Rosebuds Blog
Comfort foods from around the world — and next door
There are few things in life more soothing than food. We eat to feel good. We eat to console ourselves. That is where comfort foods come into play. Comfort foods are those dishes that are especially associated with good taste and emotional contentment. They are usually simple foods (rather than gourmet) and are easy to prepare and eat. They also tend to epitomize home cooking and often invoke feelings of nostalgia and security. Many of them, unfortunately, are associated with weight gain and questionable nutritional value. But those are considerations that become secondary when we really want comforting. A reader’s poll conducted by About.com showed the most popular comfort foods are … (click on the headline to continue reading)
Some fun and surprising history for St. Patrick’s Day
The Irish know how to celebrate. It’s in the numbers. More than 100 St. Patrick’s Day parades are held across the United States. New York City and Boston are home to the largest celebrations. Every March 17 we all seem to turn Irish. We turn a little Irish at The Rose Hotel, too. We’re not the kind of establishment that sits on the sidelines while festivities reign. So, come this St. Patrick’s Day, we will be holding a celebration in the hotel’s lobby bar, and those attending will be treated to a bowl of stew, soda bread and green popcorn. From March 6-17 the bar menu will consist of Irish Greenhoppers , St. Patrick’s Apple Martini, Peet’s Irish Coffee, Peet’s Bailey’s Irish Coffee … (click on the headline to continue reading)
Hotel guests leading complaints — and compliments
J.D. Power and Associates, the market research firm, measures just about every product and service you can imagine, including the satisfaction levels of hotel guests and travelers. So you can imagine that we pay especially close attention to the results of J.D. Power hotel guest surveys. It’s one of the guidelines that we measure ourselves against, and we’re happy to report that, by that measure, where performing very well — especially considering that overall hotel industry ratings have fallen to their lowest ranking since 2006. J.D. Power surveyed more than 60,000 North American hotel guests and arrived at an industry rating of 757 points out of a possible 1,000. That is a 7 point drop from the previous year’s survey and includes what J.D. Power officials call steep drops in satisfaction in several categories, such as hotel facilities and services, guest rooms, check-in/check-out, food and beverage. But chief among respondents complaints were … (click on the headline to continue reading.)
A ticket to the future — and the past
Just a block down the street from The Rose Hotel there is a portal that allows people to move from the present to the past. It’s a place where people can go back in time, a place devoted to preserving and disseminating information about history specific to the Tri-Valley. The objective of this effort, somewhat paradoxically, is to link the past to the future. That place is … (click on the headline to continue reading.)
Of clichés, breakfast cereal and assorted other topics
What do the Super Bowl, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, steel cut oatmeal and Valentine’s Day have in common? The cynical answer is: They are all components of a cliché lead, the kind writers use to pull together a group of disparate items that have only the most tenuous relationship to one another. The optimistic answer is: They all come to pass in February and have a connection to The Rose Hotel. Okay, the connection is tenuous, but if you think we’re going to allow landmark events such as the Super Bowl, a Pebble Beach golf tourney and Valentine’s Day — or the nutritional value of steel cut oatmeal — to pass without comment, you underestimate the extent to which we will go to grab at least a thread of nationally significant events. In their own way, each of these topics find their confluence at The Rose Hotel. Allow us to explain … (click on the headline to continue reading.)