A taste of Warsaw, from the Bristol

The Hotel Bristol in Warsaw has just posted a video of a culinary tour of the city by its Chef de Cuisine, Michal Tkaczyk (left in the picture above). He has been at the Bristol since 2008 and has won a number of culinary competitions.

Kempinksi MBA for Bristol staff

A report in today's Financial Times looks at the benefits of an the corporate MBA programme offered by the Kempinksi hotel group, whose portfolio includes the Bristol in Berlin. Run with the French business school Neoma of Rheims, it has so far had 100 graduates.

The 18-month programme starts every second October and includes three residential blocks, each lasting two to three weeks, in Europe, the Middle East and China. It alumni keep in touch with a LinkedIn page.

Breakfast with John F Kennedy at the Berlin Bristol

This pictures shows US President John F Kenned,  Mayor Willy Brandt and Chancellor West Germany's Konrad Adenauer in the Gobelin Halle restaurant of the Kempinski Bristol in Berlin in 1963. The Kempinski Bristol had risen from the desolation of the war and opened as modern Germany's first five-star hotel in 1952. The previous Bristol, in Unter den Linden, had been destroyed by the massive allied bombing of the city.  

"Even John F. Kennedy appreciated the relaxed atmosphere of our Gobelin Halle," the hotel says , and they now have a special John F. Kennedy breakfast on the menu. It's a modest meal: croisants, fruit salad and a hot drink.

The story of the old Bristol is told in 'Krupp's Dying Shame', Chapter 4 in High Times at the Hotel Bristol.

Starwoods gets Odessa Bristol

Starwoods is about to open it second hotel in Ukraine, adding the Bristol in the Black Sea resort of Odessa to the Four Points in Zaporozhye, some 500 miles northeast on the Dnieper.
The hotel on Pushkinskaya Street is an elaborate Italianate building from 1894 that we have remarked on before. Renovation for Starwoods Luxury Collection will include a new bar and restaurant plus around 10,000 square feet of meeting space and will re-open in 2014.
It promises to offer "Authentic Travel Experiences to Global Explorers" –- and there was us thinking that, as travel experiences go, it had been pretty authentic up till now, especially when it was the Krasnaya in Soviet times.

Brendan Behan naked at the NY Bristol

Hotel Bristol, New York, no longer exists. 

"How bad a boozer was Brendan Behan?" asks the New York Post of the Irish playwrite, answering its own question with: "Bad enough to get himself banned from both the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Bristol Hotel, where he ran naked through the lobby."

This comes from a report today about a new play, Brendan in Chelsea, about 24 hours of his stay in the Chelsea, which was the last New York hotel that would have him. The play is written by his niece, Janet, and its star and director is Adrian Dunbar. It plays at the Acorn Theatre, New York, until Oct 6.

Behan, who described himself as “a drinker with a writing problem”, died in 1964 aged 41.

Vienna Bristol renovation

The Bristol Bar in the Bristol Hotel in Vienna has just reopned, the first part of a major overhaul of the five-star hotel.

The Bristol Bar is "indisputably"  one of the most favourite meeting places in Vienna for both guests and visitors, according to Hotel director Gerald Krischek. The main features of the Bristol have survived the renovation, which included furniture restoration and leopard patterned carpet flooring, plus a new lick of paint.

Opposite the state opera house, the hotel is known for its musical connections. This snippet comnes from The Spectator of June 1929:

"As we sat in the restaurant one evening, at the Bristol Hotel, enjoying the music after the hard work of the day, a particularly exquisite melody was being played. On asking the name of the composer, to our surprise we were told it was the head waiter."

The hotel is the subject of 'High Noon for the King's Moll' - a story in Hight Times at the Hotel Bristol. 

Beckham and the £15,000-a-night Le Bristol

Much has been made in the Press about David Beckham's residency in Paris where he is said to be paying £15,000 a night for the Imperial Suite at Le Bristol. The hotel's most expensive suite, pictured here, overlooks the garden and should be room enough for Victoria' wardrobe and their four boys.

Le Bristol is often in the news, not least on this blog, and it has many stories to tell, such as the extraordinary tale of the Hope Diamond, revealed in Chapter 19 of High Times at the Hotel Bristol.