This is the only place in San Francisco you can see bison. This is the best spot to view the Golden Gate Bridge. This is one of the oldest gay bars in the city. Cheers!
But it all starts here, at the concierge desk of the Fairmont San Francisco. I'm Tom Wolfe and I'm America's first concierge. I was very lucky because my parents loved to go out so I was constantly seeing the world of hospitality.
the world of the restaurants, the world of sophistication. And that's kind of where the seed was planted, shall we say. My first hotel job was working in Washington, D.C., and I then went to London, and the general manager asked me, Have you got a morning suit? Luckily, I knew what a morning suit was, and I said, Of course, Mr. Schwenter, I do.
My next port of call would be Paris. I managed to get a job at a very luxurious hotel right on the Champs-Élysées, and I learned many lessons. I made my way back to the United States, where I found myself in San Francisco. I started as the concierge at the Fairmont in 1974. The Fairmont Hotel occupies an entire square block.
The main building opened in 1907, one year to the day after the Great Fire. If these walls could whisper, what stories they would tell. A secret door.
that could be used for a discreet exit. The Tonga Room was once the Fairmont Swimming Pool. If you can think of somebody important, they were here, whether they were from the world of Hollywood or the world of... of politics.
Pretty much every president has stayed here at one time or another, and we had the first person to break the color barrier in the Venetian room where an entertainer of color would be able to stay at the same place where they performed. The Fairmont philosophy has always been the best kind of guest you can hope for is a repeat guest. When I'm out and about walking to this very day, I'm still exploring. And I find these little streets that I haven't been down, or I find a shop that I've not been in, and I take the time to go in and say hello and introduce myself.
It's a constant learning experience, and the minute you stop learning, well, you might as well stop working.