"Truly a great book*--*unique, invaluable and unapproachable as
the gold standard of the genre... Bemelmans got there first, more
frequently, and better." --Anthony Bourdain
Acerbic, colorful, and spirited stories from a bygone era: behind the
scenes in a grand NY hotel, from the author of the Madeline books
Picture David Sedaris writing Kitchen Confidential about the Ritz in
New York in the 1920s, which had the style and charm of The Grand
Budapest Hotel...
In this charming and uproariously funny hotel memoir, Ludwig Bemelmans
uncovers the fabulous world of the Hotel Splendide--the thinly disguised
stand-in for the Ritz--a luxury New York hotel where he worked as a
waiter in the 1920s. With equal parts affection and barbed wit, he
uncovers the everyday chaos that reigns behind the smooth facades of the
gilded dining room and banquet halls.
In hilarious detail, Bemelmans sketches the hierarchy of hotel life and
its strange and fascinating inhabitants: from the ruthlessly
authoritarian maître d'hôtel Monsieur Victor to the kindly waiter
Mespoulets to Frizl the homesick busboy. Illustrated with his own
charming line drawings, Bemelmans' tales of a bygone era of extravagance
are as charming as they are riotously entertaining.
****"[Bemelmans] was the original bad boy of the NY
hotel/restaurant subculture, a waiter, busboy, and restaurateur who
"told all" in a series of funny and true (or very near true)
autobiographical accounts of backstairs folly, excess, borderline
criminality, and madness in the grande Hotel Splendide... If you like
stories about old New York as I do, this classic will have you laughing
out loud." -Anthony Bourdain
