April 17, 2007

US & Canada | US | California | San Francisco

Hotel of the Century

By Mark Jolly

This is one birthday celebration where the guests get to keep the gifts.

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The storied Fairmont San Francisco, where Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” turns 100 tomorrow. (The legendary crooner, we should add, is but a youthful 80.) The festivities, which will fan out across Fairmont’s hotels worldwide throughout the rest of the year, start in San Francisco on Sunday with the first in a series of “Open Doors” — free public tours of the group’s most iconic hotels (including the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto and the Savoy in London). You’ll get to a) hear how, just days before its originally intended opening in 1906, the hotel survived the Great Earthquake (three words: Corinthian marble columns); and b) enjoy a spot of “1907 Centennial Tea,” a limited edition blend concocted by the Metropolitan Tea Company.

Want more options? To celebrate the centenary in style, you can experience a) the hotel’s two-night “Live the Legend” package for $599 (hey, they’ll throw in a coffee table book); or b) the historic penthouse suite where Prince Charles, Mick Jagger and Marlene Dietrich all enjoyed (though not together) three large bedrooms, a grand piano, a formal dining room, a two-story library-in-the-round and a billiard room covered in Persian tiles ($12,500 per night). For pure idiotic indulgence, however, there’s the “$100,000 Best of San Francisco Centennial Package,” which gets you an extra night plus dinner for 12 in the suite’s dining room, a bottle of 1907 Madeira, a Rolex wristwatch, a 10-carat diamond bracelet, and exclusive use of a Maserati Quattroporte. Relax. There’s always the Tonga Room’s $7 all-you-can-eat happy-hour buffet, Mondays to Fridays, 5–7 pm.