Luxury's New Look
For months now, drills and saws have been some of the guests occupying the 127 rooms and 16 suites tucked in the historic Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek hotel, as this resplendent nest completes part deux of its makeover (the restaurant and bar redesign was completed in 2007). Only the most genteel construction workers must have checked in, as hardly a peep was heard, not a hammer sighted. Yet the exuberant redesign by San Francisco–based firm BAMO is no modest makeover. BAMO project lead Michael Booth worked closely with Mansion owner Caroline Rose Hunt and daughter Laurie Sands Harrison to freshen and glisten while keeping the family’s favorite historical notions in place.
The lobby began with a dazzling, hand-painted Chinese silk de Gournay wall covering, which took six months to complete. “This is only the second time in my career I’ve been fortunate enough to use a de Gournay wall covering, and it’s worth every penny,” says Booth. From there, he spun off with a sexy pair of swooping, William Switzer wingback chairs covered in chromium-yellow crocodile-embossed leather that flank the fireplace, and a set of Chinese red Moderne-ish chairs designed by John Boone with backs swathed in Fortuny. A John Boone–designed circular “sociable” and curvy Michael Taylor sofas are glamorous perches for chatting. Throughout are contemporary works of art by Dallas-area artists including John Holt Smith, Joan Winter and David Dreyer, all curated by San Francisco–based art consultant Nancy Sweeney.
The Promenade, which had always been used as a kind of innocuous walkway from the lobby to the bar, is papered in a Brunschwig & Fils trellis design “which instantly made the space into a garden room with a likeness to the Billy Haines Garden Room, or perhaps the main living room at Winfield House — the American Ambassador’s residence in London,” muses Booth.
Chef for a Day
To complement its new look,the Mansion searched far and near for an executive chef who had as much panache as the trellis-patterned carpet punching up the lobby. I rang up the Mansion and asked if I could come and help prepare lunch with Michelin-star chef Bruno Davaillon, who hails from the Loire Valley of France and is fresh from a five-year tenure at Alain Ducasse’s Mix at THEHotel in Las Vegas. They agreed — and even had a personalized chef’s coat waiting for me. “We have tooo parteees tooday,” said Chef Bruno, “so you will zee quite a beet of ack-shawn.” I tried hard to decipher his charming English, heavy on the French sounds, while tying my apron strings. One of his three trusty sous chefs, David Heyden, whizzed past us, yelling “Let’s get [table] 27 outta here!” Heyden reached for the fleur de sel to sprinkle on a tuna Niçoise salad (soon to be my future job) and a waiter swooped in and placed the dish on a silver tray. The kitchen had been bustling like this since the wee hours of the morning — prep work for lunch begins daily at 7 am, with dinner machinations at 2 pm. Chef Bruno and the additional two sous, Jason Maddy and Richard Triptow, gave me a tour of the kitchen in hopes of easing me into their routine. “I woood serve 400 to 500 guests on a weeekend,” said chef Bruno of his Vegas days and nights. “But here, I am more focused on each deesh, and perfecting za craft.” (Translation: I’d better pay attention to every grind of the pepper mill and every stacking of a salad.) While chiving the roasted beet and local goat cheese salad, Mansion general manager Duncan Graham buzzed into the kitchen to say hello in his cheery British accent, and to also fill me in on who was dining with us that day. “I do believe your friend Kim Whitman is at the table,” says Graham, speaking of Christine Handy’s [insert a “young number” here] birthday celebration. Turns out, Miz Whitman wasn’t my only friend at the table of 30-some-odd guests. Chef Bruno and I left our kitchen posts to greet their table, and I was introduced as his sous. Shock came first, then laughter when Amy Turner, Lisa Ogle, Mary Crosland, Catherine Colombo, Amy Ware, Leisa Street, Kim Gatlin, Lynn McBee, Tina Craig and others realized I was a Mansion employee only for the day. Then it was back to the kitchen and back to work: “Wee are going to teeech you how to make a cone shape wiss ze sorbet,” said Chef Bruno, handing me a frozen container of citrus sorbet and an iced-tea spoon. It seemed easy enough … I failed miserably. On that certain busy Tuesday, if you dined on Mansion tortilla soup, I garnished it. If you ordered the bison tenderloin “au poivre,” I cut the filets. If you decided on the king crab and butternut squash soup, I filled and rolled the accompanying wonton. I also salted many of the entrees, so if your cuisine was overly brackish, please ring me with your complaints, and do let me know if you ended up with a lopsided ball of sorbet in your tropical Vacherin dessert.
For more pictures, click on 'launch slideshow' above.