Category Archives: Wendy Lawless

First Chinese Restaurant — Mr. Chow

151 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7PA

Mr. Chow was the first Chinese restaurant I ever went to.  And the first occasion was my 16th birthday party.  It was lunch for about a  dozen of my friends and my sister Robbie and it was truly wonderful–glamorous and fun.  I can’t remember the food but I do remember that my friend Matt Backer gave me the Rolling Stones live album “Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out” and began my life-long love affair with the Stones.

Mr. Chow was opened in Knightsbridge in London in 1968 (outposts in Beverly Hills and New York City followed in the next decade) by Michael Chow the son of Peking Opera Grand Master Zhou Xinfang. It quickly became a place to be seen and to see and introduced many to a Chinese cuisine which may not have been the most authentic was was certainly the most glamorous at that time.  There are now even more Mr. Chow restaurants in Malibu, South Beach and Tribecca to name a few.  And while Beverly Hills’ is my closest, the true Mr. Chow will always be the one in London about which Alan Richman of GQ wrote, “It is an establishment that can not be defined by customary standards but must be appreciated for its sheer fabulousness.”  Mais oui.

Matt Backer’s love of rock-n-roll persists, he is a successful guitarist and songwriter who works frequently with Julian Lennon.  And in a very small world coincidence, Michael Chow’s daughter China acted in my husband’s first movie, Head Over Heels.

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Alan Rickman, China Chow, chinese food, chinese restaurants, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, Julian Lennon, Matt Backer, Michael Chow, Mr. Chow, Robin Lawless, Swinging London, The Rolling Stones, Wendy Lawless

First Evening Bag

nov19-13
My first evening bag.
I bought this bag at the legendary Biba on Kensington High Street to go with my first long dress from Laura Ashley.  I was fourteen and the occasion was a party for an ambassador’s son at Quaglino’s, a legendary restaurant in London.  The restaurant was opened in 1929 by Giovani Quaglino and quickly became a favorite haunt of royals and wealth socialites.  It was in fact so popular with the Windsors that a special section was cordoned off so there would always be a royal table available.  It was the first public restaurant in which a reigning monarch dined (Elizabeth II in the 1950s).  By the time of our party, it was a haunt for the rich and famous from all over the world.
The restaurant was made over in the 90s by Conran and is still a place to be seen.  The dress is gone but my memories like my Biba evening bag are still with me.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  70s London, Biba, Chanel Bonfire, Conran, Elizabeth II, evening bag, Giovani Quaglino, Kensington High Street, Laura Ashley, Qualino's, Wendy Lawless

THANK YOU GIVEAWAY!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR CHANEL IN THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS 2013!  WE MADE IT TWO ROUNDS AND I WAS HONORED TO BE WRITTEN IN TO THE MEMOIR CATEGORY AS WELL AS THE DEBUT AUTHOR CATEGORY TO WHICH I’D BEEN ORIGINALLY NOMINATED!

To celebrate, I’m giving away 5 Free Paperback Copies of the book so beautifully made by Gallery Books!  Enter before November 25th to win!

http://www.chanelbonfire.blogspot.com/2013/11/2nd-round-of-goodreads-choice-awards.html

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Chanel Bonfire Paperback, goodreads giveaway, Wendy Lawless

Friends of the Huntington Beach Library!

Huntington Beach Library, Huntington Beach, CA

Many thanks to the Friends of the Huntington Beach Library for hosting me for a reading, discussion and signing!  It was a wonderful event and opportunity to meet many wonderful people and friends of books.

The library was designed by architect Richard Neutra and built by his son Dion after his death and opened in 1972.  It has waterfalls inside that empty into a pool on the ground floor so wherever you are, you hear the sound of water.  Lovely!

And speaking of lovely, I want to thank everyone again for voting for Chanel in the preliminary round of the Goodreads Choice Awards!  Don’t forget to vote in Round 2!  Chanel is in the Debut Author and Memoir Categories!

Here’s the link:
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Friends of the Huntington Beach Library, Goodreads Choice Awards, Huntington Beach CA, Huntington Beach Library, Wendy Lawless

Goodreads Choice Awards Round Two!

The Second Round of voting for the Goodreads 2013 Choice Awards begins today!

Big thanks to everyone who voted for Chanel Bonfire in the Debute Author category AND everyone who wrote Chanel into the Memoir category!  

Please take a minute to go vote in both categories in Round Two!  Thank you!

The link will take you there:
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Goodreads Choice Awards, Wendy Lawless

The Wyndham

The Wyndham, 42 West 58th Street


The Wyndham, located on 58th Street in Manhattan, directly behind The Plaza, was a small hotel (200 rooms) in which we lived for a short while after returning to the States from London and before moving to the Howard Johnson’s in Danbury.  I know, I know… from La Mamounia in Marrakech to The Ritz in Paris to the London Hilton to the Howard Johnson’s?!  The mind reels.

Anyway, while the Howard Johnson’s distilled, for me, the hotel experience to its essence, the Wyndham was probably the perfect example of the median hotel experience. 

It was practical:  maid service, clean, good linens, plenty of towels, and room service with acceptable food.  In addition many of the rooms also had kitchenettes for those on an extended stay.

It was convenient:  on 58th street directly behind The Plaza between 5th and 6th Avenues, it was half a block from Bergdorf’s and the Paris movie theater and around the corner from Carnegie Hall and the Russian Tea Room.

It was cheap compared to its neighbors.

And it was also glamourous:  not a flashy kind of glamour but and old fashioned, “people in the know,” un-wasteful  kind of glamour.  It was known as the actor’s hotel and many famous ones who had the money to stay elsewhere stayed there because the owners, John and Susan Mados (who also lived there) made it feel like home.  Hume Cronin, Jessica Tandy, Stacy Keach, Anthony Quinn, John Cassavetes, and Lawrence Olivier all called it home for the duration of a play on Broadway or a movie shoot or longer.  It was like a small European hotel in the heart of New York.  Sadly, it closed in 2005.

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Bergdorfs, Carnegie Hall, Chanel Bonfire, Georgann Rea, hotels, Hume Cronin, Jessica Tandy, John Cassavetes, John Mados, New York Hotels, old New York, The Paris Theater, Wendy Lawless, Wyndham Hotel

Howard Johnson’s

The Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge in Danbury Connecticut

In the 1960s and 70s Howard Johnson’s was America’s largest chain of restuarants with over a thousand locations.  Begun as a drugstore and soda fountain in Massachusetts in the early 1920s, Howard Johnson’s reinvented ice cream (their 28 Flavor –all high in butterfat–became famous) and hospitality. And as the country and the highway system boomed after World War Two, Howard Johnson’s standardized roadside accomodations providing comfort and a sense of continuity for millions.  For me, Howard Johnson’s distilled the essential qualities that make a hotel (whether it is the Ritz, the Hilton or the Plaza) good beds, clean towels and room service or at least a cafe.

When we moved back to the States from London, we stayed briefly in New York and then, while Mother and our fairy ex-stepfather Oliver patched things up again and looked for a house in Connecticut, we live for a few months at the Howard Johnson’s in Danbury — a small town in northern Fairfield County about an hour and a half north of the city.  America was a strange place for Robbie and Me (especially once we were off the island of Manhattan) but HoJo’s with good linen, maids and a restaurant loaded with ice cream made us feel at home.  And, they had the world’s first, positively addictive, video game, “Pong” which we played for hours on end.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Danbury, hotels, Howard Johnson's, Robin Lawless, Wendy Lawless

The Hotel Ritz

Hotel Ritz, Paris

It was at the bar at the Hotel Ritz that Mother conducted the “business” that brought our ex-stepfather back into our lives for a time while we were living in London.  I don’t know if it was the Ritz Bar, the Bar Vendome or the Bar Hemingway over Rainbows (a signature cocktail) Blood Marys (said to be invented here for Hemingway) or Champagne (although my step-father did favor a Gibson) but whatever they drank in whichever bar overlooking the Place Vendome, it was a success and she brought our now fairy ex-stepfather back to the Hotel Sydney Opera to take us away to the Inter-Continental.

The Ritz was a favorite hotel of Oliver’s and run at this time by Charles Ritz the son of the hotel’s founder Cesar Ritz, the legendary Swiss hotelier whose name is still synonymous with glamour and luxury almost a hundred years after his death.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Bar Hemingway, Bar Vendome, Bloody Mary, Cesar Ritz, Chanel Bonfire, Charles Ritz, Georgann Rea, Gibson, Hotel Ritz, Oliver Rea, Rainbow, The Ritz Bar, Wendy Lawless