Before Microsoft.
Before television.
Before sliced bread. (Seriously. Its recorded advent was 1928.)
There was: the
Condado Vanderbilt Hotel.
It shut down in the ’90s after decades of hosting iconic swashbucklers of leisure, but now it’s making a comeback and taking reservations for a December opening in the US territory of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The prologue: in 1919, Frederick William Vanderbilt commissioned the guys who designed Grand Central to build him a hotel. But that was then and this is now.
Speaking of...
Then: It was frequented by the likes of Charles Lindbergh, Bob Hope and Errol Flynn.
Now: They’ve got a French-door-and-private-balcony-equipped room for you and your date when they reopen, if you play your cards right. (
Here’s the slideshow.)
Then: A ladies’ teatime. An open-air beer garden. Definitely not a restaurant helmed by a Michelin-starred Blue Hill vet.
Now: Yep, that last one’s happening. Plus a wine-and-cognac bar, a martini bar and a lounge where you’ll smoke all the cigars and drink all the rum.
Then: A windswept beach and a patio all but sitting on top of it.
Now: Ocean’s still there.
And fine, you can Instagram it this time.
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