Inside the X-Bar - Saturday 4/26/2008

So... Saturday night we went to the wrap party for CSI : Miami, which is one of the shows I do legal research for. We got there unfashionably on-time-ish, around 8:30 and happened to meet up with One-L in the parking lot. She backs me up on Miami when I'm out and I back her up on CSI : New York when she's out.

We took a walk around The X-Bar at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza and decided to claim one of the cool booths with a view of the bar. You can see photos of the interior on the website.

And, yes. The lamp above our booth is made of little Styrofoam peanuts!


Hydra's hand on his virgin margarita. He always volunteers to be the designated driver, leaving me free in this case to have Miami-esque mojitos. As the color of the light above our table changed, so did the atmosphere around us.



Looking into the bamboo growing between and behind the booths.

I found out that the clearance person I work with on the show used to work across the street in the late eighties. Me too. She was a lawyer; I was a waitress.

In fact, I was the lunchtime waitress in the bar at the Sports Deli from summer of 1987 to spring of 1989. She used to eat there, so it's very probable that I waited on her!

Oddly, earlier in the week I received an email from some one who worked at the Sports Deli about six months before I did, because of something he read on my blog. Synchronicity!




Fabulous garlic French fries with freshly grated Parmesan cheese! Really, dolling these up with such a fancy container is not necessary. Yum. Lots of good appetizers.

I didn't get any photos outside. The new building that sits where the ABC complex used to be completely blocks the Century Towers. Gone are the Sports Deli, the Schubert Theater, Harry's Bar and a lot of other places that used to be part of my daily life.

It was interesting working at the deli back then. The Century Plaza was President Ronald Reagan's favorite place to stay. When he came and went, everything shut down for the motorcades. Some of the Secret Service guys came over to the bar at the deli on their time off, which wasn't really time off. They were amazingly upright guys. No arrogance at all. They simply were the best and didn't have to prove it to anyone. Some of the other servers partied with them at the Century Plaza.

My big moment at the Century Plaza came one day when I was cutting through it to get to street parking. I was wearing a cute little pink cotton jumpsuit my Mom bought me in Germany (discreet, but cute), and this big voice said, "Nice outfit!"

I looked up. And up. It was Chuck Connors!

"Thanks!" I said, and we both kept walking. But you know, it stuck with me.

Last night as we were leaving Hulk Hogan and a woman were coming in.

Apparently he didn't like my outfit.