Storied from the Adolphus

Buck posted a picture of the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas with this paragraph describing the hotel:

A baroque masterpiece opened in 1912, The Adolphus Dallas hotel ushered in a grand new era of sophisticated Dallas lodging. Amid such treasures as early Flemish tapestries and a Victorian Steinway once owned by the Guggenheims, you can recall the splendor of bygone days and almost feel the presence of the famous guests who stayed here before you. Once you are shown through our carriage doors, you may just feel like royalty yourself.

Toby and I stayed in the Adolphus back in about 1994, and it was as grand as the description says. It did make you feel like royalty. We had a corner room with huge windows and a little sitting area. The bathroom was gorgeous – I went swimming in the tub. I had to refrain myself from stealing the plush bathrobes provided for our convenience. It was a trip to remember – in more ways than one.

Back in those days, we lived in NM and Toby worked for a major waste company. This company was in the growing stages trying to acquire other waste companies. That year the big waste convention was held in Dallas. The company Toby worked for sent all of their district managers to Dallas and put them up at the Aldolphus. They also had a huge hospitality suite where every evening the managers and big dogs wined and dined prospective acquisitions. By day, the managers worked the convention and by night, they worked the hospitality suite. The wives spent the days shopping and enjoying the convention.

Late in the evening a fancy restaurant would be chosen, and the whole herd (some 40 plus folks) would all go out to eat. We ate at some pretty funky places. Our last night in Dallas, Toby balked at eating with the herd saying he did not want to eat fancy food. He wanted good ol’ Tex-Mex (there is a difference in Tex-Mex and NM Mexican food). One of the new acquisitions from Chicago heard Toby defy the herd and said, “I’m going with them!” pointing to us. So the concierge set us up with a limo driver and sent us to Deep Elm to eat at Monica’s. The driver all but snickered when he let us out of the limo, but would not tell us why. Unknown to us, it turned out that the Deep Elm was a gay area and Monica’s used to be Edwardo’s until he/she had had a recent sex change. Monica was about 6’ tall with a very deep voice. The atmosphere was odd, but the food was great. The Chicago acquisition really teased Toby about Monica's and Deep Elm saying he could not wait until Toby came to Chicago for the next year’s convention – he would show Toby some really“fun places.”

Later when we got back to the Adolphus, we stopped in the lobby outside of the bar to have drinks. Before long, the herd came drifting back from their fancy meals and joined us in the lobby. There was lots of good-natured teasing about Monica’s. There was also lots of teasing about who was picking up the drink bill which had grown quite large – whose room number were they going to sign to the tab? Eventually, the big boss joined us (this was the big man behind the company with the money and the power to buy and sell companies) and said he would sign the bar tab. The barmaid handed him the tab and said something (can’t remember what exactly) snide as if we were all ill-bred and could not to afford the bill and we should all have been in the bar and not out in the lobby. A hush fell over the crowd. The big boss did not say anything – just signed the tab and handed it back to the barmaid. Later, Toby said, “I bet you anything that girl will be looking for a new job tomorrow.” I think everyone was thinking the same thing.

I have another Adolphus story for tomorrow - much funnier.