Charles C.
Yelp
Christmas day is probably not the best day to review an experience at the Hotel del Coronado [affectionately known simply as the "Hotel Del" by generations of San Diegans], as it may well be their busiest day of the year, not in room bookings, but in use of the restaurant and bar facilities. But there I was at the Babcock & Story Bar. It was packed with people, and any available open table was ominously marked with a "reserved" sign, which was strange, since there was no host or manager present and no one was monitoring the entrances, so who on earth was doing all this "reserving"? In any event, it didn't matter to me, since I was headed to the bar and there was one seat available.
It took about 15 minutes for the harried bartender to get to me [more on that later]. The wine list offered at the bar is ridiculously overpriced both in pricing by the glass as well as by the bottle. Nonetheless, I found a relatively affordable Wente Chardonnay [I used to visit this winery in Livermore when I was a student at Berkeley, so I have a special affinity for the brand]. Likewise, the bar's food menu, which the bartender stated was the ONLY menu available---one cannot order off the adjacent café's menu---was tiny and uninteresting. Nonetheless, there was a $28.50 hamburger everyone seemed to be ordering, so I did, too. The bartender takes your credit card "as hostage" when you are seated, a practice I vehemently dislike, but I understand it on such a frenzied day, so I gave up my card without the usual protest.
My neighbors at the bar were from Barcelona [they were American, so they could not vote in the recent Catalonian election]. They also ordered a hamburger---two of them--- one medium and one medium well. When the first hamburger was delivered to our section of the bar by the kitchen waiter, I inquired of the temperature, and he stated "medium", so it went to my neighbors, despite the fact I had ordered my medium rare hamburger ten minutes before they did. I did not care---I was happy sipping the wine---but the bartender caught sight of the glitch and disappeared into the kitchen for a bit, and before I knew it my medium rare hamburger was being served.
As he set the hamburger down in front of me, he said "after your initial wait and the problem with the hamburger order, I assure you that you will not be receiving a check today". He thereafter returned the hostage-held credit card to me with a gracious smile. That was a nice Christmas present, as the "cheap" wine I had ordered and the hamburger would have come to $100.00. Of course he received a twenty percent gratuity as if I had spent $100.00, along with a firm handshake. His name, by the way, was Dan, tall and mustachioed, and I will return to see him on a quiet, non-holiday winter day.
Parking at the Del can be up to $70.00. When I arrived, the man in the parking lot cautioned me that the hotel will validate "as long as you spend $50.00", which, of course, is a breeze at these prices, so be sure to validate, and the price dropped to a most pleasing $5.00 for three hours.