Le Bristol founder's grandson at Cadot Restaurant in Dallas

The Dallas Observer today publishes an interview with Jean-Marie Cadot, chef-owner of Cadot Restaurant in North Dallas, Texas. Cadot's mother is the daughter of Hypollyte Jammet, the founder of the famous Paris Bristol, where she was born and raised. She gave him his first cookbook, he says, and he roasted his first chicken at the age of nine. Her paintings adorn Cadot Restaurant, which opened in 2009 and has received many accolades.
Le Bristol in Paris is the subject of Suha Arafat and the Hope Diamond, a chapter in High Times at the Hotel Bristol, which can be read online.

Le Bristol murder suspect to be extradited

Polish millionairess Kinga Legg was battered to death with a gilded lamp in the bathroom of Room 503 on the fifth floor of Le Bristol, the five-star Paris hotel, on May 26, 2009.
Ian Griffin, the man who shared her room and subsequently went on the run was captured in England shortly afterwards. He has been in Wandsworth prison ever since, undergoing psychiatric tests, and is reported to have attempted suicide several times. The courts have now ruled that he is fit to stand trial and he will be extradited to France.
The full story behind the murder can be read in Crime Magazine

Oslo Hotel Bristol skeleton key

This item from the famous Oslo Hotel Bristol has just gone up on eBay. It says it is a "vintage brass skeleton room key and fob", and the current bid stands at $19.95.  It's hard to work out what exactly we are looking at. Sticking out at the side, the fob is rather ungainly, but it is apparently stamped with the same room number – 415 – and must have been made all of a piece because the two parts cannot now be separated. Usually fobs are something you can hook on to, but how do you "wear" this key? Clever, though, to give it a room number. No-one would suspect it could open every door.

Kossak painting stolen from Hotel Bristol in Vienna

A painting by the Polish artist Wojciech Kossak has been stolen from the Bristol Hotel in Warsaw. Kossack (1857–1942) came from a family of painters, and he specialised in battle scenes and equestrian paintings. This self-portrait is in the National Museum in Warsaw. For some years he had an atelier in the hotel, paying for his rent with his paintings, which lined the walls of the restaurant. The painting that has been stolen was in the lobby, and was cut from its frame. It is said to be worth 30,000 euros.

Chandelier from Hotel Bristol, Merano, for sale.

ANOTHER souvenir from the former luxury Hotel Bristol goes under the hammer on December 15. This Murano glass chandelier, manufactured by Seguso Vetri d'Arte in 1954, is more than 8ft (250cm) in diameter. Three were commissioned for the hotel, two have survived. Auctioneers are Phillips de Pury of New York, who have put an estimated price of $80-120,000 on the piece.

• In September a pair of 1938 Gio Ponti chairs from the Bristol in Murano came up for sale at Wrights auctioneers, with an estimated price of $3,000–5,000 – they sold for $13,750. 

• The hotel is the subject of a handsome book called Hotel Bristol, by photographer Elizabeth Holzl, mentioned in an earlier post

Also for sale, on eBay, Russian stamps with an image of Tsar Nicholas, postmarked "Hotel Bristol Ekterinaslav 

Round egg found in Cornish Hotel Bristol shock!

Chef James Church, 27, of the Hotel Bristol, Newquay, Cornwall, just hit the headlines after picking up a morning egg to crack for a guest's breakfast when he realised he was holding a perfectly round egg. Shocked, he called the kitchen staff to admire his find – the first he has seen after what he reckons must be a 100,000-egg-cracking career. More uncommon than a four-leaf clover, nobody has come forward since that they too have ever seen such a sight. Church is keeping it in a refrigerator for posterity.

Bristol Hotel, Karachi

 

A Blog called Pak Tea House recalls memories of the great hotel Bristol in Karachi - built by a Welshman in 1910 and soon famous under the Raj for its parties. In 1960 the owner's son sold it to the politician Rizvi Sahab who ran it with continuing fame until he 1994. Still standing, it is now a "home", though for what is unclear..