The Four Seasons Hotel Denver is throwing a grand-opening party likely to be the most coveted ticket since President Barack Obama‘s nomination acceptance speech at Invesco Field.
With the hot national band One Republic headlining along with local singer Rekha Ohal and 15-year-old piano prodigy Joseph Eisele, Four Seasons general manager Thierry Kennel promises a night to remember on Nov. 6.
“We want to welcome the neighborhood, embrace Colorado and embrace Denver and have some fun,” Kennel said about the blowout event in what will become Denver’s ritziest hotel, with apologies to the Ritz-Carlton (but you can’t compare a converted Embassy Suites building to a brand-new structure).
The party will thread throughout the 14th Street property with One Republic rocking the main ballroom, Ohal singing and playing piano in Edge Restaurant & Bar, and Eisele playing in the 16th-floor presidential suite.
The junior ballroom will be transformed into Willy Wonka‘s Chocolate Factory with a mountain of desserts including a chocolate river. Other rooms will feature Cirque du Soleil-type performers, servers on stilts and an all-sports room with games and stadium-style eats.
The evening will feature an open bar, specialty drinks throughout the hotel and a variety of nibbles from executive chef Simon Purvis and his team.
Tickets are $325 per person, with proceeds going to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Kempe Foundation, the Denver Zoo and the University of Colorado Cancer Center. The goal is to raise roughly $30,000 for each charity. Tickets at .
Southwest’s coming up roses.
Southwest is pulling out all the stops when it comes to showing its love to Denver. The latest example: Three of the Southwest employees featured in the airline’s ongoing Denver ad campaign handed out roses to a delegation of 150 metro Denver leaders as they boarded a Southwest flight from Denver to Portland on Sunday as part of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation’s Leadership Exchange.
Delegates on the annual trip, now in its 21st year, spent their time in the city of roses meeting with civic and business leaders, learning about Portland’s approach to transportation, sustainability and health care.
The Southwest crew aboard the flight deserves some serious credit for their handling of the extremely social crowd who were up and about, shaking hands and socializing from the moment the pilot turned off the “fasten seatbelt” sign. The flight attendants kept their cool as they tried to wedge their way up and down the aisle, and they even entertained passengers with jokes and songs.
Speaking of Southwest . . .
The Dallas-based airline opened its Southwest Porch at Skyline Park (next to the D&F Tower) during a cocktail party for invited guests Wednesday.
The comfy lounge, appointed with picnic tables, tree-stump cocktail tables, yellow Southwest logoed pillows and umbrellas, attracted big-wig biz types including Tami Door, Tom Clarke, Erik Dyce, Dan Brogan and Lannie Garrett.
Eavesdropping
on a health nut and a drinker: “I can meet you at 10, after my Sunday morning spin class is done.”
“Great, I am usually done spinning by 10 too.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com
