Feb 24, 2021
Rush & The Pyramid Room
It was 1983 or thereabouts. I had left Kansas City for Dallas “chasing corporate rainbows”. It had to be Pre-#2Michelle (& Blondie).
I was Sales Manager for the 5-Star Fairmont Hotel. There were only a handful of such across the country. Rush came down to visit me. His beloved “Steelers” were in Dallas for a pre-season game vs The Cowboys.
Being a sales executive for a high-end super luxury hotel is akin to selling Lamborghini’s or the like. You can test drive them all day … but you can’t afford to buy for yourself what you sell to others.
I had full access to all of The Fairmont’s elegant niceties … to share, ideally with clients … and also with friends like my buddy from Kansas City.
The Fairmont had two “fancy” restaurants – The Venetian Room – an elegant supper club with world-class entertainers and its own house orchestra, and ‘The Pyramid Room”.
A 5-Star hotel is (was) like an Adult Disneyland. Staff are “performers” hired to fit an expected stereotype. Doormen are tall … all guest contact staff are “attractive” … European accents are always a plus … Everything is subtly “over-the-top”… some things not so subtly.
Dallas in the mid 80s was all about a WOW Experience. It was the height of J.R. Ewing & The Southfork Era.
The Pyramid Room was a WOW Experience. The wall coverings were “rich Corinthian leather” (is there any other kind?) … one wall being a floor-ceiling wine rack … the light fixtures, etc … the staff ALL had European accents. The sommelier / maitre de was The Star of The Room. I wish I could recall his name. My dear friend “Princess Fairmont” will know.
No prices on the menu. If you have to ask … its probably not within your limited means … Ex Cuuuse Me! … and THAT is where I took Rush … my buddy from Kansas City making $15,000/year selling baseball game tickets.
The Pyramid Room staff assumed every guest was “someone important” even if it was kinda obvious they were not “used to” such luxury. Rush coulda been an Oil Baron or Roger Staubach or Ross Perot … OR a Future One-Word Icon who would forever change “Radio”.
Rush was blown away with the evening’s experience … the food … the service et al. As we were enjoying after-dinner drinks…
Rush noted … “It must be terrific to have access to such niceties.”
To which I replied with uncharacteristic worldliness … “It would be even more terrific to easily afford such niceties without ‘knowing somebody’.
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Fifteen years later – late 90s – Rush said to me … “You were right” … “Of course, I was. About what …?” … “It IS terrific to easily afford luxurious niceties … but it is always good ‘to know somebody’.
I knew exactly what he was referring to … “Aw shucks” I replied.
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More of BobLee’s The Rush Chronicles – Here
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