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CNN Live Today

GetAway: Interview With Kate Sekules

Aired September 08, 2003 - 11:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A mint on the pillow, a fluffy towel. New hotels open every day, but not everyone is so grand, so spectacular that it becomes an instant classic. "Food and Wine" magazine recommends a few Paradise Hotels in its September issue. We'd thought we'd take a look at some of those for our "GetAway" segment.
Kate Sekules is a contributing editor for "Food and Wine" and she joins us from our New York bureau this morning. Thanks for taking us away at least for a couple of minutes here.

KATE SEKULES, "FOOD AND WINE": Sure.

KAGAN: And we are, I think, when we look for the price tag, talking a little bit fantasy, but what the heck? We'll pack the bag and we'll go.

Let's start in Laguna Beach in Southern California wit the montage.

SEKULES: Right, well that is an incredible view to start. All 252 rooms overlook the Pacific. And there's a fabulous chef. At "Food and Wine" magazine, we're very keen that all these great new hotels have great chefs. And this one is James Boyce who comes from the Phoenician in Arizona.

KAGAN: In Phoenix.

SEKULES: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) great name for himself.

KAGAN: How about the Viceroy in Santa Monica up the road up from Laguna Beach?

SEKULES: The Viceroy is -- it's fabulous. I mean it's almost literally fabulous. It's a great young designer Kelly Worchester (ph) who does really fantasy interiors. But it's also very good business hotel. It's got everything.

And it's got a great restaurant as well. Tim (UNINTELLIGIBLE), he runs that. And it's very happening (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And it's sort of like an English country house on steroids. It's lime green, acid green, white and gray, and silly decor. But there's also very grown-up. Somehow she manages to do that. It's really fun.

KAGAN: I should say prices as we go along. The first hotel was $450 a night, the second hotel starts at $260.

If you happen to be in Tokyo and have $399 you can part with you might want to book at the Grand Hyatt.

SEKULES: Well that is going to be worth it because it's in a new complex call Roppongi Hill which has everything in it from a major new arts museum to movie houses, very high-end shops and 80 restaurants of which 7 are in this hotel. So I mean you won't to go hungry there but you won't lack of something to do.

And in your bathroom there's a flatscreen TV. I mean it's really high-end. It's not just any old hotel. They've really gone to town on this.

KAGAN: How convenient. You get a phone in there, you never have to leave. You get room service in the bathroom.

SEKULES: That's right.

KAGAN: Let's go to Grenada to the Bel Air Plantation.

SEKULES: Right. Well that's a nice idea because it's it's -- Grenada is known as a spice island, it's very lush one. And this, unlike some new Caribbean hotels, this one's really traditional, in the gingerbread style. It's all pink and green and white.

And yet inside your little cottage -- they're all cottages. I think are there 25 of them, or there will be when it is finished which is, you know, it's stay-able at but it's not quite done. So it's still emerging. It's very lush. And you've got Jacuzzis in your cottage and you've got a really nice local -- actually a Barbadian chef who cooks calaloo but with a twist.

KAGAN: $250 eye night for that one. And also $250 not too far from where we are here in Atlanta in the Wilcox in Aiken, South Carolina.

SEKULES: Right. Well that is really grand. It's an old manor house that the Vanderbilts and the Whitneys used to winter at. It's been done up by the people who owned the Points and Lake Placid Lodge. And it's incredibly gorgeous and high-end. It's very elegant. Anything equestrian is the thing to do there. You can even play polo.

(CROSSTALK)

SEKULES: ... just lounge around as well. It's very useful surroundings.

KAGAN: Very good. Well, as we said, a little high-end on the hotels but fun to dream for those of us who can't afford. And if you can't, pick up "Food and Wine" and take a little cruise that way.

SEKULES: Right. We've got 15 of them, actually.

KAGAN: Appreciate it. Thanks for the look.

SEKULES: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 8, 2003 - 11:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A mint on the pillow, a fluffy towel. New hotels open every day, but not everyone is so grand, so spectacular that it becomes an instant classic. "Food and Wine" magazine recommends a few Paradise Hotels in its September issue. We'd thought we'd take a look at some of those for our "GetAway" segment.
Kate Sekules is a contributing editor for "Food and Wine" and she joins us from our New York bureau this morning. Thanks for taking us away at least for a couple of minutes here.

KATE SEKULES, "FOOD AND WINE": Sure.

KAGAN: And we are, I think, when we look for the price tag, talking a little bit fantasy, but what the heck? We'll pack the bag and we'll go.

Let's start in Laguna Beach in Southern California wit the montage.

SEKULES: Right, well that is an incredible view to start. All 252 rooms overlook the Pacific. And there's a fabulous chef. At "Food and Wine" magazine, we're very keen that all these great new hotels have great chefs. And this one is James Boyce who comes from the Phoenician in Arizona.

KAGAN: In Phoenix.

SEKULES: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) great name for himself.

KAGAN: How about the Viceroy in Santa Monica up the road up from Laguna Beach?

SEKULES: The Viceroy is -- it's fabulous. I mean it's almost literally fabulous. It's a great young designer Kelly Worchester (ph) who does really fantasy interiors. But it's also very good business hotel. It's got everything.

And it's got a great restaurant as well. Tim (UNINTELLIGIBLE), he runs that. And it's very happening (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And it's sort of like an English country house on steroids. It's lime green, acid green, white and gray, and silly decor. But there's also very grown-up. Somehow she manages to do that. It's really fun.

KAGAN: I should say prices as we go along. The first hotel was $450 a night, the second hotel starts at $260.

If you happen to be in Tokyo and have $399 you can part with you might want to book at the Grand Hyatt.

SEKULES: Well that is going to be worth it because it's in a new complex call Roppongi Hill which has everything in it from a major new arts museum to movie houses, very high-end shops and 80 restaurants of which 7 are in this hotel. So I mean you won't to go hungry there but you won't lack of something to do.

And in your bathroom there's a flatscreen TV. I mean it's really high-end. It's not just any old hotel. They've really gone to town on this.

KAGAN: How convenient. You get a phone in there, you never have to leave. You get room service in the bathroom.

SEKULES: That's right.

KAGAN: Let's go to Grenada to the Bel Air Plantation.

SEKULES: Right. Well that's a nice idea because it's it's -- Grenada is known as a spice island, it's very lush one. And this, unlike some new Caribbean hotels, this one's really traditional, in the gingerbread style. It's all pink and green and white.

And yet inside your little cottage -- they're all cottages. I think are there 25 of them, or there will be when it is finished which is, you know, it's stay-able at but it's not quite done. So it's still emerging. It's very lush. And you've got Jacuzzis in your cottage and you've got a really nice local -- actually a Barbadian chef who cooks calaloo but with a twist.

KAGAN: $250 eye night for that one. And also $250 not too far from where we are here in Atlanta in the Wilcox in Aiken, South Carolina.

SEKULES: Right. Well that is really grand. It's an old manor house that the Vanderbilts and the Whitneys used to winter at. It's been done up by the people who owned the Points and Lake Placid Lodge. And it's incredibly gorgeous and high-end. It's very elegant. Anything equestrian is the thing to do there. You can even play polo.

(CROSSTALK)

SEKULES: ... just lounge around as well. It's very useful surroundings.

KAGAN: Very good. Well, as we said, a little high-end on the hotels but fun to dream for those of us who can't afford. And if you can't, pick up "Food and Wine" and take a little cruise that way.

SEKULES: Right. We've got 15 of them, actually.

KAGAN: Appreciate it. Thanks for the look.

SEKULES: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com