Dave "Dave" F.'s Profile

A plastic surgeon did a ton of body work here....this reminds me of a line from Zagat:  "Authenticity has never been more perfectly faked."    

The food was ok and the music is too loud to carry on a conversation. Who knows what the target market is when someone came up with this concept. I was in Atlanta on a business trip and dropped in for dinner, but can not recommend this place.

I used to think these guys were horrible until I flew Delta, and realized SWA is a helluva lot better. It's like Greyhound versus Trailways.

OK, that was extreme. In the last 2 weeks, I've taken 5 SWA flight. 4 of 5 were on-time and they called me to let me know (way in advance) on the one which was late. Twice, I asked to change to an earlier flight and they accommodated without any BS. Not sure if any airline marketing type will ever read this, but this is huge for a business traveler.

The only downside is they are so busy, the TSA is understaffed in every airport I went through. These included SJC, SEA, LAX, Phoenix and Vegas. So, give yourself ample time to fly SWA, or pay the $15 to use the fly-by boarding process!

These guys don't have the flashiness of Virgin, but after 20 years of business travel, I really enjoy flying SWA.

Long time ago, I lived in the South and racked up a ton of business miles before moving West. My only real alternative was Delta and I quickly became a Million Miler, Medallion for life.

These days I try not to fly Delta. Their people are unhappy, pooly trained and their fleet is old and scary. Last week, I needed to make a run to Atlanta and much to my surprise, there's still not much competition.

I flew Delta and my opinion dropped further. The Northwest merger may have finally put these guys over the top in terms of pathetic service. United has always been my benchmark in terms of bad airline service, but Delta appears to have surpassed this mark.

The service wasn't bad in just LAX. ATL was horrible, almost like they hired folks off of freeway ramps to man their ticket counters and gates. What's with not being able to change until 3 hours before a flight, no stand-by lines for earlier flights? I was willing to pay these clowns to leave ATL early. No such luck! And, being Medallion for life is worthless. The service still sucks.

I will not fly Delta for at least 5 more years, plus I'll let every colleague know how poorly they can expect to be treated and their fleet is as old as their flight attendants!

This is an older propery which has been re-modeled over the years and is one of my favorite places to stay in Silicon Valley. I like being in the city, even though San Jose is a fairly dead spot.

This Fairmont has 4 excellent restaurants, including my favorite crab meat omelet of all time at the Fountain. The lobby bar/Atirum is a huge expansive spot with cozy areas to sit and have a private business conversation. Some nights, there's live music in the evenings.

There's an old Tower (the main tower) and a New one.  The new Tower has nicer rooms, but the energy and life is in the old tower. The main tower has a nice pool on the 4th floor and a nice workout area with good equipment. The business center charges to use their computers, even for Platinum members which is inconsistent with other Fairmonts.

All in all, the staff is very courteous and professional. Parking is expensive ($30) and I'm not sure a self-parking option even exists.
The park across the street is nice and Bijan's-the bakery next door is the bomb for serious coffee and a croissant to die for.

A clean sports bar with decent food that doesn't smell like old beer! Wow, I was beginning to believe clean and sports bar couldn't be used in the same sentence until enjoying Mr Pockets.

We had 2 pizza which were supposedly personal size, but are actually huge. There's tons of TV's and pool tables, and the place is so nice after going to Busby's! (I felt like I'd found the Ritz Carlton of Sportsbars after leaving the Motel 6.)

Ok, it's not Vegas' Wynn Sportsbook, but it's really, really nice.

I normally stay in the JW Marriott, but mixed it up and tried the Intercontinental. Wow! This is a beautiful hotel, even nicer than the JW!

I tried the restaurant for breakfast and the lobby bar where I received excellent service. The bed was comfortable and this made up for the fact that I lost 3 time zones traveling West to East.

I'd recommend this hotel for both business and leisure travel. It was rated 4.5 stars on Expedia or Google, but seemed as nice as a 5 star hotel.

Generally when I do Vegas, it's the Bellagio, Venetian, Palazzo or the Palms. This last trip was for business and I decided to try the Wynn.

This was the best place I've ever stayed in Vegas! In fact, it's appropriate that it sits on the site of the old Desert Inn because the DI also had wonderful service. I think the Wynn has the best craps tables in Vegas and I've gone their before, but never stayed. The dealer's remember your name, pay you out correctly, give advice if you want it, and never laugh at the table when a 7 is rolled.

My room was simple, large and elegant and had a wonderful view.

This trip I got my Red Card as I plan to go back to the Wynn.

This is a very large, (2 floors), store full of appliances, linens, towels, dishes and crap.

So you are thinking "a store full of crap?". What's useful about this. BB&B sells every device from everyone infomercial you've ever seen and many you haven't. I admit to being suckered into buying dryer balls.

The advantage of dryer balls is they cause your dryer to dry quicker (as much as 40% per the box). This seemed awesome as I'm all about saving energy, and cutting my electric bill. Much to my chagrin, dryer balls don't actually work. I've tried these with linens, with normal clothes and with only beach towels hoping I'd get a positive response. No such luck. They do make a helluva lot of noise, though.

As far as BB&B goes, nice store with somewhat sketchy customer service, and the honor coupons way past their expiration date. I liked the garage parking and the prices were reasonable.

Stay away from anything that says "As Seen on TV" and don't trust their clerks for accurate opinions. Yes, I asked 3 people who all said they used dryer balls including one 17-18 boy, who probably never operated a dryer.

For breakfast, this buffet is a bit over-priced ($18.95) and not really that good. Runny scrambled eggs, a long omelet line, all types of non-breakfast items for those who can't distinguish between day and night, plus really weak coffee. I tried the Cafe in the Wynn and was much happier.

I'm afraid the House gets the best of you with this "sucker breakfast"

Went back for the third time this year....this place makes my Top 10 US restaurant list! This trip I had Grouper, but tasted the duck and the steak and had wonderful sides, Chipotle corn and Spinach, plus a grits appetizer that made me want to jump the next US Air flight to North Carolina.....wow! Incredible again and consistently great food and service, the mark of a great restaurant!

"Uber-decadent" was an understatement!