W DOES DALLAS

WOW. Went to the opening of the W tonight….fresh and tan from my jaunt to Nevis… and saw absolutely everyone in town there….Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, Todd Minnis, John Scott, president of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, John Shore, Jason McDaniel, Brynn Bagot, Elaine Raffel, Crawford Brock, as in Stanley Korshak, who knows his store will be the closest wonderful shopping for everyone living at Victory Plaza, Gabriel Barbier-Mueller, no doubt comparing his Azure to the W condos…media people, just everyone. Sarah Perot looked radiant. I heard Cuba Gooding Jr. was there and rumors of Angie Harmon, but I did not spot them. As I waded through the crowds, champagne in hand, I couldn’t help but think nostalgically upon the downtown Dallas I encountered when I moved here in 1979…we’ve come a long way, baby.

In 1979, Dallas was a wasteland after 5 p.m. when everyone departed their job for home and you could not even find a baked potato after eight o’ clock. Downtown. When I came to interview for my first job from New York City, the only food I found apres dark was a diet cola at the McDonalds next to the old Greyhound station. I don’t know where everyone went — to Snuffers or the Grape, lower Greenville, all I know is downtown Dallas after dark was a ghost town, and for gal coming from the City that never sleeps, I was in culture shock.

So we have gone from ghost town to Ghost Bar, a watering hole at 33 stories high that shines like the radiator of a snazzy sports car, but most of all just glitz and lights… breathtaking views of the many, many buildings that are filling our city’s skyline faster than you can say “y’all.” Really cool: A see-through glass floor you can stand on (and drink on) that let’s you see all the way down to ground level. The W is chic in that frenetic, hip, this is “not too planned” way, that “we just dropped these here” way. You cannot see much decor at an opening party — it’s dark, crowded, and we’re all having too much fun laughing, drinking. So I’ll follow up on the W’s decor later. Tonight’s opening was impeccable, from the models in high-hanging wicker swings, the hundreds of orchids and votives, models, beefy but handsome security dudes, fabulous food, and plenty of it from a Chicago-girls’ rare beef delight to seafood and shrimp as big as the Gulf. After you feted, you left and a pretty gal carrying a tray of W-private label wet wipes offered a cooling packet from a tray covered in orchids. Dallas, this is your coming-out party: We’ve arrived!