Restaurant Reviews

Celebrity Ski Weekend

I worked at Chateau Lake Louise for 7 years back in the 90"s and one of the many memorable experiences I had there was the winter we hosted the Celebrity Ski Weekend.   The Hotel Staff scrambled for weeks to get everything in tip top shape for the arrival of the stars and there were many rumors going around as to who was actually showing up for this.  As the weekend approached we started to see the odd familiar face, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger being some of the first to be seen out walking with their child out around the majestic Lake Louise. I found that it became increasingly difficult to spot "a star" when their walking around dressed like you and I....all bundled up with a wool hat pulled down over their ears but some people we hard to miss such as Jean-Claude Van Damme.  He sure is a lot smaller in person, it must be the fact that on film he always has his pants hiked up nice and high.  lol  Anyway, there was lots of work to be done around the hotel as more and more people poured in from all over.  I can remember working insane hours for a 4 or 5 day period.  I was a Dining Room Manager at the time so ensuring that tables were set just right and wait staff properly prepared was proving to be a challenge. I"d say the biggest event to get ready for was the Gala Dinner which was held in the hotel"s largest dinning room....The Victoria Room.  This room held almost 400 people but it was cut in half by the fact that there was a large stage setup near the back for the special musical guest Kenny Loggins.  Yes that"s right...Kenny Loggins.  hahaha   Come on, who doesn"t love that song Foot loose?   There were about 20 round tables setup for the guests and and we brought in lots of wait staff to ensure that everything went smoothly. The evening of the dinner we got to see who was really in town, we had Christopher Reaves, Paul Mitchell and Rene Rousseau just to name a few.  Oh yes...and the Tropicana Swim Team....we had no trouble getting any of the Male waiters to searve THAT table.  After the concert we had to hand deliver specialty chocolates to each of their rooms so we got to get a little more up close and personal.....I actually handed Christopher Reaves his plate myself.  I was so excited. The next morning during breakfast service was hilarious because the first person to show up at the door was Robert Patrick (liquid metal guy from T2).  He looked like he was taken out back and beaten, his hair was a mess, his eyes were just two slits and smelled like someone poured a bottle of gin over his head.  However, one of the nicest guys I"ve ever met and despite how hungover he must have felt was very polite and extremely funny.  Its weird though because I never actually saw him anywhere the night before so maybe he was partying some place else. My absolute greatest highlight of the entire weekend was when I noticed a name in our Dining Room reservation book on Sunday night for a Mr. & Mrs. Hopkins.  We all wondered whether or not it was Sir Anthony himself but when 9pm came along all of our questions were answered.  Sure enough, there he was approaching the door with his wife on his arm...but he was limping a bit and had a cane.  Apparently he was in town filming that movie The Edge also starring Alec Baldwin and he must have taken a fall during shooting. Anyhow, I showed him and his wife to their table at the very back of the Dining Room...it was a cozy little table and they seemed to be happy with it.   One our our Senior Waiters served them dinner and  they were very appreciative of the fact that we made sure that there were no star struck fans or staff cruising by for autographs.  All went very well.   The BEST moment for me however was when I got to server them dessert.   There I stood carrying on a conversation with them as they decided on what type of cake to have.  I serverd them coffee and got them their dessert the entire time having a huge smile on my face.  I shook their hands as they left and they thanked us all for a very enjoyable evening. I"ll never for get that.   chao for now   TG


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