The Art of Fine
Dining at Rome's
Hotel Lord Byron
We stepped out of the taxi in front of the Hotel Lord
Byron, the white villa taking on a purplish glow in the early evening
light. At the top of a grand staircase leading to the entry, a wide banner
had been strung above the illuminated portico, an American flag at one
end, an Italian flag at the other, and in between the message: “Thanks
for traveling.” It brought a catch to our throats. The effects of
September 11 are deeply felt here in Rome in the form of steep economic
loss. Still the sympathy and affection for Americans is palpable.
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The Hotel Lord Byron is a small, exquisite hotel in
the exclusive Parioli neighborhood just north of the Borghese
Gardens, Rome’s largest public park, an enchanted garden of shaded
walkways, lakes, and flower beds. The National Etruscan Museum at
Villa Guilia, one of the park’s two museums, is but a short walk
away. |
Named for the English poet who found inspiration in the
varied aspects of the Eternal City, the Lord Byron is itself a setting of
high drama whose brilliant interior is filled with the eclectic art
collection of Amedeo Ottaviani who turned this private villa into a hotel
sometime in the 1960’s.
Relais Le Jardin, the Lord Byron’s award winning
restaurant, is on the lower level in a brightly lit room punctuated by
rectangular pillars of white marble with mirrored inserts and rounded
pillars of black marble.
| The night of our visit each of the small dining
tables was covered in a floor-length cloth of gold damask and set
with a crystal bowl holding a pair of white roses. Although the
space was intimate, mirrored walls created the illusion of rooms
beyond rooms. In the adjacent piano bar, a gleaming oak and mahogany
bar fronted a credenza which held a multitude of liquors and was
topped with an enormous clock set into molded Carrera marble. |
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It was in this stunning setting that we stopped for a
glass of Pommeral champagne, sampled some hors d’oeuvres of smoked
salmon, proscuitto and red caviar, and listened to familiar George
Gershwin melodies being played on the piano. Once in the dining room,
background music came in the form of recordings of Billie Holiday, Della
Reese, and Sarah Vaughn singing the songs of Cole Porter. All were so in
keeping with the elegant, sophisticated ambience of Relais Le Jardin as
was the limited but choice listing of Roman specialties that composed its
menu.
Sarah Vaughn’s version of “Night and Day” could be
heard in the background as a lovely young woman in a white shirt, black
pants and black headband served an appetizer of warm chicken livers with
miniature croissants, so small they looked like little crusty crackers and
followed it up with thin slices of fresh bread with pepperoni.
Only the most prestigious of Italian wines seemed
appropriate to the setting: a Brunello di Montalcino 1995 from the Poggio
Salvi Villa vineyard. Made entirely from Sangiovese grapes, this red wine
from Tuscany must be aged for four years, three of which have to be
in oak. We watched as the sommelier went through the ceremony of opening
the bottle, pouring it into a decanter and from one glass into another,
and then allowing it to stand for a few minutes before pouring it again
into the decanter from which it was served. Superbly deep, ruby-red and
with a very nice finish, it proved an excellent pairing with two delicious
starters: salted cod au gratin with a spinach/prawn puree and cannelloni
beans on the side and a ring of barely salted anchovies over grilled
slices of eggplant served with spinach and onions.
At the next table, the couple from Paris weekending in
Rome told us their gorgeous salad of radicchio crowned with a mass of
julienne carrots was “magnifique,” but one of us – determined to
have pasta with every meal in Rome – opted for the potato and
cheese-filled home-made ravioli instead, while the other went for a tangy
rustic soup brim full of little mushroom and clams. To the accompaniment
of Della Reese’s “Let’s Do It,” our server removed the domed
covers of our next courses with a flourish to reveal succulent roasted
chicken and the tenderest tenderloin of beef. Stuffed with porcini
mushrooms and walnuts, both were indescribably delicious.
There followed a selection of Italian cheeses which
arrived while Billie Holiday was singing “Easy to Love.” As people
who’ve always found most things Italian easy to love, we had no trouble
relishing a sampling arranged in a circle from mild to sharp, beginning
with a creamy ricotta from a region near Rome, moving on to a smooth and
salty mozzarella from Naples, pecorino from Tuscany, bitto from an area
near Milan, and ending with a sharper pecorino from Sicily.
Throughout dinner, we had noticed the wealth of art:
paintings, antique objects, art deco furnishings that filled the dining
room. Now food and beverage manager Claudio Felix Gherardini showed us an
area in the rear of the dining room where breakfast is served. It was a
beautiful gallery lined with paintings of women; one was the last queen of
Italy, another a ballet dancer a la Degas, yet another, a full-faced young
woman that looked like a Renoir.
Claudio came to the Hotel Lord Byron from Normandy six
months ago accompanied by his Italian wife who, undoubtedly, influenced
his decision to relocate. He showed us some of the 35 distinctive guest
rooms of the Lord Byron and a rooftop terrace that overlooked the trees of
the Borghese Gardens. To the southwest we could see the lights of the
Church of the Holy Trinity on the Hill overlooking the Spanish Steps.
“For me Rome is a new experience,” Claudio said.
“So is the Lord Byron. It is charming, quiet, an oasis. Rome is a big
busy city, but here it is like the country. Yet in ten minutes we are in
the Spanish Steps.”
Returning to the piano bar where our Lord Byron visit
began, we sampled limon cello di Sorrento at the urging of bartender Enzo
Govnetti. A lemon liqueur with a jolting bite at the end, it proved a
fitting conclusion to an evening whose spark lingered long after it had
passed.
The Hotel Lord Byron
One of The Leading Hotels
of the World
Via G. De Notaris 5
00197 Roma
Phone: +39 063220405
Web: http://www.lordbyronhotel.com
Travel Notes:
The Borghese
Gardens’ two museums provide a sense of the
scope and levels of the Roman story. The National Estruscan Museum, housed
in the Renaissance Villa Giulia, showcases high quality Greek artifacts
imported to Eturia between the eighth and third centuries BC. Even more
famous is the Borghese Gallery housed in the seventeenth century palace of
Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Among its masterworks of ancient, renaissance
and neo-classical art, is the breathtaking Apollo and Daphne sculpture by
Bernini.
A sampling of the collections at the Villa
Guilia |
Cardinal Scipione’s palace: the Borghese
Gallery |
Femme
Sistina (near the Spanish Steps)
For 42 years, Lisette Lenzi has run this potpourri of a beauty shop which includes a hairdresser's
salon, boutique, and prêt a porter collection. It is a colorful fashion/beauty bazaar where one can rummage for makeup and one-of-a-kind accessories, find beautifully tailored clothes of the finest fabrics, distinctive jewelry, and indulge in a pampering massage and complete makeover.
Via Sistina
75 A-B-C-D
00187 Rome
Phone: 06 6780260
Photos by Harvey Frommer
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About the
Authors: Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer are a wife and husband team who
successfully bridge the worlds of popular culture and traditional scholarship.
Co-authors of the critically acclaimed interactive oral histories It Happened in
the Catskills, It Happened in Brooklyn, Growing Up Jewish in America, It
Happened on Broadway, and It Happened in Manhattan, they teach what they
practice as professors at Dartmouth College.
They are also travel writers who specialize in luxury properties and fine dining
as well as cultural history and Jewish history and heritage in the United
States, Europe, and the Caribbean. (More
about these authors.)
You can contact the Frommers at:
Email: myrna.frommer@Dartmouth.EDU
(myrna frommer)
Email: harvey.frommer@dartmouth.edu
Web:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer/travel.htm.
This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2008 by Harvey and Myrna Frommer. All rights
reserved worldwide.
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