survival of a favourite local hangout. U2's investment in Dublin's the Clarence helped resurrect one of the Irish group's hometown monuments.
So why haven't Britney Spears or Justine Timberlake opened up a haute urban boutique, or Leonardo diCaprio a Lower East Side hideaway? For starters, savvy hoteliers such as Ian Schrager, Andre Balazs and European society gal Anouska Hempel have already got the corner on exactly the type of hip venues the stars like to frequent -- and have become celebrities for it in their own right.
And since opening a hotel demands an enormous investment, the time it takes to erect a property can conceivably outlast a celebrity's popularity. So until the current generation of bankable young starlets grows up, here is the best celebrities have to offer by way of a good night's sleep.
The Clarence, Dublin
One of Dublin's most discerning hotels since 1852, the Clarence warmly welcomed its new owners, U2's Bono and The Edge, in 1992. The rocker duo painstakingly restored the stately manor into one of Europe's best hotels. They also revealed an unexpected talent for interior design, although -- and fans may be disappointed by this -- not of the rock-genre variety.
They burnished the oak panelling, weren't stingy with the Italian limestone and revealed their personal tastes for leather, velvet, Shaker-style furniture and Egyptian linens. The Clarence, which also houses one of Dublin's finest restaurants, the Tea Room, reveals a sensitive side of U2 you didn't exactly know was there.
The Mission Ranch Inn, Carmel
After Eastwood was elected mayor of one of California's most Steinbeckian coastal towns in 1986, he purchased and restored the historic Mission Ranch Inn and the pastoral landscape on which it was situated.
The inn is now a quaint, 31-room, 1880s-style luxury farmhouse where a "bunkhouse" goes for $85 (U.S.) a night.
Perhaps more famous than the hotel is the Mission Ranch Restaurant, which is a bustling family eatery that serves up, predictably, ranch-style fare with an emphasis on steak and baby back ribs -- and offers frequent sightings of the actor-cum-resident.
Hotel Tetiaroa, French Polynesia
After filming the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962, Marlon Brando married his Tahitian co-star Tarita Terepaia and, in 1966, purchased the Tetiaroa atoll about 40 kilometres north of Tahiti. In addition to building a house on one of the atoll's 13 islets and establishing a bird sanctuary on another, Brando erected a small, 15-room retreat on a third.
The atoll's only hotel is a simple building of palm thatches with a number of small rooms and five bungalows, all decorated in Polynesian simplicity. While the island is all about relaxation, there are plenty of activities on hand, including sailing, snorkelling, horseback riding and diving.
Cardoza Hotel, Miami
Long before Ian Schrager came to town and opened up the Delano (and later the Shore Club), there was Cuban diva Gloria Estefan's the Cardoza, one of the first buildings in the late 1970s to be gutted and rejigged with the waxy art-deco sheen for which South Beach is known today.
Estefan and husband Emilio commissioned design house Hohauser to refit the 39 rooms and four suites with mosaic sinks and terra-cotta walls. The result is streamline modern with details such as leopard-print blankets and canap? beds. The fabulous ground floor caf? has ocean views.
Cypress Inn, Carmel
Carmel's oceanfront location between San Francisco and Los Angeles made it the earthy mid-century anecdote to high rollers Palm Springs and Las Vegas. In addition to its celebrated son, Clint Eastwood, Carmel counts sweet-smiling Doris Day among its long-time residents. In 1988, Day took a stake in one of the town's historic inns, which offers classic interiors to Eastwood's chic homeliness.
When Day took over Cypress Inn, she also brought with her her movie posters and photo albums and, as a well-known animal activist, whole-heartedly welcomed pets to all 33 rooms and the single suite.
Blancaneaux Lodge, Belize
Situated within the tropical foliage of Western Belize, director Francis Ford Coppola's Blancaneaux Lodge was opened to the public in 1993. Symbiotic to its surroundings, the resort comprises just six thatched luxury villas spread across undulating terrain. Each bungalow features antique colonial furnishings, local crafts picked up by Coppola and spectacular forest views. While the Coppola family presence isn't overbearing, there is a fan in the bar taken from the set of Apocalypse Now. The restaurant also serves up "traditional Coppola family recipes" using only organic fruits and vegetables grown on site.
The Coppola family likes Belize so much that they opened up the Turtle Inn on the coast. The same organic set-up, the same Coppola-inspired menu, but this time with Balinese bleached cabanas.
Ariel Sands, Bermuda
In 1995, Michael Douglas turned the Ariel Sands resort into a luxury cottage colony for movie stars on the go. The hotel does not necessarily genuflect to the sometimes hot, sometimes not Hollywood actor, but there are lots of pictures of him at the bar and at any given time the resort is home to some of Hollywood's biggest names. Ariel Sands comes very close to a textbook definition of paradise with its private beach, secluded cottages, seawater swimming pools and instant access to coral reefs.
Necker Island, British Virgin Islands
The most famous celebrity-owned haunt is also the most lavish and exclusive -- think $35,000 per day, per guest. For several months a year, Virgin Records tycoon Sir Richard Branson opens up his 30-hectare Necker Island -- with its five white beaches, freshwater swimming pool, Jacuzzis and tennis court -- to guests. As he's only there two to three times a season, his luxury villa is free to the highest bidder. A Bali fanatic, Branson has aspired to create an island that offers both resort and religious experiences, with hidden hammocks and a Hindu meditation hut as part of the landscape.
John Weich is editor-at-large at Wallpaper*
If you go:
CELEBRITY RESTAURANTS
The Continental: 8400 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, Ca.; phone: (323) 782-9717.
Madre's: 897 Granite Dr., Pasadena, Ca.; phone: (626) 744-0900; Web: http://www.madresrestaurante.com.
Teany: 90 Rivington St., New York; phone: (212) 475-9190.
Nobu: 105 Hudson St., New York; phone: (212) 219-0500; Web: http://www.myriadrestaurantgroup.com.
CELEBRITY HOTELS
The Clarence: 6-8 Wellington Quay, Dublin; phone: 353 (1) 407 0800; Web: http://www.the clarence.ie.
The Mission Ranch Inn: 26270 Dolores St., Carmel, Ca.; phone: (831) 624-6436.
Hotel Tetiaroa: Tetiaroa Atoll, French Polynesia; phone: (689) 826302.
Cardozo Hotel: 1300 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach, Fla.; phone: (305) 535-6500; fax: (305) 352-3563.
Cypress Inn: Carmel-by-the-Sea, Ca.; phone: (800) 443-7443; Web: http://www.cypress-inn.com.
Blancaneaux Lodge: Mountain Ridge Reserve, Cayo District, Belize; phone: (800)746-3743 or (501) 824-3878; fax: (501) 824-3919; or visit the Web site at
http://www.blancaneaux.com.
Ariel Sands: 34 South Shore Rd., Devonshire, Bermuda; phone: (800) 468-6610; fax: (441) 236-0087; Web: http://www.arielsands.com.
Necker Island: Contact Resorts Management Inc., 456 Glenbrook Rd., Stamford, Ct.; phone: (800) 557-4255.
A room with a star-studded view
Imagine vacationing in Francis Ford Coppola's holiday home or bedding down in a hotel personally restored by Bono. With celebrities as hospitality-industry impresarios, mere mortals can sleep with the stars
By JOHN WEICH
Saturday, March 22, 2003 - Page T2
LOS ANGELES -- It's a few nights before Oscar weekend and Matt Damon and pal Ben Affleck's Beverly Hills eatery The Continental is casually crowded. Against the muted interior is a flurry of thirtysomethings eating ahi tuna and capitulating to the DJ's upbeat tempo in oversized leather booths. Apple martini-induced flirtation is all around. An attractive young actor strides across the poured concrete floor and disappears into the elegant crowd. Wasn't that Matt Damon? Most people are having too good of a time to notice.
Thanks to their highly bankable profiles, celebrities such as Damon and Affleck are becoming an ever-increasing presence on the urban culinary scene in L.A., New York, San Francisco. The bacchanalia of the 1990s that sent industry paychecks skyrocketing has fuelled a celebrity rush to establish personality-driven restaurants and bars, which has also spilled over into that other icon of peripatetic cool -- hotels -- if less fervently.
The best celebrity restaurateurs capitalize on the cult of personality. Jennifer Lopez's Madre's restaurant in Pasadena works because fans recognize authenticity in a Latino diva serving up Latino cuisine. Damon and Affleck's The Continental reveals in its stark minimalism a couple of hip young gents who have a discerning understanding of atmosphere and food. Robert de Niro's Nobu, with celebrated chef Nobu Matsuhisa in New York underscores the actor's epicurean image.
In contrast, the hotels that are owned by celebrities tend more to belong to the aging icons of the music and film industries that prefer to juke the spotlight rather than wade elegantly in it.
Fans gather at techno god Moby's New York teahouse, Teany, not necessarily for the food but for a glimpse of the star. However, groupies looking to spy Francis Ford Coppola at his Blancaneaux Lodge in Belize will likely return disappointed. What they will find, however, is a resort decorated largely by Coppola himself, which makes for a much more personal experience. Vacationing at the Blancaneaux Lodge is like watching over Coppola's holiday home while he's away shooting another feature.
Celebrity-owned hotels often begin as personal retreats for family and friends that are eventually opened to the public. These types of resorts are dear to their owners' hearts because they originally built them for their own leisure. Each offers, to one degree or another, a glimpse of the celebrity's personal tastes and predilections.
Some celebrities' motivations for investing in hotels is a heavy dose of beneficence. The dilapidated 19th-century Carmel ranch that Clint Eastwood rescued from condominium developers in 1986 guaranteed the survival of a favourite local hangout. U2's investment in Dublin's the Clarence helped resurrect one of the Irish group's hometown monuments.
So why haven't Britney Spears or Justine Timberlake opened up a haute urban boutique, or Leonardo diCaprio a Lower East Side hideaway? For starters, savvy hoteliers such as Ian Schrager, Andre Balazs and European society gal Anouska Hempel have already got the corner on exactly the type of hip venues the stars like to frequent -- and have become celebrities for it in their own right.
And since opening a hotel demands an enormous investment, the time it takes to erect a property can conceivably outlast a celebrity's popularity. So until the current generation of bankable young starlets grows up, here is the best celebrities have to offer by way of a good night's sleep.
The Clarence, Dublin
One of Dublin's most discerning hotels since 1852, the Clarence warmly welcomed its new owners, U2's Bono and The Edge, in 1992. The rocker duo painstakingly restored the stately manor into one of Europe's best hotels. They also revealed an unexpected talent for interior design, although -- and fans may be disappointed by this -- not of the rock-genre variety.
They burnished the oak panelling, weren't stingy with the Italian limestone and revealed their personal tastes for leather, velvet, Shaker-style furniture and Egyptian linens. The Clarence, which also houses one of Dublin's finest restaurants, the Tea Room, reveals a sensitive side of U2 you didn't exactly know was there.
The Mission Ranch Inn, Carmel
After Eastwood was elected mayor of one of California's most Steinbeckian coastal towns in 1986, he purchased and restored the historic Mission Ranch Inn and the pastoral landscape on which it was situated.
The inn is now a quaint, 31-room, 1880s-style luxury farmhouse where a "bunkhouse" goes for $85 (U.S.) a night.
Perhaps more famous than the hotel is the Mission Ranch Restaurant, which is a bustling family eatery that serves up, predictably, ranch-style fare with an emphasis on steak and baby back ribs -- and offers frequent sightings of the actor-cum-resident.
Hotel Tetiaroa, French Polynesia
After filming the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962, Marlon Brando married his Tahitian co-star Tarita Terepaia and, in 1966, purchased the Tetiaroa atoll about 40 kilometres north of Tahiti. In addition to building a house on one of the atoll's 13 islets and establishing a bird sanctuary on another, Brando erected a small, 15-room retreat on a third.
The atoll's only hotel is a simple building of palm thatches with a number of small rooms and five bungalows, all decorated in Polynesian simplicity. While the island is all about relaxation, there are plenty of activities on hand, including sailing, snorkelling, horseback riding and diving.
Cardoza Hotel, Miami
Long before Ian Schrager came to town and opened up the Delano (and later the Shore Club), there was Cuban diva Gloria Estefan's the Cardoza, one of the first buildings in the late 1970s to be gutted and rejigged with the waxy art-deco sheen for which South Beach is known today.
Estefan and husband Emilio commissioned design house Hohauser to refit the 39 rooms and four suites with mosaic sinks and terra-cotta walls. The result is streamline modern with details such as leopard-print blankets and canap? beds. The fabulous ground floor caf? has ocean views.
Cypress Inn, Carmel
Carmel's oceanfront location between San Francisco and Los Angeles made it the earthy mid-century anecdote to high rollers Palm Springs and Las Vegas. In addition to its celebrated son, Clint Eastwood, Carmel counts sweet-smiling Doris Day among its long-time residents. In 1988, Day took a stake in one of the town's historic inns, which offers classic interiors to Eastwood's chic homeliness.
When Day took over Cypress Inn, she also brought with her her movie posters and photo albums and, as a well-known animal activist, whole-heartedly welcomed pets to all 33 rooms and the single suite.
Blancaneaux Lodge, Belize
Situated within the tropical foliage of Western Belize, director Francis Ford Coppola's Blancaneaux Lodge was opened to the public in 1993. Symbiotic to its surroundings, the resort comprises just six thatched luxury villas spread across undulating terrain. Each bungalow features antique colonial furnishings, local crafts picked up by Coppola and spectacular forest views. While the Coppola family presence isn't overbearing, there is a fan in the bar taken from the set of Apocalypse Now. The restaurant also serves up "traditional Coppola family recipes" using only organic fruits and vegetables grown on site.
The Coppola family likes Belize so much that they opened up the Turtle Inn on the coast. The same organic set-up, the same Coppola-inspired menu, but this time with Balinese bleached cabanas.
Ariel Sands, Bermuda
In 1995, Michael Douglas turned the Ariel Sands resort into a luxury cottage colony for movie stars on the go. The hotel does not necessarily genuflect to the sometimes hot, sometimes not Hollywood actor, but there are lots of pictures of him at the bar and at any given time the resort is home to some of Hollywood's biggest names. Ariel Sands comes very close to a textbook definition of paradise with its private beach, secluded cottages, seawater swimming pools and instant access to coral reefs.
Necker Island, British Virgin Islands
The most famous celebrity-owned haunt is also the most lavish and exclusive -- think $35,000 per day, per guest. For several months a year, Virgin Records tycoon Sir Richard Branson opens up his 30-hectare Necker Island -- with its five white beaches, freshwater swimming pool, Jacuzzis and tennis court -- to guests. As he's only there two to three times a season, his luxury villa is free to the highest bidder. A Bali fanatic, Branson has aspired to create an island that offers both resort and religious experiences, with hidden hammocks and a Hindu meditation hut as part of the landscape.
John Weich is editor-at-large at Wallpaper*
If you go:
CELEBRITY RESTAURANTS
The Continental: 8400 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, Ca.; phone: (323) 782-9717.
Madre's: 897 Granite Dr., Pasadena, Ca.; phone: (626) 744-0900; Web: http://www.madresrestaurante.com.
Teany: 90 Rivington St., New York; phone: (212) 475-9190.
Nobu: 105 Hudson St., New York; phone: (212) 219-0500; Web: http://www.myriadrestaurantgroup.com.
CELEBRITY HOTELS
The Clarence: 6-8 Wellington Quay, Dublin; phone: 353 (1) 407 0800; Web: http://www.the clarence.ie.
The Mission Ranch Inn: 26270 Dolores St., Carmel, Ca.; phone: (831) 624-6436.
Hotel Tetiaroa: Tetiaroa Atoll, French Polynesia; phone: (689) 826302.
Cardozo Hotel: 1300 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach, Fla.; phone: (305) 535-6500; fax: (305) 352-3563.
Cypress Inn: Carmel-by-the-Sea, Ca.; phone: (800) 443-7443; Web: http://www.cypress-inn.com.
Blancaneaux Lodge: Mountain Ridge Reserve, Cayo District, Belize; phone: (800)746-3743 or (501) 824-3878; fax: (501) 824-3919; or visit the Web site at
http://www.blancaneaux.com.
Ariel Sands: 34 South Shore Rd., Devonshire, Bermuda; phone: (800) 468-6610; fax: (441) 236-0087; Web: http://www.arielsands.com.
Necker Island: Contact Resorts Management Inc., 456 Glenbrook Rd., Stamford, Ct.; phone: (800) 557-4255.
