Greeted
with a warm "bonjour!" at the doors of the
Sofitel hotel in Center City, we checked into a suite
decorated with dark woods and soft gold, brown and sage
fabrics. The bedroom and the sitting room both housed
large televisions, used only for watching mindless decorating
shows like Trading Spaces and While You Were Out. The
bathroom, which opened to the entryway on one side and
to an expansive dressing area on the other, held the
promise of a long bath, it's tub separate from the marble
shower and equipped with luxury amenities and a tiny
candle.
The
Sofitel, previously the Philadelphia Stock Exchange
building, doesn't necessarily qualify as "cozy"
but once out of the long, wide corridors and into our
suite, we felt at home. The snow was blowing outside
the window the morning after our arrival and from our
11th floor window we could see it piled high on the
rooftops of Philadelphia's skyline buildings.
Appropriately,
the hotel restaurant, Chez Colette, employed authentic
French servers offering a variety of breakfast foods
including fresh baked croissants, baguettes and a wide
selection of cheeses. Tres magnifique!
We
spent Saturday traipsing through the slushy, slippery
streets to check out spas and treated ourselves to facials
at Pierre & Carlo European Salon & Spa. Located
beneath the historical Bellevue building, it appears
to be merely a full service salon. However, hidden behind
a side door are a number of treatment rooms offering
a variety of spa services. After a long flight and the
whipping Pennsylvania winds, my skin was quite appreciative
of the hot steam and cool, moisturizing creams and masks
that awaited me behind door number two.
After
our treatments, Carrie and I meandered our way to Rittenhouse
Square, one of Philadelphia's most picturesque areas
and home to many upscale shops and restaurants. We settled
into Lacroix, the renowned new restaurant of Jean-Marie
Lacroix. The former executive chef of the Four Seasons,
Lacroix's upscale restaurant in the Rittenhouse Hotel
was recently voted the best new restaurant in the country
by Esquire magazine.
We
found out why. After a sumptuous meal of crab cakes
and roasted chicken, we were each presented with a small
box of handmade chocolates made from scratch by pastry
chef Frederick Ortega in the restaurants chocolate lab.
Larger boxes of the rich, decadent sweet are sold at
the hotel shop for those wishing to take home some of
the magic but we declined, knowing that two truffles
are plenty when you're already overindulging at nearly
every sitting. (CONTINUED...)
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