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In an era when hotels are paying increasing attention to the quality of their restaurants and bars, room service sadly plays second fiddle to the one-upmanship going on in the kitchens downstairs. There's something really indulgent about room service. After a long day of meetings or being out on the road, it can be so luxuriating to just kick off your shoes and order some food to your room. You can even eat it in bed to the backdrop of some bad reality TV. Or so I've heard.
In an era when hotels are paying increasing attention to the quality of their restaurants and bars, room service sadly often plays second fiddle to the one-upmanship going on in the kitchens downstairs. But if you have a Michelin-starred chef overseeing the menu at the on-site restaurant, why not capitalize on that talent for delivery to the guests upstairs, as well? That's precisely the thinking at the InterContinental San Francisco, where Chef de Cuisine Daniel Corey is bringing his award-winning fine dining from the lobby restaurant, Luce, directly into the sleek, modern guestrooms. On a recent evening, my fiance and I checked into the InterContinental for the night, not to get dressed up and have the acclaimed chef's tasting menu at Luce. Oh no. We were in for a real treat: We were going to have room service, and we were shamelessly excited about it. When dinner arrived, we were caught in the middle of watching an addictively bad '80s movie (remember "Always" with Richard Dreyfuss?). Embarrassed by our low-brow selection, we quickly turned off the TV and focused on the spread being laid out before us. Who needs TV anyway, when you have a 180-degree view of San Francisco? Left to our own devices, we poured ourselves a glass of Luce Toscana 2010, a silky blend of Sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon, and started to dig in. We quickly observed a common thread throughout the meal. It was an unabashedly upscale assortment, ranging from a smooth butternut squash soup with creme fraiche to rich braised short rib pappardelle to perfectly cooked chicken breast with potato puree and Brussels sprouts. And yet most of the selections clearly had a comfort food element to them. It was hard not to get excited about the grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich with fries and the mac and cheese, even if they were sitting right next to a delightful baby lettuce salad with pickled radishes. That comfort food component isn't by accident. According to Jaap Boelens, InterContinental San Francisco's assistant director of food and beverage, comfort food is a common craving among in-room diners, many of whom are conference attendees from the Moscone Center next door working long hours. And then there was dessert. It was time to turn "Always" back on for this course. A selection of San Francisco's own Humphry Slocombe ice cream (malted milk chocolate, Tahitian vanilla and the weekly special, peanut butter chocolate chip), as well as key lime mascarpone and chocolate mousse. We had to call room service to take it all away, intervention style. |
