Oak Room Comment
This "review" is restricted to the Oak Room cocktail lounge of this hotel although it reflects upon the hotel itself.
We spend a week each Fall in Boston and some years ago were attracted to investigate the interior of this hotel as a result of its elegant ground level exterior, those red awnings, and lovely flowers at street level.
Upon entering the hotel we were struck by its old world charm and other's comments in this area are accurate. What particularly drew us in that afternoon was the atmosphere provided by the Oak Room cocktail lounge and we had our first drink in that room that afternoon. Each year we have looked forward to returning to the Oak Room which has created some nice memories for my wife and I.
HOWEVER, in early September of 2007 we had an experience that was unimaginable. That late afternoon I requested our traditional drink at the Oak Room, "two Stolichnaya vodka martinis, mixed 4 to 1 please". We were soon presented with the drinks by the waitress who then left. Upon tasting mine I found that it was simply pure vodka and nothing more, and my wife found hers was the same. When the waitress came back into the vicinity shortly thereafter I told her that I thought that there was no vermouth in the drinks, to which she replied "I saw him put some in", which I found to be diplomatic but unlikely. So I then requested that she simply bring me a small quantity to vermouth and we would add it ourselves, which she agreed to do.
To abbreviate the story at this point -- She never brought the vermouth and at a point in these proceedings even avoided making further eye contact with us. After 20 minutes waiting I got up and went to the bar with the untouched drinks, except for that first sip, and flagged down a bartender and told him my problem, to which he responded "I'm waiting for 'them' to deliver the vermouth". Now it became clear that the Oak Room had no vermouth at its bar which is why our drinks had no vermouth. The bartender advised he would momentarily correct this problem.
However, this did not happen and after several minutes more waiting at the bar I asked to speak to the person in charge of the Oak Room and was told he would appear momentarily to speak with me.
That manager NEVER DID APPEAR AND WE NEVER GOT THE VERMOUTH and subsequently walked out of the Oak Room and went to dinner at one of Boston's lovely restaurants, where we had a delightful martini before our meal. How a physical property with so much going for it could be so poorly managed is beyond my comprehension.
"Mystified"