JW Marriott opens in Chicago

by Melanie Nayer on

Marriott certainly is making the rounds. The first ever JW Marriott Marquis opened in Miami last week and coming Thursday, Nov. 11, the JW Marriott Chicago will open its doors.

Situated in the historic Continental & Commercial National Bank Building in Chicago’s financial district, the JW Marriott Chicago will be the first of its brand in the windy city. Occupying the first 12 floors of the building at 151 W. Adams St., the hotel will have 610 guestrooms, including 29 corner suites and more than 44,000-square-feet of meeting space, a 20,000-square-foot world class spa and fitness center, and two different dining options – an Italian Steakhouse and a lounge serving more casual plates and sushi.

Each guestroom will offer complimentary in-room coffee/tea service and nightly turndown service. All rooms have 10-foot ceilings with handcrafted crown molding and spacious bathrooms clad in Italian marble, featuring stand alone tubs and separate marble showers. Forty-two inch flat-panel high-definition televisions grace each room with hookups for A/V stations and Wi-Fi capabilities.

The spa, VALEO, is a 20,000-square-foot space of ultimate serenity combining fitness facilities, traditional and non-traditional spa services and myriad salon services. The fitness center will feature cardio and circuit training equipment, a large pool for laps as well as a therapeutic whirlpool.

The hotel’s restaurants, The Florentine and the lobby lounge, give travelers and hotel guests the option of fine dining or casual take-out. The Florentine, a concept from the BLT Restaurant Group, offers Italian-American fare from Corporate Executive Chef Rodelio Aglibot and Executive Chef Todd Stein, of Sunda and mk fame respectively. For a more casual experience, the JW Marriott Chicago’s lobby lounge will serve light fare like appetizers and sushi.

To celebrate the opening of the hotel, individual room reservations will be available beginning November 11, 2010 with introductory rates from $179 – $329.

Bad week for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner – more delays and cabin smoke

by Scott Carmichael on

It has been a pretty lousy couple of years for the new Boeing Dreamliner. Initially, the 787 was supposed to be delivered to its first customer in May of 2008 – that was then delayed till November 2008. And since then, the delays have kept on coming.

The previous delay set a 2010 target, but last week it became obvious that they’d hit another snag – so the first delivery won’t take place till some time in 2011.

Delivery delays are not the only issue grounding the new plane – this afternoon one of the flight test planes had to make an emergency landing at Laredo airport after the pilot declared an emergency due to smoke in the cabin. The plane landed, and the 40 members of the test crew had to evacuate down the emergency slides. According to one report, there were several minor injuries.

Boeing and the FAA will gather as much data as they can about the incident, and it is currently unknown what kind of impact this latest setback will have on the 2011 delivery dates.

Update: The Seattle Times reports that the smoke came from a serious fire in the electronic equipment bay of the plane.

The fire affected the cockpit controls, and the the plane lost its flight displays and auto-throttling systems. This means that the plane had to land with limited electronic flight controls. Flames were observed coming from the bay, and a person “close to the situation” said that if the incident had happened at 25,000 feet, the fire could have been extremely serious.

[Photo: JEREMY MELLOUL/AFP/Getty Images]

Neil Patrick Harris lends voice to Disney ride

by Leigh Caldwell on

Disney California Adventure theme park has introduced a new ride recording for California Screamin’, featuring the voice of actor Neil Patrick Harris.

The official Disney Parks Blog says NPH’s new recordings are meant to emulate a classic carnival sideshow barker.

California Screamin’ is in the Paradise Pier section of Disney California Adventure. That part of the park has a classic boardwalk amusement park feel.

California Screamin’ is the longest and fastest ride at Disneyland Resort in California, with a 120-foot drop and top speeds of 58 miles per hour. The roller coaster is steel, though it is painted and styled to look like a classic wooden ride.

NPH’s love of Disney is well-documented. He has been a narrator during EPCOT’s holiday Candlelight Processional show in past years, and last month, he hosted an event celebrating Disney animatronics at the Disneyland Hotel.

He professes his love for theme parks in his Twitter profile, and he hinted on Twitter about his California Screamin’ involvement over the weekend.

Photo of the Day (11.9.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on

If you live in New York City, it would have been hard not to notice a certain spectacle taking place over the weekend.

On Sunday, November 7th, a record 45,344 runners turned out to compete in New York’s 41st annual marathon; the largest and most widely spectated marathon in the world. An average of two million people line the streets every year to cheer on runners from around the world in the 26.2 mile journey through all five boroughs of the city. Even Chilean miner Edison Peña accepted a special invitation to compete in the race, finishing in 5 hours and 40 minutes; a course time that’s perfectly acceptable after spending 69 days underground.

Today’s Photo of the Day is a frame from the 2006 NYC Marathon, taken by Flickr user (and PotD regular) Clay Williams on the streets of Brooklyn. I think this image is a great illustration of the intersection of culture that inevitably occurs when thousands of people from around the world run through the streets of one of most diverse cities in the world.

Have you run or cheered someone on at a major marathon? Did you make it to New York’s this year? Share your stories and photos to prove it! Leave a comment below or submit to our Flickr Pool and it could be our next Photo of the Day.

Daily Pampering: new San Francisco restaurant debuts $390 truffle dinner

by Laurel Miller on

It’s truffle season again. In the Perigord, grizzled Frenchmen scour the forests using specially-trained female pigs or dogs to sniff out the rare black fungi growing from the roots of various tree species. In Piedmont, Italy, a similar hunt is under way for the even more esteemed white truffle. According to The Daily Beast, these little buggers can fetch an average of $3,500 a pound in a good economy (in ’09, the price for white truffles dropped to $1,800 to $2,500 a pound), making them one of the most expensive ingredients on earth.

In celebration of all this fungal goodness, Alexander’s Steakhouse in San Francisco is offering a nine-course truffle dinner for $390, through early 2011. Inside Scoop SF also tells us that for another $110, the restaurant will pair the wines for you. The Japanese-inflected meat temple opened last month in the buzzing SoMa neighborhood, but the sister location in the Silicon Valley is offering the same special.

Why are people willing to spend so much cash on a glorified foraged mushroom that smells like male pig pheromones? Gourmands will tell you the essence of the homely truffle elevates everything from scrambled eggs to pasta to euphoric levels. And truffles are supposedly an aphrodisiac (the scent of swine sex hormones, and all). Fortunately, a little of the pungent fungi goes a long way, and Alexander’s uses a total of 15 grams (roughly half-an-ounce) of black and white truffles on its special menu.

Dishes include elegant offerings like bonito sashimi with salsify, garlic chips, celery, curry foam, and black truffle; binchotan-roasted bone marrow, black garlic panko, citrus jam, and white truffle, and Japanese a5 Kagoshima ribeye cap [in plain English: expensive cut of top-grade imported Wagyu beef] with parsnip puree, butternut squash, chestnuts, and white truffle. Are you feeling randy yet, baby?

Want more? Get your daily dose pampering right here.

[Photo credit: Flickr user cyclingshepherd]